Commercial, Energy Efficiency, Industrial, Sourcing Renewables  -  September 22, 2018

Weekend reads: Transportation revolution; Insights from Global Climate Summit

It's the weekend! Kick back and relax with these must-read energy articles from around the web: 

EV charging providers scale up amid a 'revolution in transportation' (Utility Dive)  Electric vehicle (EV) sales are expected to represent 28% of global light-duty vehicle sales sometime shortly after 2025, growing faster than initially thought, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The development is reflected in a number of company strategies. Last week, ChargePoint announced will develop 2.5 million EV "charging spots" by 2025, up from its current 54,000, in response to the growth in EV adoption. On the same day, EVBox said it will target 1 million charging points globally by 2025. 

Global Climate Action Summit: Company Leadership on the Journey Toward Exponential Transformation (Forbes)  
If ever there was a snapshot of our progress in tackling climate change, the Global Climate Action Summit was it. Thousands of leaders from all sectors of society convened in San Francisco to showcase their climate action and to push one another toward bolder solutions to tackle climate change.  As a member of the Summit Advisory Committee, I had the distinct pleasure of working with host California Governor Jerry Brown and the Summit team to mobilize the investor and business communities to step up and announce new climate commitments. 

Agrovoltaics: a solar-powered safety net for Massachusetts farmers (PV Magazine)  They’re called solar farms for a reason – we deploy our seeds of steel, we water the ground with copper, and we pray to the sun gods for plentiful photons! Our previous coverage has noted the trend toward pollinator friendly solar farms, but this is just the beginning. A recent story by SouthCoast Today on cranberry bogs in Massachusetts shows the stresses of the farming life as the market value of cranberries falls. In the article, a farmer from Carver shows off a bog that has been fully converted to a standard solar power installation. 

How big is the energy efficiency resource? (IOP Science)  Most economic theorists assume that energy efficiency—the biggest global provider of energy services—is a limited and dwindling resource whose price- and policy-driven adoption will inevitably deplete its potential and raise its cost. Influenced by that theoretical construct, most traditional analysts and deployers of energy efficiency see and exploit only a modest fraction of the worthwhile efficiency resource, saving less and paying more than they should. Yet empirically, modern energy efficiency is, and shows every sign of durably remaining, an expanding-quantity, declining-cost resource.   

A Bright Idea (U.S. News & World Report)  Even before the solar panels were installed, Terrie Lewine's house was rigged for low-impact living. The walls are lined with energy-efficient closed-cell insulation. Heat is provided by a series of radiant hot-water tubes built into the floors, instead of less efficient forced-air or traditional radiators. The house is divided into six energy zones, which are powered on and off by a timer. In the backyard, two big rain barrels catch and redistribute rainwater, hydrating not just the goldfish pond but a lush garden – peach and fig trees, passionflower, blackberry and raspberry bushes, grapes and hardy kiwi on the vine.

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