Energy Exchange

The New Plan: How OneNYC builds on PlaNYC

By Abbey Brown / Published: April 27, 2015

Every year on Earth Day, people around the world show their appreciation of our planet and pledge their commitment to protecting it. Here in NYC, there are events at every scale – from composting demonstrations to announcements of citywide sustainability plans. Mayor Bill de Blasio took the opportunity to announce his plan for ‘A Strong and Just City’, called OneNYC. Mayor de Blasio was elected on a platform of equality across the city – uniting what he called the ‘two New Yorks’ – and this plan shows his commitment to that vision.

OneNYC builds on the success of former Mayor Bloomberg’s sustainability plan, PlaNYC, but expands the focus to citywide equality. By including issues like education and affordable housing, Mayor de Blasio has reaffirmed his commitment to equity in New York City, while also setting ambitious goals to meet climate change challenges.

Some of the major goals outlined in OneNYC consist of:

Helping 800,000 New Yorkers move above the poverty line by 2025;
Zero waste sent to landfills by 2030; and
An 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050.

Posted in Air Quality, Clean Energy, New York / Comments are closed

A Two-in-One Energy Solution: Capturing Waste Heat for Electricity

By Dick Munson / Published: April 27, 2015

Source: flickr/Vattenfall In Dublin, Ohio, the Community Recreation Center decided to reduce its energy waste. Rather than rely on an electric utility to burn more coal or natural gas to provide electricity, as well as its own boilers to burn more fuel to provide heat, the facility decided to install a combined heat and power (CHP) unit.

The CHP or “cogeneration” project produces both electricity – allowing the Center to keep its lights on during power outages – and heat – keeping offices and swimming pools warm. The CHP unit is financed with private capital and will allow the Center to save roughly 10 percent on its energy bills.

“It’s pretty simple,” said Patrick Smith, a co-developer of the Dublin project. “It’s a generator, and we happen to capture the heat.”

Technology of the past…

Cogeneration is not a new concept or technology. In fact, Thomas Edison’s first power plants sold both heat and electricity to nearby buildings and factories. Yet to electrify America quickly in the early 20^th century, policymakers and power companies created monopoly electric utilities that were protected from competition and guaranteed profits based on how much money they spent. As a result, for many decades, utilities favored larger and larger power plants that were placed far away from the buildings and factories that could have used their wasted heat. Read More »

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Ohio / Comments are closed

The Story of Demand Response

By Michael Panfil / Published: April 24, 2015

Demand response. It’s a cost-effective energy resource that pays customers to use less energy. Few people even know exists, but it invisibly impacts the life of so many Americans. It’s a clean energy resource that embodies precisely what electricity can and should be: cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient than traditional fuel sources.

We’ve written about demand response at length, discussing a potential case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving the resource and what the road ahead could look like. Today, however, we’re telling the story of how the resource got here. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Demand Response, Grid Modernization, Utility Business Models / Comments are closed

Methane Leaks: The Opportunity Paris Climate Negotiators Can’t Afford To Miss

By Drew Nelson / Published: April 24, 2015

When countries meet in Paris for the United Nations climate talks later this year, their representatives will come armed with the best data, research and ideas on how to reach a climate agreement and avert catastrophic climate change.

But a new report from Rhodium Group, commissioned by Environmental Defense Fund, shows that countries have so far been leaving a huge opportunity on the table: methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

Cutting methane can have a dramatic impact

The report shows that the global oil and natural gas industry is leaking a huge amount of climate-harming methane every year. When released into the atmosphere, this methane has the same climate impact as does 40 percent of carbon dioxide from the world’s coal combustion. Read More »

Posted in General, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

What Texas’ Elected Officials Should Know About House Bill 40

By Scott Anderson / Published: April 23, 2015

The Texas Senate is poised to vote on House Bill 40, new legislation that threatens to gut municipal rules and oversight of oil and gas drilling. The bill, an over-the-top reaction to the Denton fracking ban, stacks the deck in favor of industry and if passed, will undo almost 100 years of local home-rule authority.

That’s a big problem for Texas cities, especially since there seems to be broad misconception about what HB 40 does and doesn’t do. Despite what supporters are saying, this is not a “narrowly tailored” bill, but instead, a complete restructuring of Texas government that will drastically impact a city’s ability to protect the health, public safety and property of Texans who live in areas with heavy drilling activity.

Here are the facts: Read More »

Posted in Natural Gas, Texas / Tagged environment, fracking, policy, Texas Legislature | Comments are closed

Electric Reliability and the Clean Power Plan: Perspectives of a Former Regulator

By Cheryl Roberto / Published: April 21, 2015

There is no great disagreement that the U.S. energy system is transforming. With or without additional environmental regulations, like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan, this transition is occurring. Our history and experience have demonstrated that we can weather it without threatening our uniform and non-negotiable commitment to reliability.

But to do that, we need to tap all of the tools at our disposal to ensure a robust, reliable, and integrated energy system that is no longer dependent exclusively upon centralized, fossil fuel generation. Done right, the resulting change can deliver benefits to customers, the economy, the environment, electric companies, innovators, and workers alike.

EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan would place national limits on carbon pollution from existing fossil fuel power plants for the first time ever. In doing so, it would create long-term market signals that will help drive investments in energy efficiency, demand response, and renewable energy for years to come – not only reducing carbon pollution from the power sector to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, but also by putting us on a path to a more reliable and resilient energy system. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan / Comments are closed