Energy Exchange

Duke University Documents Widespread Benefits of North Carolina’s Solar Economy

By Greg Andeck / Published: February 19, 2015

North Carolina’s number-one ranking in the Southeast for solar energy investment confirms the state is a national leader in attracting clean energy companies and creating jobs. But a top ranking does not fully reflect the broad range of benefits North Carolina’s large-scale solar industry is delivering to the state’s manufacturing sectors and rural communities.

Now a report from Duke University documents how the state’s solar industry is boosting the bottom line of companies and communities across North Carolina.

The Solar Economy: Widespread Benefits for North Carolina credits state policies such as the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard and Renewable Energy Investment Tax Credit with stimulating economic development.

It highlights a recent economic impact assessment by RTI International showing that for every dollar of Investment Tax Credit redeemed by businesses, $1.93 has been returned to state and local governments. That’s a great deal for North Carolina.

The report spotlights three key findings: Read More »

Successful NYC Clean Heat Program Wins Award for Outstanding Design

By Abbey Brown / Published: February 18, 2015

We already know the innovative program NYC Clean Heat is yielding tremendous results: soot pollution from buildings in New York City has fallen by more than 50 percent since 2011, preventing an estimated 800 deaths and 2,000 hospital visits due to lung and cardiovascular diseases annually. That hard work by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the City of New York, and our partners has now been recognized –again.

The Association of Energy Service Professionals has given NYC Clean Heat an award for Outstanding Achievement in Non-Residential Program Design & Implementation. We are honored to receive this award from such a distinguished organization and believe it shows that a program like NYC Clean Heat is both necessary and replicable.

EDF partnered with the City to create NYC Clean Heat in 2012, which forged a diverse coalition of the financial, real estate, and non-profit communities, to launch a $100 million financing program to help phase out dirty heating oils. The program helped 4,000 buildings – half of them affordable housing – convert to cleaner, more efficient heating oils. Read More »

Posted in Air Quality, Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, New York / Read 9 Responses

People-Powered Pricing: Nudging Illinois toward Time-of-Use Electricity Plans

By Jamie Fine / Published: February 17, 2015

This week I submitted testimony in support of a petition by the Citizens Utility Board and, my shop, EDF, to urge the Illinois Commerce Commission to require Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and Ameren, two of Illinois’ biggest utilities, to provide families and individuals with new ways to reduce their energy bills: electricity pricing based on the hour of the day. This “Time-of-Use” (TOU) option provides times of the day when electricity will be much cheaper than the all-day, “flat” electricity pricing currently used today. Such electricity rates would reward energy-efficient customers and those who shift electricity use away from “peak” hours—when demand is high, prices skyrocket, and power plants produce the most pollution.

Our petition to the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is in charge of regulating electric utilities in the state, asks for ComEd and Ameren to offer optional rate plans beginning 2016. With voluntary TOU electricity pricing, families with digital meters can enjoy lower electric bills by running certain appliances, like the dishwasher, when electricity is cheapest, such as early in the morning or late in the evenings. However, the benefits go far beyond households that participate. Cutting energy use at high-demand times, like the afternoon, lowers electricity prices for everyone, reduces stress on the power grid, and offsets the need for expensive, polluting power plants. Read More »

Posted in Electricity Pricing, Grid Modernization, Illinois, Utility Business Models / Read 6 Responses

Are Energy Managers Making Progress? Introducing a Tool to Help

By EDF Blogs / Published: February 12, 2015

By: Liz Delaney, Program Director, EDF Climate Corps

Energy management can be complicated, and the projects organizations must tackle run the gamut: from small-scale lighting and HVAC upgrades to whole building retrofits; from baselining energy consumption to data analysis of enterprise-wide energy management systems; and from volunteer employee engagement programs to executive-level goal setting.

So if you’re an energy manager, there’s no doubt you’re busy! But, when you’re deep in the middle of so many weeds, what’s not often clear is: Is your organization making real progress to improve the way it thinks about and manages energy? What does real progress look like?

Several years ago, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and partner MIT started to address these questions through the development of a framework for strategic energy management. This framework shows successful programs depend on a holistic and multi-faceted management approach—one where five focus areas work in concert to create a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy / Comments are closed

Studies Provide Insight on Two Overlooked Segments of Oil and Gas Industry

By Peter Zalzal / Published: February 10, 2015

Scientists David Lyon and Ramón Alvarez contributed to this post

Two studies released today in the journal of Environmental Science and Technology provide new insights into methane emissions from significant sources in the oil and natural gas sector and underscore the urgency of taking action to address pollution from these sources. The studies—focusing on the gathering and processing segment and the transmission and storage segment—were led by researchers at Colorado State and Carnegie Mellon universities and Aerodyne Research, and included collaboration with EDF and companies in each of these segments.

In the gathering and processing study, researchers measured 130 gathering and processing facilities, finding emissions at gathering facilities ranging from 0.6 to 600 standard cubic feet of methane leaking per minute (scf/m). For the transmission and storage study, a different team led by CSU also collected extensive on-site and downwind measurements of methane at 45 transmission and storage sites. Site-level methane measurements ranged from 2 to 880 scf/m, with an average measurement of 70 scf/m. Of all the facilities measured for these studies, data suggests the natural gas emitted was worth about $25 million and had the 20-year climate impact equal to the emissions of 2 million passenger vehicles. Read More »

Posted in Methane, Natural Gas / Tagged Climate, EPA, methane studies | Comments are closed

Energy Efficiency Market Players Can Choose from Growing List of Trained Project Developers

By EDF Blogs / Published: February 9, 2015

By: Matt Golden, Senior Energy Finance Consultant

The Investor Confidence Project (ICP), an EDF initiative designed to unlock investment in energy efficiency, is making progress toward completing a credentialing system that would provide third-party validation of an energy efficiency project. The latest development is the Project Developer Credential, the second of three in the ICP credentialing system.

ICP is accelerating the development of a global energy efficiency market by standardizing how projects are developed and energy savings are calculated. The ICP system includes a set of protocols for developing energy efficiency projects as well as a credentialing system.

The Project Developer Credential is given to those developers who are able to properly deploy the ICP protocols when undertaking an energy efficiency retrofit. This latest development is an important step forward for investors of all types, especially building owners, who can now select developers from a growing list of credentialed providers. Read More »

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Energy Financing, Investor Confidence Project / Comments are closed