Viewing entries tagged
green
In recent years, cities across the United States have responded with climate action plans to help spark a sustainable transformation. One major feature of this shift is the installation of green roofs on buildings, which are useful for waste diversion, storm-water management, energy efficiency, roof durability, noise reduction, and moderating the Urban Heat Island Effect. This week, we explore different green roofs which have been installed throughout New York City.
Last week, hundreds professionals descended upon the San Diego Convention Center for the 2015 Energy Storage North America Expo. The three days of events consisted of workshops, forums, site tours, speeches, and networking receptions. Each day had three different tracks, including Distributed Storage, Hot Markets, Utility, Finance, Grid Services, and Technology.
This week, we explore the R-951 Residence in Brooklyn, NY. This three story building is the first of it's kind in New York City, earning the NYSERDA Energy Star, Passive House and Net-Zero Certification.
We must use the technology available to us to transition to a more sustainable way of living, and we are starting to see this evolution take place. Here on the UEP blog, we want to focus on different examples of how clean technology can promote sustainable living, much like our zinc-manganese dioxide batteries.
We begin this week with P.S. 62, the first ever net-zero school in New York City designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which opened for classes this month in Staten Island:
Earlier this year, Governor Cuomo unveiled New York State's new energy plan: Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), a joint effort between the Public Service Commission (PSC), NYSERDA, and state and local governments. This comprehensive strategy will spur clean energy innovation and investment through promoting energy efficiency, electric vehicles, microgrids, wind, solar, and energy storage.
This week was Grid Edge Live 2015, hosted by GreenTechMedia and held in San Diego, CA at the Rancho Bernardo Inn. This event addresses key issues facing utilities, technology vendors, advanced energy consumers and regulators.
This week, energy leaders from around the world gathered in New York City for New York Energy Week. Check out tweets from the event:
Our talented executive team took a road trip last week to Battcon the annual stationary battery conference and trade show, which was held at the Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando, FL. The event featured presentations, panels, workshops, and trade show offerings from many prominent battery manufacturers.
There are many different stakeholders involved in funding this clean energy boom, including renewable energy companies, large investment firms and banks, and government organizations. Recently, major technology corporations like Apple and Google have also become more heavily involved, investing money in solar plants and wind farms around the world, and greening their own operations. For instance, Apple has recently announced that all U.S. operations were powered by 100% renewable energy and Google plans to purchase half of the energy from the Altamont Wind Farm to power their Mountain View headquarters, the Googleplex.
Both Google and Apple have invested more than one billion dollars each in clean energy. We wanted to provide a brief look at some of their contributions, as they demonstrate their commitment to sustainability around the world.
On Wednesday, New York City released their newest sustainability plan, OneNYC. This is among the most detailed climate action plans in the country, focusing on four lenses: growth, equity, sustainability, and resiliency.
Some highlights of the plan include an 80% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050, and a 30% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Other actions include planting 950,000 trees and 6 million feet of reflective rooftop and upgrading building codes to prepare for floods, wind, and extreme weather.
In terms of renewable energy, their previous plan: PlanNYC, detailed a few projects which were expected to have a huge impact on the energy consumption of one of the largest cities in North America. These include a 10mw solar array in Staten Island's Fresh Kills Landfill, 1000mw from hydro-power, made possible through a high voltage line from Quebec to Astoria, and a 350-700mw offshore wind proposal, 20 miles from the battery in Lower Manhattan.
In light of this ambitious plan and the Earth Day celebrations that we have seen throughout this week, we want to provide a summary of what other cities are doing to mitigate the effects of climate change.
