Tag: clean energy

The First Fossil-Fuel Free Paradise

Posted on by robbie

Not so long ago, Hawaii’s image as a sweet-smelling tropical paradise was masking a dirty little secret: Of the states most dependent on foreign oil, Hawaii had rocketed to number one. As of 2006, a full 90 percent of its energy came from imported carbon-rich fossil fuels, which had to be delivered in cargo ships. Not surprisingly, this resulted in the highest gas prices in the country, costing state residents some $5 billion annually.
It was clear Hawaii needed to take action. In 2007 its Republican governor, Laura Lingle, enacted legislation committing the state to take its place “among the nation’s leaders in efforts to effect a climate change policy.” In 2015 her successor, Democrat David Ige, took her vision a step farther, signing into law a mandate that Hawaii generate 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2045.
“Hawaii decided to lead by example,” says Mark B. Glick of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. “And the lessons we’ve learned show that a comprehensive energy transition is attainable.”
It’s a blueprint that can work for other states, energy experts say. Glick agrees, adding that of the initiatives undertaken by Hawaii, boosting its fleet of electric vehicles has been among the most crucial.

RIDING THE CURRENT

Following the Great Recession, Hawaii channeled $4.5 million in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into building electric vehicle charging stations. At the same time, the Hawaii State Energy Office chipped in $2.3 million in the form of rebates to individuals and businesses that bought electric vehicles (EVs for short).
For a state that had not long before depended almost solely on foreign energy, the results were a game-changer: From 2015 to 2016, as sales of gas-powered vehicles in Hawaii dipped 4 percent, the number of EVs jumped by 26 percent. By the end of last year, Hawaii saw more than 5,000 EVs cruising down its roads. The state has also built an infrastructure of hundreds of public charging stations — widely considered the best such network in the nation.
But Hawaii wasn’t done. To become completely powered by renewable sources, the state also had to make changes to its power grid.
In an all-encompassing effort to cut carbon emissions, a state commission last summer approved a plan by three utility companies to transition to 100 percent clean, renewable sources by 2040 — five years ahead of the already-ambitious schedule set by Gov. Ige. The three companies, which provide power to 95 percent of Hawaii’s population, are on deck to expand the use of wind, biomass, water, geothermal and solar.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige joins the 2017 National Clean Energy Summit via Skype.

The utilities’ trajectory has already been dramatic. On the Big Island of Hawaii, for example, 54 percent of electricity generated in 2016 came from renewables, up from 49 percent the year before. It represented a benchmark in the state’s climate policy: For the first time, more than half of the energy consumed on any of Hawaii’s eight islands came from clean sources.  
In addition, the state was able to curb its overall electricity consumption by nearly 17 percent between 2008 and 2015.
On a third front, between 2008 and 2015, Hawaii’s electricity consumption dropped nearly 17 percent, the result of a concerted state effort to become more energy efficient. State buildings were retrofitted with more efficient cooling systems, and standard light bulbs were switched to LEDs.
Capitalizing on this momentum, in 2016 Hawaii won the country’s largest ever federal Energy Savings Performance Contract from the Department of Energy. The contract gave the state $158 million to retrofit 12 airports. The refurbishments are expected to cut annual electricity use by 49 percent.

MONEY MIGHT GO, BUT MOMENTUM WON’T

Other states, however, have struggled to copy Hawaii’s success. In 2017, California, a progressive state with 15 times Hawaii’s population, considered a law that would similarly mandate all its energy come from carbon-free sources by 2045. Had it passed, it would have made California the largest economy on the planet to make such a sweeping clean energy commitment, but the bill failed in the face of opposition from public utility companies and union workers (it may be considered again in 2018).
In the face of the current administration’s reticence to push for climate change policies, “states and cities need to do more, not less,” says Fran Pavley, a former state senator who authored a 2006 law that committed California to the most extensive per-capita carbon cuts in the nation — that is, until it was eclipsed by Hawaii in 2015.
Since Hawaii enacted its ambitious law, a few states, including Oregon, Vermont and New York, have passed similar laws to source at least 50 percent of their energy from renewable sources by the 2030s. And dozens of U.S. cities have pledged to do even better. But some of the main tools that Hawaii used to turn away from fossil fuels are being phased out — namely, federal clean-energy subsidies.
Starting in 2009, more than $30 billion in Recovery Act funds went toward an array of clean energy projects. As a result, between 2010 and 2016, the percentage of American power generated by clean renewables doubled from 4 to 8 percent, says Stephen Munro, a policy expert who works for Bloomberg New Energy. If you add in hydroelectric sources, that number jumps to 15 percent.
“Much of that gain is clearly due to Obama-era subsidies,” Munro says.
The clean-energy subsidies Obama implemented, widely credited with lowering the cost of wind energy by two-thirds and increasing solar production tenfold, are scheduled to sunset in the early 2020s unless they’re extended — something the Trump administration has signaled opposition to.
But even if they’re allowed to expire, some climate activists believe that those Obama-era subsidies have already given clean energy enough momentum to overtake fossil fuels. Even in Hawaii, which benefitted greatly from federal money, the state still found ways to incentivize its residents to make the transition by giving EVs free and preferential parking, for example, as well as special access to express lanes.
In other words, what happened in Hawaii won’t stay in Hawaii. That is as long as other states, bolstered by that clean energy momentum, work to foster cooperation among regulators, government, business, activists and consumers — federal money or no.

How Does Clean Energy Help Us Grow?

Posted on by robbie

The foundation for a low carbon energy future, involving not only power sources like wind and solar, but also such wide-ranging industries as lighting and transportation, continues to strengthen. Renewables and clean technology are scaling up faster than expected, with advancing technology and significant cost declines drawing investors and accelerating growth. What’s more, substantial economic benefits have become more obvious, perhaps most significantly in the expansion of infrastructure and local jobs.
Goldman Sachs has been instrumental as both an investor and financier in clean energy development. Since setting our initial target in 2012 to deploy $40 billion over 10 years in the clean energy space, we have invested and financed $54 billion and expanded our goal to $150 billion in capital by 2025. This will ensure that we continue to play a key role, leveraging capital markets to aid in the global transition to greater energy security and sustainable economic growth.
The impact of our investment and expertise has been visible and substantial. From 2012 through May 2016, when we reached the initial $40 billion target, we helped 89 companies and projects scale up clean energy and renewables in 29 countries, helping facilitate 31 gigawatts of renewable electricity generation — enough to power 5.5 million U.S. homes. Our investments and financings have also fueled the broader clean tech ecosystem: the development of electric cars, smart grids and manufacturing capacity for solar components and advanced biofuels.
Together, these companies and projects have helped to employ tens of thousands of people and have had a significant positive economic impact on local communities. What’s more, they are helping to avoid millions of metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
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Clean Energy Impact Report

Clean tech and renewables are growing and are resulting in significant benefits, from reduced environmental impact to economic development in markets worldwide. What are the benefits of our own commitment to the clean energy space? We recently issued a report that gauged the impacts of our investments and financings across the globe. After conducting our analysis, here’s what we found.

The Three Drivers of a Low Carbon Future

Technology, capital and policy — all have a leading role to play in increasing energy security, reducing negative impacts and moving the global economy to a more sustainable energy system. Kyung-Ah Park, head of Goldman Sachs’ Environmental Markets Group, sees rapid technology innovation and convergence, catalyzed by capital and policy, driving a broader shift to a low carbon economy.
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This article is paid for by Goldman Sachs.

The Jobs Robots Won’t Take

Posted on by robbie

In April 2017, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to the lowest level in a decade. And while there are many factors to consider, there’s evidence that automation and the rise of robots may not eliminate as many jobs as projected. Here are some of the sectors offering long-term job security for decades to come.

CLEAN ENERGY

The fastest growing profession in the country: wind turbine technicians.
Solar energy is also a bright spot for the unemployed and underemployed, “growing at a rate 12 times faster than the rest of the U.S. economy,” according a 2017 report published by Environmental Defense Fund. The majority of this growth consists of installation jobs. Robots can’t climb onto rooftops to mount photovoltaic panels (or repair them), which means there’s an ever-growing number of positions for living, breathing workers.

EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE AND CUSTOMER RELATIONS

“Where humanity matters there will be humans,” says business advisor and technology consultant Shelly Palmer.
Schools, hospitals and businesses continue to need workers to do “people things” since robots can only react to predictive behaviors or conduct menial tasks. “Robots do not yet have the ability to perform complex tasks like negotiation or persuading, and they are not as proficient in generating new ideas as they are at solving problems,” says Mynul Khan, chief executive officer of Field Nation in an op-ed for Tech Crunch.
To learn how education could adapt in an automated world, check out this additional reading:
How to Prepare for an Automated Future

ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

The number of architectural and engineering jobs has more than tripled from last year’s average of 2,000 each month to 7,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the industry isn’t just having a moment. It’s estimated by 2022, biomedical engineering will experience 23 percent growth, environmental engineering 12 percent and civil engineering (the field with the most positions) 8.4 percent.
Fueling the demand for this non-automated workforce? An aging population and crumbling infrastructure.

MAINTENANCE

Call it “Rise of the Maintenance Workforce.” While robots are clearly putting pressure on the American labor force, when they break, humans are needed to fix them. The demand for people who can repair hardware and software, as well as code new programs, is expected to steadily increase. By 2022, there may be more than half a million new jobs in robotic and machine learning maintenance, installation and repair.  Some labor experts project that modern technologies will ultimately create more jobs than they destroy.
This gradual shift can best be witnessed in U.S. manufacturing, which has shed almost 5 million jobs since 2000. The auto industry has introduced around 52,000 robots during the past seven years, helping to spur the creation of nearly 260,000 jobs. A 2013 study done by the International Federation of Robots (which despite its name is not made up of robots; rather it’s a group of tech industry leaders) estimated that 10 to 15 percent of jobs in the auto sector were created because robots and machines were introduced to assembly lines.
To learn more about how robotics is affecting manufacturing, check out this additional reading:
The New Hire: How a New Generation of Robots Is Transforming Manufacturing
How Artificial Intelligence and Robots Will Radically Transform the Economy

Yes, Doing Just One Thing Can Help Save the Planet

Posted on by robbie

Several high profile environmental disasters (the Cuyahoga River fire, an oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif.) and a passionate level of engagement around the civil rights, feminist and anti-war movements served as the foundation for the first Earth Day in 1970.
As executive director of the Earth Day Initiative, John Oppermann sees a similarly heightened level of consciousness today. Social media engages likeminded individuals and influencers alike, while climate change-induced extreme weather drives non-environmentalists from their homes, turning them into activists. Here, he shares how being an environmentalist is much easier than you think.
This year’s Earth Day… Is the launch of a three-year countdown to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, called the Count to 50. The purpose of the campaign is to channel the enthusiasm we see from citizens every year towards doing one positive, simple thing to green their lifestyle: making the switch to clean energy. By 2020, we’ll be able to quantify the impact by calculating how many tons of carbon emissions were avoided and how much money has been directed towards green energy and the number of houses running on it.
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Committing to just one thing… Ups the chance that someone actually takes action. If you give people a list of 10 things to do, they get bogged down in making a choice and end up not doing anything at all. Some participants in the Count to 50 campaign will install solar or wind energy at their homes. But for most, the best way they can divest from dirty energy is to call their utility provider and request to pay for clean energy. It’s a super simple process that takes less than 60 seconds. People can visit Countto50.org to commit.
The focus on switching to clean energy… Gives people positive action to take. We could’ve focused the Count to 50 campaign on meat consumption, which has a huge impact on the environment and is relatively easy to do. But we didn’t want to tell people not to do something. We also want citizens to do something that can be measured. When people move to clean energy, we have concrete metrics, which are motivating for others. One of the biggest dilemmas about any environmental issue is that each one is so large, no one feels like they can make an impact. If you pool everyone’s individual efforts, however, we can point towards much larger results.
Reporting by Chris Peak
MORE: 37 Ways to Shrink Your Use of Plastic

The Surprising Story Behind One School’s Healthy Lunch Program, The Best Way to Reach Your Reps and More

Posted on by robbie

 
Revenge of the Lunch Lady, The Huffington Post Highline
In a country where cheap mass-produced food is king and pizza counts as a vegetable, healthy lunches for kids can be hard to come by. But a recent revamp of school fare in Huntington, W.V., previously designated as the nation’s unhealthiest city, provides a hopeful model. There, an enterprising employee managed to implement a healthy lunch program, starring locally grown produce, while maintaining the district’s minuscule $1.50-per-meal budget.
Getting a Busy Signal When You Call Congress? Here’s How to Get Through, The Christian Science Monitor
Since President Trump’s inauguration last month, there’s been a surge in citizens reaching out to Congress, but not all forms of communication are equally effective. If you really want your voice heard, say experts, try meeting with your representative in person, writing a personal letter and focusing on policy rather than cabinet picks.
The Compost King of New York, The New York Times
New York City alone generates 1 million tons of organic waste per year, but a new plant on Long Island will process this waste into both fertilizer and clean energy, generating significant returns. This new large-scale industrial waste processing is both more environmentally friendly and more profitable than traditional composting, and could revolutionize American energy.
Continue reading “The Surprising Story Behind One School’s Healthy Lunch Program, The Best Way to Reach Your Reps and More”

The Website Helping Millennials Cast a Vote for the Earth

Posted on by robbie

As the midterm election nears, political groups are ramping up efforts to get the vote out — specifically among the youth. Among them is a group of Stanford University students, artists, filmmakers and coders who are driving one simple message to voters born between 1981 and 1996: “You have power.”
Hack the Election, designed by the ad agency Odysseus Arms, the Environmental Defense Fund and a group of Stanford students, cross-references an IP address with candidates on a user’s local ballot to discern who is supporting clean energy. The site highlights President Barack Obama’s clean power plan, which will entail the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposing limits on how much carbon dioxide (CO2) companies may produce, which can include up to 44 percent of CO2 released in the United States.
“People say they don’t vote because they don’t know who to vote for? But you’ve got the name,” the site reads, after providing name(s) of candidates who are supporting environmental policy. In order to receive the correct information, a user must be in his or her home district.
Politicians are eager to turn out the millennial population for the midterm election, but a recent Harvard University public opinion poll indicated that the number of millennials planning to vote in this election has dropped, with less than 25 percent who said they would “definitely be voting.”
Still, millennials are incredibly supportive of environmental movement. Earlier this year, a Pew Research Center poll found that people under 30 are more inclined to back alternative energy sources, while another Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll found that 85 percent of millennials said they supported the clean power plan.
“We call this stuff that we do one-click activism,” says Franklin Tipton, co-developer for Hack the Election. “It’s not that people are lazy; it’s just how the world works.”
The site is just one of the many efforts to entice millennial voters through an environmental lens, which includes Patagonia’s “Vote the Environment” campaign, an initiative that encourages artists to design environmental posters and screenprints, raising money for both the artist and voting advocacy group HeadCount. The outfitter is also featuring voter information as well as candidates who support environmental polices on its site.
MORE: Watch: How Rock the Vote Is Reaching Millennials

Burlington, Vt. is Leading America into a Future of Clean Energy

Posted on by robbie

Vermont’s largest city, Burlington, is illustrating just what a greener future could look like.
The city now touts that 100 percent of its electricity is powered by renewable sources including wind, water and biomass. The Burlington Electric Department reached the notable figure following the purchase of  the Winooski 1 Hydroelectric Facility, located on the Winooski River, earlier this month.
While Burlington’s 42,000 residents have been encouraging electric utility providers to make the switch to greener sources, the city has been talking about achieving the milestone for around a decade. But in 2008, officials began developing an actual strategy.

“The transition in thought from 2004 to 2008 was ‘We want to do this’ to ‘This actually makes economic sense for us to do this,'” says Ken Nolan, the manager of power resources for Burlington Electric.

That “economic sense” means that residents will avoid rate increases, and according to Nolan, once the bonds for the Winooski One facility are paid off (around 20 years from now), the utility will see cost savings.
“A lot of times when you buy plants like this, you end up having to increase rates initially to drop them later,” Nolan tells The Burlington Free Press,  “and we were able to buy it without any impact and then lock in the benefits in the future.”
Of course, there will be instances in which there may not be enough wind and hydro energy to supply the city, which means they may have to generate electricity from traditional fossil fuel sources. But the goal is to amass a surplus of renewable energy when conditions are right — an excess that will be sold to other utilities.
Burlington joins a statewide movement toward ending reliance on harmful fossil fuel sources. The Washington Electric Co-operative, with around 11,000 customers throughout central and northern Vermont, reached 100 percent earlier this year.
The state has set a goal of reaching 90 percent of energy — including heat, electricity and transportation — from renewable resources by 2050. “We’re now in a position where we’re supplying Burlington residents with sources that are renewable,” Nolan says. “The prices are not tied to fossil fuels — they’re stable prices — and they provide us with the flexibility, from an environmental standpoint, to really react to any regulation or changes to environmental standards that come in the future.”
Around the country, more local governments and municipalities are working toward transitioning powering with renewable resources. For instance, after a tornado leveled Greensburg, Kansas in 2007, part of reconstruction included the installation of a 12.5-megawatt wind farm that began generating electricity in excess.
As more cities ponder ways to become greener cities, Burlington is proof that it can — and should — be done.
MORE: The United States’s First Carbon-Neutral City Is…

3 Reasons Why Sunday’s Historic Climate March Could Be the Start of Something Huge

Posted on by robbie

Thousands of protestors will cram the streets of New York City this Sunday, calling on world leaders to help stop climate change. But they’ll also have another message: “Welcome to a new chapter in the fight against global warming. This time it’s going to work.”
The People’s Climate March is expected to be the biggest-ever collective action against global climate change, and organizers are hoping the protest will mark a watershed moment in their fight.
For years, scientist and activists have been pleading for coordinated action to halt the warming of the planet, but world leaders have repeatedly failed to rise to the challenge. Since the disastrous United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, global summits have not forged worldwide consensus on how to achieve the U.N.’s stated goal of restricting any future global temperature increase to no more than two degrees Celsius.
This weekend’s march is set to coincide with another one of these global meetings: The U.N. Climate Summit 2014. No decisions will be made at the event, which will be attended by 125 world leaders, including President Obama. But the summit will lay the groundwork for landmark U.N. climate conferences this December in Lima and next year in Paris.
Despite the failures of the past, organizers of the People’s Climate March see at least three reasons to hope this year.
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This New Type of Bank Invests in the Earth’s Future

Posted on by robbie

Green is a color often associated with banks, or at the very least, with the crisp bills kept inside their vaults.
Recently, however, New Yorkers have another reason to associate green with finance. It’s called the Green Bank — a new form of banking dedicated solely to financing energy-efficient projects.
The $1 billion investment fund aims to help make local energy-efficiency and clean energy projects a reality. Many times these projects are passed over by the big banks, which is where the Green Bank will step in.
It operates with two goals in mind. First, to establish a viable green projects marketplace supported by the private sector, and secondly, through the Green Bank, to have residents to see a reduction in the cost of these technologies.
While New York is the latest state to establish a Green Bank, it is not alone. Connecticut paved the way for others back in July 2011 when it opened its first one. And now, not far behind New York is Hawaii, which is currently in the process of establishing its own. Then there are California, Maryland and New Jersey which are considering similar proposals in their legislatures.
Although the states may use different designs, their mission to bring clean-energy projects to the states remains the same.
So how is New York financing its Green Bank? By redirecting existing state grant money and raising $165.6 million on utility customers through clean-energy surcharges, the Green Bank now has $218.5 million. And by the end of 2014, the bank will reach the $1 billion mark when all of the funds arrive.
The end of the year will also herald the announcement of some of the bank’s lending deals with outside groups. Although no exact details have been given, project proposals concerning solar, wind, storage and energy-efficiency have all been received and considered.
These Green Banks are showing just how far a little green can go when it comes to saving the planet.
MORE: This Drilling Practice Is Controversial. But Now, New York Towns Can Say “Get the Frack Out”

What’s That Strange Crop Growing in America’s Fields?

Posted on by robbie

You’re familiar with corn and wheat and cotton. And maybe even soybeans. But you’re probably never heard of miscanthus.
This funny-sounding crop is already providing renewable energy in Europe, and now, it’s beginning to catch on with more farmers here in the United States. Currently, it’s sprouting in fields in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois, among others — although still on a small-scale basis.
A relative of sugar cane, miscanthus yields 15 tons of biomass fiber per acre. It’s a perennial, so once planted, it returns every year for up to two decades. A relatively small amount of chemicals are required to keep this crop healthy, and once it’s established, many farmers use no pesticides at all. For all these reasons, miscanthus promises to outperform corn as a clean and efficient energy crop.
“Miscanthus is such a new crop that we are the first 16 acres to be planted in Iowa,” Steve Schomberg, the farmer with Iowa’s biggest miscanthus crop, told Rick Frederickson of Iowa Public Radio. “It gets gawkers, yes. People stop along the road and talk about it, (and ask) ‘What are you growing there?'”
Schomberg sends his miscanthus harvest to the University of Iowa, where it is mixed with coal and converted into steam and electricity at the University’s power plant. Iowa is currently recruiting more farmers to grow the crop. The state hopes to have 2,500 acres of it by 2016.
In Illinois, farmer Eric Rund is promoting miscanthus as a cheaper heating fuel alternative to liquid propane.
Iowa State University agronomist Emily Heaton is studying ways to mix miscanthus with existing fossil fuel sources so that less non-renewable energy is consumed. “When I look at a crop like this, I see a chance to make fossil fuels cleaner,” Heaton told Frederickson. “Because what we’re talking about is blending this clean grassy biomass with coal, so it just cleans up coal a little bit.”
And when you’re talking about an energy source as dirty as coal, even a little bit cleaner is a whole lot better.
MORE: Read About The Remarkable Scientists Making Corn-Free Ethanol