Commercial, Energy Efficiency, Industrial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  February 9, 2019

Weekend reads: The clean dozen; Hospitals embrace energy efficiency

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

These dozen states could move to 100% renewable electricity (CBS News) Last year, California set the most ambitious energy goal in the nation: reaching 100 percent renewable energy in just over 25 years. This year, as many as 13 other states are rearing to join it. While the federal government seeks to roll back climate-change regulation, state politicians -- many, though not all, Democrats with newfound majorities -- are signaling they won't wait for the feds to reverse course again. "Despite the fact that this isn't going to happen on the federal level, there are places around the country, in a lot of the most populated states, where people want this," said Mark Morgenstein, a spokesman for Environment America.  

Ohio hospitals embrace energy efficiency (Yale Climate Connections)  By saving energy, hospitals in Ohio are saving money that they can put back into patient care. Rutschilling: “Hospitals are incredibly energy-intensive facilities. Our member hospitals utilize lots of lights, HVAC controls and complex medical machinery and equipment.” That’s Nolan Rutschilling of the Ohio Hospital Association. Through its sustainability and energy program, he says the association has worked with more than 160 hospitals to reduce energy use.

'Inkjet' solar panels poised to revolutionise green energy (Tech Xplore)  What if one day all buildings could be equipped with windows and facades that satisfy the structure's every energy need, whether rain or shine? That sustainability dream is today one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz. The 36-year-old has developed a novel inkjet processing method for perovskites—a new generation of cheaper solar cells—that makes it possible to produce solar panels under lower temperatures, thus sharply reducing costs. 

How air conditioners could advance a renewable power grid (University of Michigan News)  More strategic control of air conditioners could improve the overall efficiency and reliability of the power grid and make it easier to transition to renewable energy, and that’s the goal of a $2.9 million grant University of Michigan researchers have received from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. Utilities maintain customers’ energy supply through a process called “load balancing.”

The Green New Deal is going to happen at the state, not federal level (PV Magazine) The push for a Green New Deal led by the charismatic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is media gold, and is the highest-profile push for rapid decarbonization of our electricity supply to date. And while the unveiling of a Green New Deal resolution including 100% clean energy by 2030 is making headlines today and is a powerful political statement, the real policy action is elsewhere. 

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