Monthly Archives: December 2014

Lighting the Way to Energy Savings and Job Growth in North Carolina

By Greg Andeck / Published: December 18, 2014

By: Greg Andeck, EDF senior clean energy manager, and Ivan Urlaub, executive director of the NC Sustainable Energy Association

Rapid declines in the price of light emitting diodes (LED) technology suggest that the next generation of energy efficient lighting – LED bulbs – is on the verge of widespread adoption. LED bulbs will eventually make traditional, energy-hogging incandescent bulbs a thing of the past.

Price goes down, energy savings go up

In North Carolina, for example, one of the world’s largest LED bulb manufacturers, Cree, recently announced a new bulb that is up to 82 percent more efficient than an incandescent bulb. The bulb sells for about $8 at Home Depot, a price that means the bulb will pay for itself in energy savings in about a year.

That’s a smart energy choice in the home – and a bargain. In 2013, the same wattage LED bulb was about $13, illustrating the dramatic cost reductions that are occurring throughout the industry.

Companies adopt efficient lighting

Some of the largest companies in the world are beginning to make LEDs the default lighting choice in their buildings. Food Lion and Walmart, for example, have introduced LED lights into their in-store refrigerators in North Carolina. LEDs emit very little heat, reducing electric bills in the refrigerated section. Read More »

America Agrees That It’s Time to Act on Methane Pollution From Oil and Gas

By Jeremy Symons / Published: December 18, 2014

There’s not much in Washington these days that Americans can agree on. But a new poll released last week by the American Lung Association found that a large majority of voters would support EPA regulations requiring the oil and natural gas industry to cut methane pollution in half by 2020.

This comes as EPA nears a decision – likely in the coming weeks — on whether to tackle the growing problem of unregulated methane pollution from the oil and gas sector. It’s a big decision. Reducing methane pollution from the oil and gas sector by half would save close to $1 billion a year in wasted energy and, over a 20-year time frame, cut climate pollution equivalent to closing about 90 coal-fired power plants.

The new poll of 1,000 voters, conducted by a bipartisan team of pollsters, also shows that public support for the Environmental Protection Agency and for strong clean air laws are as high as ever. GOP leaders should take note as they take over in Congress: voters believe, by a 3-to-1 margin, that the EPA, not Congress, should be setting pollution standards. That includes a 2-to-1 margin among Republican voters. So while the polluter lobby clamors for more political interference from Congress, the public wants the non-partisan EPA to be left alone to do what it is supposed to do.

The reasons that Americans support these policies are not new. Read More »

Posted in Air Quality, Methane, Natural Gas / Read 1 Response

Untapped Incentives for Energy Efficiency Projects

By EDF Blogs / Published: December 17, 2014

By: Abraham Weiner, 2013 EDF Climate Corps Alumnus

money present As an EDF Climate Corps fellow back in 2013, one task that was of particular interest to me was figuring out how to help my host organization fund, in whole or in part, its efficiency upgrades. In my research, the most unique funding source I found was the energy efficiency forward capacity market.

This program allows those who invested in energy efficiency over the last several years to go back and obtain additional incentive dollars on top of traditional utility rebates. This is essentially free money for organizations who have invested in efficiency measures. In fact, when I was a fellow, I identified over $50,000 in incentives that my EDF Climate Corps host organization was eligible for from projects completed before I even arrived.

In order to explain how this program works, I need to explain who PJM is and what they do. PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization. They coordinate the activity of suppliers, generators, and utilities to maintain an adequate flow of electricity on the grid. Their territory touches 13 states and the District of Columbia, and they are the largest electricity market in the world. They are also unique because they allow energy efficiency to participate in their forward capacity markets. Fortunately, my EDF Climate Corps host organization was in their territory. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency / Tagged climate corps; | Comments are closed

National Program Aims to Expand Minority Participation in Energy Sector

By Marilynn Marsh-Robinson / Published: December 17, 2014

EDF Climate Corps fellow Olivia Moreno uncovers ways to increase energy efficiency at University of Texas at El Paso.

It’s no secret that minorities are underrepresented in the energy field.

In the United States, Hispanics, African Americans, and American Indians make up 24 percent of the overall workforce, yet only account for nine percent of the country’s science and engineering workforce.

An initiative called Minorities in Energy (MIE) aims to change those numbers. It is creating a sustainable model that identifies diverse stakeholders to address challenges and opportunities for underrepresented communities in the growing energy economy, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, and climate change.

Launched a year ago by the U.S. Department of Energy, MIE has built an impressive list of ambassadors and partnerships. Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz puts it this way:

“We can only be successful in achieving our energy goals if we are inclusive of America’s diverse communities.” Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Climate, Energy Equity, Renewable Energy / Tagged diversity | Comments are closed

Smart Meters Need Effective Electricity Pricing to Deliver Their Full Benefits

By EDF Blogs / Published: December 16, 2014

By: Beia Spiller, Economist, and Kristina Mohlin, Economist

wallet Smart meters, which provide detailed electricity use data throughout the day, are a critical piece of a smarter, more resilient 21^st century energy system. But they are not a cure-all for modernizing our antiquated power grid.

In Matthew Wald’s recent New York Times article, entitled “Power Savings of Smart Meters Prove Slow to Materialize,” he argues that smart meters have failed to produce measurable savings. And we agree – but not because smart meters themselves have failed. Rather, most customers with smart meters don’t have access to people-powered, or time-variant, electricity pricing, which creates opportunities to save money. This is a missed opportunity for customers, utilities, and the environment.

Time-variant pricing better reflects electricity costs

Throughout most of the country, the price paid for residential electricity is the same regardless of the time of day when it’s consumed. This arrangement is a byproduct of an earlier era, one in which electricity information was difficult to convey and the actions of individual customers was impossible to gauge in real time. In practice, electricity is actually dirtier and more expensive to produce and transmit at certain times of the day, particularly when everybody wants it – for example, at 6pm during a heat wave when customers are cooling their homes. Also, during this high-demand time, energy prices spike and electric utilities flip on expensive and dirty fossil fuel “peaker” power plants to meet energy demand. From an economic point of view, it would be more efficient for electricity used at these peak demand times to have a higher price. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Electricity Pricing, Grid Modernization / Read 7 Responses

No Easy Answers When Disposing of Oil and Gas Wastewater

By Scott Anderson / Published: December 12, 2014

We all want easy answers. And often times the harder the question, the easier we want the answer to be.

Increased natural gas use, for example, can help decrease U.S. greenhouse gas emissions as it has a lower carbon content compared to coal or oil. Natural gas also can help transition our energy mix to more renewable energy sources. This is because properly designed, gas-fired generation can respond quickly to pick up the slack if the wind suddenly dies or clouds unexpectedly roll in. But, these benefits mean nothing if the communities where gas is produced suffer air and water pollution, or if methane – a powerful global warming pollutant that is the primary ingredient in natural gas – is allowed to leak into the atmosphere unchecked.

We all should be worried about global warming and the role that sloppy oil and gas production and distribution practices contribute to the problem. But communities where oil and gas development is taking place are also worried about how oil and gas drilling is impacting their water supplies. This is a key issue and one aspect of the groundwater contamination concerns, rightfully gaining attention in these communities, is how and where toxic wastewater is disposed of that is produced along with oil and gas. But here, too, the answers don’t come easy. Read More »

Posted in Methane, Natural Gas / Tagged produced water | Read 1 Response