THE LIST: DETAILING THE DIVERSIONS FROM THE STATE’S CLEAN ENERGY FUND NJ Spotlight, June 13, 2016 The diversion of clean-energy money to help balance the next state fiscal-year budget is an annual rite of early summer in the [New Jersey] State House. Over the past 10 budgets, more than $1.3 billion has been diverted from … Read more
Smartphone Apps Help Bring Reliable Power to 1.3 Billion People Bloomberg, June 6, 2016 At any given minute in India, you can find out how much electricity is for sale and at what price with a few swipes across a smartphone screen — a level of transparency in the nation’s power sector that’s increasing the … Read more
Valerie Eacret, ERS, for Zondits As temperatures in the northern hemisphere start to climb, many of us reach for the thermostat and turn on the air conditioning – in our homes, at work, and in our cars. People who don’t crank the A/C typically fall into one of two buckets: those who have it but … Read more
Here’s how GE is using software to change its business model CNBC, June 7, 2016 Call it the “Industrial internet” if you will. Take industrial machines from jet engines to medical equipment and turn them into intelligent interconnected devices. Suddenly, you are no longer just selling assets, you are selling services. You can improve the … Read more
Lisa Markowski, ERS, for Zondits. Image credit: Lisa Markowski Green roofs – also known as living roofs – are great enough when “all” they do is beautify and insulate buildings and provide clean oxygen. The ultimate benefit, though, comes when they produce food. The Boston area has several exceptional food-producing green roofs to speak of, … Read more
Energy efficiency lowers costs in recent PJM capacity auction ACEEE, June 1, 2016. Image credit: AndreasEOS700D By Brendon Baatz, Manager, Utilities Policy Energy efficiency provides many benefits to the electric utility system. One of these benefits is reducing the market price for electric generation. PJM Interconnection, the operator of the largest electric grid in the United … Read more
A Zondits Rundown: French Electricity Utility, ENGIE, Acquires an 80% Stake in Californian Battery Maker Green Charge Networks ENGIE and Green Charge Networks were introduced through ENGIE subsidiaries Ecova and OpTerra Energy Services. In 2014, ENGIE (known as GDF Suez prior to April 2015) purchased Ecova to reinforce their expertise in energy data management combined with their multi-technical … Read more
Ari Michelson, ERS, for Zondits. May 15, 2016. Image credit: sbl0323 Energy efficiency projects are usually easily justifiable in terms of their environmental impact and lifetime cost savings, but they often fall victim to companies’ blanket policies requiring that all capital projects meet aggressive simple payback targets. This simple payback criterion does not account for the … Read more
Ryan Pollin, ERS, for Zondits. May 13, 2016. Image credit: geralt Ed Hawkins is a climate scientist at the University of Reading and an author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and now he has struck a chord with his global temperature visualization. In three days, his tweet showing mean global temperature for every month … Read more
Designing Buildings to Protect Urban Residents Next City, May 11, 2016. Image credit: unsplash Improving energy efficiency in buildings could not only dramatically reduce carbon emissions, but could also reduce the energy burden on poor households, improve indoor and outdoor air quality, create green jobs, and save a lot of money, according to a new report by … Read more