Shuli Goodman, Director of Linux Foundation Energy (LF Energy), a non-profit organization launched by Linux Foundation in 2018, advocates open-source software essential for building the next generation of clean energy infrastructure.
Currently, most power systems are centralized, running on fossil fuels, producing a constant stream of energy pushed out along the grid. However, this approach wastes a lot of electricity and leads to power companies keeping dirty, fossil-fuel-powered generators on standby.
Open-source software can balance electrical supply and demand from different sources of stored energy, including wind and solar plants, grid-scale batteries, and electric vehicles, reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
LF Energy aims to create software and communication protocols that allow all parts of the electrical grid to talk to each other in the same language. It coordinates thousands of engineers globally to build open-source software, saving utility systems from having to write their own code.
The software aims to increase economic efficiency, provide radical energy efficiency and create greater societal benefits. LF Energy’s projects like Everest, an EV gateway, are significant in building entirely new infrastructure to support electric vehicles, allowing every charging box to interpret information protocols similarly.
