Energy Exchange

Clearing the Air: L.A.’s Vision for Clean Transportation

By EDF Blogs / Published: April 15, 2015

There’s something remarkable happening in the city of Los Angeles, you can feel it in the air – and it’s definitely not the country’s worst pollution or the record-breaking heat – it’s the winds of change. Los Angeles is in the process of reinventing itself from a dystopian vision of traffic jams and unbreathable air into an urban leader in sustainability.

Last week L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled a bold new plan (pLAn) to revolutionize sustainability in Los Angeles, including taking a bite of the big enchilada responsible for the most air pollution that gets in our lungs and greenhouse gas pollution that causes climate change – the transportation sector. Mobile sources (think diesel trucks, trains, ships, aircraft, and cars) account for 90 percent of Southern California’s harmful air pollution. Statewide, the transportation sector is responsible for nearly 70 percent of smog-forming gases and 40 percent of the state’s climate change pollution every year.

While some progress has been made – the number of non-attainment days (days when an area doesn’t meet the federal air quality standard) has decreased dramatically since the 1990s and the Port of Los Angeles has reduced diesel particulate matter by 80 percent since 2005 – there are still huge clean air disparities. We know the dirtiest zip codes in L.A. are also the ones with a disproportionately large amount of low-income communities and people of color. We cannot run a victory lap on this issue until EVERYONE in L.A. can safely get around the city and breathe healthy air at the same time. Read More »

Posted in Air Quality, California, Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, General, State / Comments are closed

Clean Energy Conferences Roundup: April 2015

By EDF Blogs / Published: April 1, 2015

Each month, the Energy Exchange rounds up a list of top clean energy conferences around the country. Our list includes conferences at which experts from the EDF Clean Energy Program will be speaking, plus additional events that we think our readers may benefit from marking on their calendars.

Top clean energy conferences featuring EDF experts in April:

Apr 8: Breaking Energy Startup Forum and Mixer (New York City, NY)
Speaker: Rory Christian, Director, New York Clean Energy

Breaking Energy is hosting our first “Energy Startup Forum and Mixer,” which brings together clean energy industry experts, editors, and members of the finance and legal communities to speak frankly about the energy startup space, New York’s clean energy landscape, and to answer attendees’ questions about the industry. We love the one-on-one time with panelists, but this is also a great opportunity to interact with our readers: Learning what they like about Breaking Energy and how we can bolster our coverage. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Conference Roundup / Comments are closed

Carbon Pollution Standards that Begin by 2020: Vital for Climate Security, Human Health

By EDF Blogs / Published: March 23, 2015

By: Nicholas Bianco, Director of Regulatory Analysis and Strategic Partnerships

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hard at work right now on the Clean Power Plan – the first ever national carbon pollution standards for power plants.

Among the many important aspects of this historic plan, we believe this: It is critical that EPA finalize carbon pollution standards for the power sector that include protective, well-designed standards beginning in 2020.

Power plants account for almost 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, making them the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the nation and one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the world.

The Clean Power Plan will be finalized this summer. When fully implemented, it is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector to 30 percent below 2005 levels. That makes these eminently achievable and cost-effective standards integral to climate security, human health, and prosperity. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy / Tagged EPA | Comments are closed

Europe’s Love Affair with the Investor Confidence Project Gets Serious

By EDF Blogs / Published: March 11, 2015

By: Panama Bartholomy, Director of ICP Europe

Flag_of_Europe The European Commission is putting its weight behind an initiative designed to increase private investment in energy efficiency, the Investor Confidence Project (ICP). ICP is accelerating the development of a global energy efficiency market by standardizing how energy efficiency projects are developed and energy savings are calculated.

In late February, the European Commission released a landmark report on energy efficiency in Europe that was 18 months in the making, and it had ICP all over it. The report, Energy Efficiency – the first fuel for the EU Economy, was issued by the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG), a group of financial and energy efficiency leaders and building owners convened by the European Commission and United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative.

Earlier that same month, the European Commission awarded a €1.92 million grant to the European version of the project, ICP Europe. The grant will pay for a consortium of companies to:

develop ICP’s project protocols for the European market;
work with financial institutions to embed them into their financing process; and
organize National Steering Groups in five countries: (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal and the U.K.) to take the protocols to markets in those countries.

Posted in Clean Energy, General / Tagged Clean Energy, Investor Confidence Project | Comments are closed

Military Experts in Texas Call for Plan of Action on Climate Change

By EDF Blogs / Published: March 4, 2015

By: Marita Mirzatuny and Kate Zerrenner

National Guard responding to flood emergencies.

When the U.S. military calls climate change a “threat multiplier” and “a serious threat to national security,” it makes anyone stand up and pay attention. From direct land impacts and food and water shortages, to the displacement of millions of people, climate change is not taken lightly by our armed forces.

Earlier this week, two military experts, Lt. Gen. Ken Eickmann (USAF, Ret.) and British Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti (Royal Navy, Ret.), testified at a Texas House International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs Committee Hearing and later at an event hosted by the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law and the British Consulate-General University at University of Texas’ LBJ School. As a senior research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute and Former UK Foreign Secretary Special Representative for Climate Change, Eickmann and Morisetti, respectively, bring a level of trust and confidence to this issue, disarming the politics, if just for a moment, and replacing it with pragmatic duty.

Eickmann and Morisetti’s message was loud and clear: We need to diversify our energy options and shift more toward a clean energy economy. The potential for Texas is boundless. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan, Grid Modernization, Texas / Comments are closed

Sometimes it Takes a Community to Go Solar

By EDF Blogs / Published: March 3, 2015

By: Andrew Barbeau, EDF’s clean energy consultant

You don’t have a south-facing roof. You have too many trees in your yard. You may not be committed to staying in your house for the next ten to fifteen years. Or maybe you rent, or don’t have the upfront money to install.

These may be some of the reasons why you can’t go solar. You are not alone.

In fact, only 22 to 27 percent of residential rooftops are suitable for installing a solar PV system, due to structural, shading, or ownership issues, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. These effects are even more prominent in densely-populated, urban areas, like Chicago, where viable project siting is limited and renters account for more than half (55 percent) of housing.

But in a new utility world of flowing electricity data and layered intelligence, we shouldn’t limit participation in the rapidly growing solar market to those inconvenienced by circumstance. We need to shift our thinking of distributed solar from the individual to the community. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Illinois, Renewable Energy / Tagged Community Solar | Comments are closed