Energy Exchange

The New GTL: Green Thinking and Living!

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 29, 2011

By: Emily Martin, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at the Township of Ocean, NJ; MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University; LEED Green Associate

Immediately following Climate Corps Public Sector training in Durham, NC, I headed to the Jersey Shore for the first time, not quite sure what to expect. After all, my previous exposure was limited to media coverage, and any news of the state’s sustainability efforts have been overshadowed by the antics of certain shore residents.

After arriving in Ocean Township, however, I gained a new perspective on New Jersey when I met the township’s manager and members of the “Green Team.” I was introduced to “Sustainable Jersey,” a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey that want to go green, control costs and save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term. So far, over 70 New Jersey municipalities are certified under this program. Ocean Township is currently working toward its certification.

One action that will help Ocean receive a Sustainable Jersey certification is the creation of a rain garden at the municipal library. Rain gardens allow 30% more water to absorb into the ground, which decreases storm water runoff and reduces pollution in streams, rivers, and lakes. They can even count as credit toward LEED certification for the library. Read More »

Finding The Silver (Or Green) Lining After Disaster Strikes

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 22, 2011

By: Jen Weiss, 2011 Climate Corps Public Sector Fellow at Shaw University; MEM candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University

Climate Corps Public Sector (CCPS) helps universities, governments and houses of worship identify ways to improve energy efficiency and save money.

My mother always told me that when adversity strikes, look for the silver lining.

The staff and students at Shaw University (Shaw) in downtown Raleigh have learned this lesson the hard way. Six weeks ago, Shaw was hit by a tornado. Classes were cancelled and students were sent home as Shaw administrators surveyed the damage to the historical buildings that date back to 1865.

Thanks to the dedication of its students, staff and the Raleigh community, the university cleared the debris, assessed the damage and started over in a remarkably short time frame. Today, summer classes are in session and despite the boarded up windows, blue-tarped rooftops, and damaged trees, Shaw University is definitely back in business!

But, wait … the story can’t end here – where is the silver lining? Read More »

Posted in EDF Climate Corps, General / Tagged Shaw University - 2011 | Comments are closed

Put My Tax Dollars Into A Growth Market, Please

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 23, 2011

Guest Blog Post By: Jackie Roberts, EDF’s Director of Sustainable Technologies, National Climate Campaign

Two efforts to repeal tax breaks for oil and gas companies – Senate Bill S.940 and the Administration’s budget proposals to eliminate subsidies in FY 2010, FY 2011, and FY 2012 budgets – should receive bipartisan support for no other reason than re-directing those subsidies can be an engine of job creation. University of Massachusetts at Amherst economic researchers developed employment estimates for various energy sources, including energy efficiency strategies. Their data show that investments in energy efficiency creates 2.5 to four times more jobs than that for oil and gas development and renewables create 2.5 to three times more jobs than that for oil and gas development.

These jobs are dispersed throughout the U.S. as shown with our LessCarbonMoreJobs mapping, and bring particular benefits to the hard hit Midwest manufacturing regions.

Large government subsidies might, just might, be justified if “Big Oil” was using profits to invest record amounts in transitioning to clean energy. But, that is far from the case. A Center for American Progress analysis of Big Oil investments reveals that the big five oil companies invested just four percent of their total 2008 profits in renewable and alternative energy ventures. There are no signs that this level of investment has increased at all in the past several years.

Clean energy will be a major new market – by some estimates the market for renewables alone will range from $1.7 trillion per year to $2.3 trillion by 2020, depending on different government policy scenarios. Having already slipped from first to third in terms of investments in this sector, the U.S. needs to play catch up. Government dollars should be used to help the U.S. transition to clean energy and to do so in a way that we have significant market share in as many clean energy solutions as possible. First mover advantages are critical with new markets and worth every penny we can devote to creating strong clean energy innovation and manufacturing here in the U.S. Such investments will also translate into cheap, homegrown energy sources in the medium- to long-term – the supposed purpose of the oil and gas subsidies. Put my tax dollars into a growth market, please.

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Washington, DC / Comments are closed

Decoding the Final Decision in the AB 32 Lawsuit

By Tim O'Connor / Published: May 20, 2011

A Superior Court in San Francisco issued a final judgment today in a lawsuit filed in 2009 by environmental justice (EJ) groups concerning California’s groundbreaking 2006 law, the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which sets limits on global warming pollution in the state.

As expected, the ruling establishes a new timeline and preconditions for continued implementation and final approval of the AB 32 cap-and-trade regulation. The ruling confirms the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) ability to use cap-and-trade and should not force a delay in the planned launch of the program on January 1, 2012, as long as the agency meets its California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements laid out by the court.

The judge found that CARB did not adequately complete its legally mandated review of alternatives to cap and trade and must do so, then gain approval by its board and the judge prior to proceeding with implementation. Even before today’s ruling was issued, CARB had assured the public that it was significantly bolstering its analysis. EDF is eager to be part of the public process to review and comment on the updated analysis and believes the new documents will further illustrate the proven, far-reaching benefits of using market forces to limit pollution.

It’s worth noting that the California Department of Public Health evaluated the potential impacts of a cap-and-trade program and found that the regulation was not likely to cause any adverse impacts to public health and welfare – especially if money raised from the program gets reinvested in California communities to help protect against the impacts of climate change, an essential element of the state’s plan.

In a press release issued shortly after the ruling was announced, CARB said that it will appeal the ruling, a legal procedure that will likely allow it to continue working on the regulatory design and finishing touches before the new analysis is final.

Posted in General / Comments are closed

Shining a Light on Energy Efficiency: EDF Climate Corps reflects on three years of results

By Victoria Mills / Published: May 17, 2011

As any energy manager knows, it’s one thing to find energy-saving projects that are worth doing, and quite another to get them implemented. Over the last three years, EDF Climate Corps fellows have uncovered almost a billion kilowatt hours of potential energy savings, representing $439 million in net operating savings. But our biggest question has always been, “Will the companies move forward with those energy-saving investments after the fellows leave?” Thankfully, the answer is yes: so far, companies report that they are implementing projects accounting for 86 percentof the savings identified by EDF Climate Corps fellows.

This year, as we looked back on three years of results, we noticed that many of the projects that got implemented first were lighting projects. For example, Hospital Corporation of America will roll out a lighting retrofit program across the organization, and eBay recently upgraded the lighting in a 60,000-square foot building on its San Jose campus. Other companies are employing devices to make sure the lights are on only when people need them: AT&T will installoccupancy sensors in its 250 largest central offices, and Sungard is optimizing the lighting timers in its New York City office.

This is no surprise if you’ve ever looked at the ROI on lighting projects. The upfront costs tend to be relatively low – zero in the case of delamping or switching timer settings – so payback time is short. And lighting projects are pretty straightforward to identify. You can often spot ways to cut lighting costs just by walking through a building, and use a $50 light logger to document when the lights are on and don’t need to be, as our fellow at AT&T did.

Beyond lighting, EDF Climate Corps companies are also implementing upgrades to HVAC systems, office equipment, and data centers. Eaton is moving forward with an air circulation improvement in a North Carolina plant that could yield an annual electricity reduction of 2.5 million kWh. eBay is currently installing power management software for all of its PCs. And Cisco has raised temperatures in some of its research labs, which could save the company about $1.8 million and 18 million kWh of electricity annually.

But if we’ve learned anything about energy efficiency over the last three years, it’s that it has as much to do with changing behavior as changing lightbulbs. And EDF Climate Corps fellows have contributed to several projects that integrate energy and environmental data into a range of business decisions.

For example, Compass Group North America created a web-based toolkit for its food service clients, illuminating choices they can make to cut their carbon emissions. And Diversey has introduced several decision-support tools with the help of its EDF Climate Corps fellow, including one that factors energy and carbon emissions into capital expenditures, and another that tracks savings from avoided travel. As the firm’s global travel is 10 percent of its carbon footprint, Diversey estimates $6 million in annual savings from reduced travel that can be invested in other energy projects.

Putting the facts about energy use and greenhouse gas emissions into decision-makers’ hands is a powerful way to spotlight the business and environmental benefits of energy efficiency, and move energy-saving projects forward. Another bright idea brought to you by EDF Climate Corps.

Sign up to receive emails about EDF Climate Corps, including regular blog posts by our fellows. You can also visit ourFacebook page to get regular updates about this project.

Posted in EDF Climate Corps / Comments are closed

Malfunctioning Smart Meters Demonstrate Their Intelligence

By Jamie Fine / Published: May 16, 2011

The digital “smart meter” replacement of antiquated analog meters in California has caused quite a stir. These devices have been making headlines since installations began en masse in 2006 because of concerns about health risks related to the wireless technology they use to transmit data and coincidental bill increases. While an independent contractor hired by the California Public Utilities Commission found that the initial bill increases were due to summertime rate hikes and unusually high summer temperatures, PG&E’s smart meters are in the news again for billing errors.

This time there are faulty meters generating billing errors when hot weather makes them run faster than normal. While some skeptics may feel that the meter malfunctions validate their concerns, in fact, it demonstrates a key smart meter benefit: for the first time ever, meters have the ability to alert utilities that they aren’t working properly.

When Bad News is Good News

In this particular instance, PG&E remotely compared the meters’ clocks with real time. It identified roughly 1,600 out of 2 million meters made by Landis & Gyr that were malfunctioning. Its other 2 million meters made by General Electric don’t appear to have the problem.

This is transformative: PG&E can now monitor millions of meters in real time to comprehensively identify and ameliorate problems.

This isn’t possible with old analog meters, which is one of the many reasons why they’re being replaced. Before smart meters, electricity users who suspected erroneous billing had little evidence to make their claims. Now the utility can proactively identify and address problems.

To Put Things in Perspective

While it is inconvenient when any technical device, including a smart meter, is malfunctioning, the rate of problems with analog meters is much higher. Consider this comparison:

Roughly 1,600 out of 2 million meters were found to have internal clocks that run a bit fast in rare hot conditions. That’s a meter failure rate of 0.08%, or less than one 10th of a percent. This failure rate is believed to be within industry norms.
According to PG&E, analog meters have a failure rate in the range of 3%, which means they fail at rates about 40 times greater than suggested by these faulty smart meters.

PG&E estimates that the overcharge for failed smart meters is less than $40/year, about $3.33 per month. Again, it is the intelligent meters that enabled PG&E to quantify and correct the problem. All of the customers with faulty meters will be repaid in full and receive replacement meters. They will also get $25 for being inconvenienced and receive a free home energy audit.

Advantages of Smart Meters

Once smart meters have been fully deployed, utilities will be able to remotely and in real-time monitor all meters in their service territory, isolating malfunctions with precision and speed. What does that mean for consumers? More reliable service and quick resolution when problems arise.

You might wonder why EDF, an environmental advocacy group, is commenting on this. Smart meters are key to delivering the environmental and public health benefits of the smart grid.

EDF will soon be releasing a smart grid evaluation framework targeted at the plans that PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Southern California Edison owe the state by July 1, 2011.

We will then be publicly evaluating those plans for their ability to deliver benefits including: increased effectiveness and reduced costs of energy efficiency and other electricity conservation programs; integration of electric vehicles and intermittent renewable electricity generation resources, such as rooftop solar panels.

Stay tuned.

Posted in Grid Modernization / Read 3 Responses