Viridity Energy and SEPTA partner on batteries to capture and reuse lost electricity: Links

• Saving Electricity on a Philadelphia Subway Line [Green: New York Times] — “in Philadelphia, on the Market-Frankford line of the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority, a new company called Viridity Energy will install batteries to capture a lot of that electricity and hold it while the train is in the station. Then it can deliver the power when the train starts up again or store it for a time of day when it is needed more.”
• NuPathe gets more funding to launch Zelrix migraine patch [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• FTC seeks more information on Teva, Cephalon deal [Reuters]
• New chair for Science Center [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “University of Pennsylvania Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli has been elected chairman of the University City Science Center’s board of directors, succeeding Richard P. Jaffe, a partner with the Philadelphia law firm of Duane Morris”
• GPTMC drops advertising with Travel + Leisure after it calls Philly dirty [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• BioNanomatrix Opens West Coast Headquarters, Expands Senior Team to Accelerate Commercialization of its Whole Genome Analysis Platform [press release]
• Lockheed Martin’s space business to cut 1,200 jobs [AP] — “The cuts will most heavily affect areas where Lockheed Martin is winding down its contract work, such as Sunnyvale, Calif., the Delaware Valley region of Pennsylvania, and Denver.”
• Philadelphia2035 Master Plan Approved [Flying Kite] — It includes mention of broadband access, something Technically Philly pushed on with this coverage. Watch video below.

Smart home technology increases automation while lowering energy consumption

Philadelphia Smart Home's Patrick Griffin explains the control center

In partnership with Temple University’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, the university’s capstone journalism class, students Chelsea Leposa and Jared Pass will cover neighborhood technology issues for Technically Philly and Philadelphia Neighborhoods through May.

The is the first of a two-part series about residential technologies being developed or explored in the region. Read the second on Thursday.

Dinner is in the oven. A grocery list has been generated after surveying the empty pantry. The front door’s been opened for the deliveryman and the authorities have been alerted of a possible intruder on a neighbor’s property.

Sounds like a fairly normal day. Except each one of these tasks has been miles away from the home.

Welcome the convenience of living in a smart home, technology developments for residential properties that are coming fast. While home technology is not yet able to allow all of these tasks, industry experts say we’ll quickly move toward a state of complete home automation and remote user-control.

“Smart homes are a culmination of products and functionality,” says Utz Baldwin, the CEO of the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), a trade association for electronic home installations. “What makes a house smart for me will be different than what makes a house smart for you. It comes down to the needs of the homeowner.”

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Friday Tech Links: Philly parking application, PECO pushes for smart grid and More

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

We all heard rumors and stories and suggestions of it before.

But, yes, as seen on Innovation Philadelphia, a Drexel University business student led a team that developed a system in which the Philadelphia Parking Authority could locate parking violations using WiFi, using the same system that drivers could utilize to find parking with GPS and smart phones.

This is something we could absolutely get behind, considering we talked up something similar as a suggested iPhone application we’d like to see. That’s even if it would make it more likely to get a $36 parking violation for leaving a Chrysler LeBaron on Lombard Street in the Graduate Hospital area 10 minutes too long. Just sayin’.

After the jump, check out five other tech stories you need to read, including our best ready story and not including a video from the biggest geeks in town.

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PECO invests $4 million in smart distribution switches

PECO customers in the Philadelphia region could soon notice improvements to their electrical service. Or if things go as planned, they won’t notice at all.

PECO announced yesterday that 50 “smart” switches, which help prevent wide outages and improve service, are being installed on its grid in Delaware, Chester, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties this year, according to a press release.

At $50,000 to $60,000 per device, PECO has invested $4 million into the project. Installation will begin as soon as this month in Media, North Wales and the Roxborough section of northwest Philadelphia.

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