Energy Exchange

New Jersey Accelerates Energy Efficiency Adoption with this New Pilot Project

By Mary Barber / Published: October 15, 2015

The large-scale adoption of energy efficiency in buildings is a key to achieving a cleaner environment, lower utility bills, and more comfort for customers. But increasing private capital investment in the energy efficiency market has been a big challenge.

Environmental Defense Fund’s Investor Confidence Project (ICP) addresses one specific barrier to more energy efficiency investment: the lack of trust investors and building owners have in projected energy and cost savings. ICP offers protocols that define industry best practices for energy efficiency project development and a credentialing system that provides third-party validation.

By standardizing the process by which energy efficiency projects are developed and measured – and creating a new Investor Ready Energy Efficiency™ asset class as an end result – investors can more easily finance energy efficiency projects and have more confidence in the energy and financial savings expected from these projects.

While many states have made great strides promoting the policies and incentives to spur private investment in energy efficiency projects, my home state of New Jersey is getting serious about it.

Clean Energy Partnerships Grow between the U.S. Military and Rural Cooperatives

By Marilynn Marsh-Robinson / Published: August 18, 2015

What do rural electric cooperatives have in common with United States military bases? They all want clean, reliable, affordable energy.

Rural electric cooperatives are not-for-profit electric utilities that provide reliable, at-cost electricity to their members. They’re ingrained in the American landscape: more than 900 rural cooperatives serve more than 42 million customers in 47 states, accounting for 12 percent of all U.S. electricity sales. Because of their market share and core mission to provide affordable, “at-cost” electricity, co-ops represent a huge (and largely untapped) clean energy opportunity. One way they’re starting to tap this potential is through partnerships with local military bases.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which operates more than 300 domestic bases, is federally mandated to lower its energy consumption – and for good reason. The DoD is our nation’s largest single energy user, and as a result, has committed to expanding its clean energy portfolio to cut energy use. Each military service has ambitious goals to deploy one gigawatt of on-site renewables in the near future, and many are jump-starting these efforts on bases across the United States. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Military, Renewable Energy / Comments are closed

New Jersey Should Leverage Private Capital to Achieve Resilient Energy Goals

By Mary Barber / Published: January 15, 2015

Since Hurricane Sandy exposed the vulnerability of New Jersey’s antiquated power grid, the state has been investing heavily in enhancing the grid’s resilience and promoting clean energy technologies to upgrade to a smarter, more flexible system that can keep people safe and warm when they need it most.

However, as I explain in my NJ Spotlight op-ed published today, limited public funds alone will not be enough to build the state’s clean energy future.

Private capital investment is key to establishing the large-scale, clean energy markets needed to ultimately save customers money, increase grid resiliency, and slash harmful pollution.

New Jersey has already made a step in the right direction with the launch of the Energy Resilience Bank, which was set up with $210 million of federal funds to finance resilient energy systems operating the state’s critical infrastructure, such as hospitals and long-term care facilities. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Energy Financing / Comments are closed

2014: A Positive Sign of What’s to come for Clean Energy

By Cheryl Roberto / Published: January 8, 2015

The New Year is a time for reflection, beginning with a look back on the previous 12 months and all that they brought. A quick scan of the U.S. climate and energy news in 2014 will tell you it was a very big year.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants, the U.S. and China struck a historic climate deal, and Tesla broke ground in Nevada on the largest advanced automotive-battery factory in the world – a move that’s expected to slash the cost of lithium ion batteries by a third. At the same time that these important national and international advancements were grabbing headlines, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and our partners were working together to incrementally transform the U.S. electricity system by rewriting outdated regulations, spurring energy services markets, and modernizing our century-old electric grid.

The U.S. is on the verge of a revolution in the way we make, move, and use energy. And, having spent years working on governmental and regulatory matters related to our power system and lessening its impact on the environment, I can honestly say there has never been a more exciting time to be in this field. Here are a few of the moments that were near and dear to our hearts over the past year, developments I see as a sure signal 2015 will be another epic year for clean energy. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Demand Response, Energy Efficiency, Energy Financing, Grid Modernization, Illinois, Investor Confidence Project, New York, Renewable Energy, Texas, Utility Business Models / Tagged Energy Storage | Read 3 Responses

Two Years After Sandy, the Conversation Around Energy Resiliency Still Going Strong

By EDF Blogs / Published: November 17, 2014

By: Audrey Hornick-Becker

From left to right: Bruce Schlein, Director, Alternative Energy Finance, Citi; Vic Rojas, EDF senior manager, financial policy; Bryan Garcia, President, Connecticut Green Bank; Alfred Griffin, President, NY Green Bank. Source: Maria Jiang.

Last week, EDF co-hosted a successful first-of-its-kind Resilience Finance Symposium in New Jersey, attended by about 120 participants from a wide spectrum of public and private entities in the state, region, and country.

Held on November 12 with Governor Christie’s Administration and the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture + Design, the all-day Resilience Finance Symposium: Building Resilient and Sustainable Energy Solutions for New Jersey’s Key Infrastructure featured a series of panels on solutions that help keep the lights and heat on during critical times, like microgrids and energy storage, as well as innovative ways of financing resilient energy systems.

A main topic of discussion was the impressive progress New Jersey has made toward making the state’s energy infrastructure more resilient in the two years since Superstorm Sandy caused a massive weeks-long power outage. Panelists pointed to Sandy success stories – those instances when power stayed on even when the grid went down – and discussed the need to make these kinds of successes the norm rather than the exception. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Financing, Grid Modernization, Investor Confidence Project, Renewable Energy / Comments are closed

New Jersey Transit Becomes a Leader in Microgrids

By Mary Barber / Published: September 29, 2014

Source: WallyFromColumbia

Superstorm Sandy crippled much of New Jersey’s critical infrastructure when it swept through the state two years ago. Stuck without power at home, many of the state’s residents also couldn’t get to work because the operations center for New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) flooded, damaging backup power systems, emergency generation, and the computer system that controls train operations.

New Jersey is doing its best to make sure that won’t happen again. After a highly competitive grant process, NJ Transit last week received $1.3 billion in federal funds to improve the resilience of the state’s transportation system in the event of devastating future storms. The funds include $410 million to develop the NJ TransitGrid into a first-of-its-kind microgrid capable of keeping the power running when the electric grid goes down.

Microgrids are different from traditional electric grids in that they generate electricity on-site or nearby where it’s consumed. They can connect to the larger grid or island themselves and operate independently. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, Energy Efficiency, Grid Modernization / Tagged Energy Storage | Read 3 Responses