This article outlines the ongoing microgrid research, development, and demonstration efforts currently in progress in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Canada as they have been presented in a series of microgrid symposiums started in Berkeley, California, on 17 June 2005, followed by a second near Montréal, Canada, on 23 June 2006, and by a third in Nagoya, Japan, on 6 April 2007. Presentations and other materials from these events are available at http://der.lbl.gov.