The First Fossil-Fuel Free Paradise

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.

The Future of Transit in the United States Looks Like…

Electric vehicles (EVs) are cropping up nationwide, with Americans owning around 70,000 pure-electric cars and 104,000 plug-in hybrids in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the problem with EVs is the need to recharge batteries frequently, which is why they make up less than 1 percent of the 226 million registered vehicles in the country.
But a South Carolina company has found an alternative for EVs through public transit. Proterra, a manufacturer for green vehicles, is now outfitting about 12 operators with its new 40-foot, 77-seat electric bus. Mass transit routes in urban areas average about 20 miles or less, and the new Proterra bus can run 30 to 40 miles on just one charge. Proterra operates buses in Florida, Nevada, Massachusetts, Tennessee and outside Los Angeles.
As for charging, the bus only takes about 10 minutes to renew its charge, which means a bus can operate all day long, CEO Ryan Popple tells Fast Company.
While pricing is still an issue when it comes to electric buses, Popple contends the price is falling fast. In fact, the first model sold for $1.2 million in 2010; now buses are bigger, yet cost only $800,000. But the steep cost, he claims, is worth the investment, estimating that the operational costs of a diesel bus average about $500,000 to $600,000 over the span of 12 years compared to the $100,000 it costs for an electric bus.
As uncertainty grows over the wavering gas prices, Popple is adamant the future of mass transit is electric.

“[With natural gas], you’re using a temporarily cheap commodity and wasting it as inefficiently as the old cheap commodity,” he tells Fast Company. “You’re going to see a future where electric buses [have] lower costs to operate, lower emissions, and higher performance. They’re going to obsolete [fossil fuel] combustion in transit.”

MORE: Inside the Race to Build an Affordable Electric Vehicle

 

Who Needs Gasoline When You Have the Sun?

What’s greener than an owning an electric vehicle (EV)? Owning one that’s powered with your home’s solar panels.
There’s a growing number of these extra eco-conscious do-gooders. The Associated Press reports that more people own both panels and an electric car, based upon findings on the growth of electric and plug-in hybrid car sales (97,563 were sold in the U.S. last year, up 83 percent from the prior year), as well as the sharp increase in residential solar installations (up 21 percent in the second quarter of this year).
This new trend is encouraging because it might convince more people to make the switch to solar or purchase an EV, or both. The biggest reason why people don’t buy electric cars or install panels is because it’s expensive. But as the AP illustrates with the story of Chevrolet Volt owner Kevin Tofel, having solar on his roof and also an EV in his garage pays for itself over time.
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Tofel, a Telford, Penn. resident, powers his plug-in hybrid with his home’s 41 solar panels. He tells the AP that he paid $51,865 for his solar array, but that expense was reduced to $29,205 after state and federal tax credits. He found that his panels can generate 13.8 megawatt hours of electricity, but since he only needed 7.59 megawatt hours for his household, he decided to trade his gas guzzling Acura RDX for a Volt to help suck up that excess solar power. The $250 he used to spend each month on gasoline for his Acura is now down to only $50, which he only buys when he’s not near a charging station for his EV. Tofel adds (we imagine very happily) that his Volt will help reduce his break-even point on his solar investment from 11.7 years to only six years.
Naturally, he says he and his family “will never go back to an all-gas car.”
We’ve said before that home solar systems have hit the mainstream: the number of homes and businesses in the United States that are powered by the sun’s rays is now more than 500,000. And now that more consumers are open to eco-friendly cars (and the fact they’re about to get much cheaper), the future looks brighter than ever.
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What Is the Battery of the Future Made Of?

From powering pacemakers to kids’ toys and everything in between, we rely on batteries every day.
But with lithium — the material we use to make batteries — becoming a less viable resource, how are we going to power our gadgets?
Turns out, there’s an alternative energy source that grows quite abundantly: Algae.
Sounds like a crazy idea, right?
Not to Adam Freeman and his team at alGAS in California.
Algae, which forms in large blooms on the water’s surface, can be harmful to fish living below, but it has huge potential in the battery-powered world. The prototype creator says that his algae battery is powerful enough to run anything — even a Tesla!
Not only would an algae battery be incredibly versatile, but it could also charge in a fraction of the time that current, lithium batteries do. Turns out, the incredibly thin fibers found in algae are much more conducive for ions to flow through, making charge time as quick as eleven seconds, according to Tech Crunch.
While this innovation is certainly eco-friendly and time efficient, it is also cost efficient: the lithium imported for batteries not just nonrenewable, but it has to be shipped from China — making batteries more costly.
Although still in testing phases, Freeman says he would be able to make a functioning battery prototype with $1,500 more in funding; $5,000 more and an algae-powered battery it could be ready for mass production.
Between Freeman’s work and this experiment that transformed algae into crude oil, this water plant is on track to become a significant part of America’s renewable energy landscape.
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Tesla’s Brilliant — and Generous — Move to Help Save the Planet

In a world where patents protect everything from Apple’s rounded corners to Amazon’s white backgrounds, Tesla Motors founder and CEO Elon Musk is doing something completely unprecedented: Releasing his electric car patents for all.
This means if other automakers want to make e-cars, they can use Tesla’s technology to do so.
We just told you about the tech visionary’s offer to share the technology behind his Superchargers — the fast-charging, plug-in stations for his company’s electric vehicles — with the competition.
MORE: Is Tesla’s New Idea the Foundation for an American E-Car Infrastructure?
And now, in a blog post titled “All Our Patent Are Belong To You” (shout-out to the Zero Wing nerds!), Musk wrote that Tesla’s wall of patents have literally been removed from the lobby of its Palo Alto headquarters “in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology.”
He adds that his company will not “initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.”
Why would Musk do such a thing? In one word: Sustainability.
As the eco-conscious entrepreneur writes, there are 100 million new cars on the road per year, but it’s “impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis.”
You see, with all the hype about electric cars over the years (and a slow uptick of sales), it still hasn’t become mainstream to own one. We know plug-ins are much more environmentally friendly than typical gasoline-chugging, smog-emitting vehicles, but e-cars can be expensive and niche. (Tesla’s 2014 Model S costs about $70,000 but they’re working on a cheaper $30,000 model).
ALSO: Driving an E-Car: Not Good Just for the Planet’s Health, but Your Health, Too
Additionally, with the current production rate of e-cars being less than one percent of total vehicles made, car companies aren’t making nearly enough zero-emission vehicles for the market. Even the well-intentioned car buyer could argue, “Where do I even buy one of these things?”
So by freeing Tesla’s intellectual property, Musk is also freeing up the competition by allowing other car makers to improve and expand the e-car market.
“The mission of the company is to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric cars,” explained Tesla spokesperson Simon Sproule. “If Tesla acts as the catalyst for other manufacturers … that will have been achieved.”
DON’T MISS: What the Demise of Car Ownership Means for the Planet

Driving an E-Car: Not Good Just for the Planet’s Health, but Your Health, Too

If you want to improve your health, perhaps you should seriously think about investing in an electric car.
Sure, that might seem a bit extreme, but did you know that half of the toxic pollutants in the air are caused by petroleum-chugging motor vehicles?
We all know that electric cars are much better for the environment, and now we’re learning that they provide incredible public health benefits as well.
The Atlantic published findings from a recent report by the Environmental Defense Fund and the California chapter of the American Lung Association that analyzed California’s ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The report found that California’s cap-and-trade program (which has a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to levels of what they were back in 1990) and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) that requires petroleum-based fuels to reduce the carbon intensity by 10 percent by 2020 has already shown remarkable progress.
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“By 2025, the health benefits of the LCFS and [cap-and-trade] will save $8.3 billion in pollution-related health costs such as avoided hospital visits and lost work days,” the report said. “In addition, these policies will prevent 38,000 asthma attacks as well as 600 heart attacks, 880 premature deaths, and almost 75,000 lost work days — all caused by air pollution.”
Simply put: Electric cars = less air pollution = happy lungs = longer lives. Now, just imagine how the whole country would benefit if more people drove plug-ins.
ALSO: What the Demise of Car Ownership Means for the Planet 
If you believe that you can’t afford a plug-in, think again. The heavy price tag of e-cars is actually a popular misconception. CleanTechnica does a good job of debunking that myth, listing several electric cars that actually cost less than the average new car, including the Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500e, and Ford Focus Electric.
With climate change showing no signs of abating, going electric sounds like something that physicians should start prescribing alongside healthy eating and exercise.

The Diesel-Chugging Yellow School Bus Finally Goes Green

Stuck driving behind an exhaust-spewing yellow school bus? Chances are, your first order of business is to roll up your car’s windows. The second? To tell your GPS to recalculate your route.
Fortunately for drivers in Reedley, California’s Kings Canyon unified school district, they no longer have to inhale a lungful of fumes emitted by school vehicles. That’s because the district’s all-electric school buses are hitting the road — an initiative that’s a nationwide first.
States usually refrain from purchasing electric vehicles because of the cost, but that wasn’t a problem for this district as Kings Canyon’s buses were partly funded by California Air Resources Board’s Air Quality Improvement Program. In the long run, these e-buses will actually help the district save money, too. According to a press release from developers Trans Tech and Motiv Power Systems, these new school buses will save more than $10,000 each year (!) in fuel and maintenance for the district.
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It makes perfect sense for school buses to go green. After all, most buses in the United States are powered by diesel fuel, and the EPA estimates that more than half of today’s buses have been in service for more than 10 years — meaning that they’re out-of-date with today’s pollution and safety standards. So students who have to ride them for school and field trips are exposed to more health risks. Making newer, cleaner buses should be a common sense priority.
Currently, there are similar clean air initiatives in New York City and Chicago, which means electric school buses may soon roll in to a bus stop near you.