Energy Efficiency, Energy Storage, GHG Emissions, Finance, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  May 24, 2024

Weekend Reads: China's Solar Ascendancy; Decarb Dynamics

It's the (long holiday) weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web:

Farm family’s newest crop shows China’s solar ascendancy (Associated Press)  Shi Mei and her husband earn a decent enough living by growing corn and millet on their small farm in eastern China’s Shandong province. In 2021, they diversified by investing in solar energy — signing a contract to mount some 40 panels on their roof to feed energy to the grid. Now, the couple get paid for every watt of electricity they generate, harvesting the equivalent of $10,000 per year that Shi can track through an app on her phone.

New Mexico Climate Investment Center: The state’s first green bank (Albuquerque Journal)  New Mexico’s first ever green bank is in the works. It’s not actually a traditional bank; it’s a financial institution. And it’s the first of its kind in New Mexico. It’s called the New Mexico Climate Investment Center, or NMCIC, a nonprofit aiming to help equitably finance New Mexico’s clean energy transition.

Understanding the Inflation Reduction Act (Resources for the Future)  The Inflation Reduction Act passed into law in August 2022. In just the past year and a half, the law already has begun driving low-carbon investments — but additional policies could help the United States reach the overarching goal of decarbonizing by midcentury. To run through some of the progress to date and to come, Resources for the Future (RFF) Fellow Aaron Bergman sat with Catherine Wolfram, a university fellow and member of RFF’s board of directors, to get her thoughts.

WEBINAR | The New Math: Balancing Decarb with Your Business & Mission Imperatives (TRANE)  Sooner or later, every organization that sets out on the path to decarbonization asks the same big question: How can we meet our decarbonization targets while keeping our business goals intact? In The New Math: Balancing Decarbonization with Business & Mission Imperatives, you’ll learn what other organizations are doing to balance these critical needs. You’ll also learn to develop a holistic planning approach to decarbonization that balances energy efficiency with other critical factors including shareholder value, employee retention, and brand perception. REGISTER HERE

Decarbonization dynamics: New analysis unveils shifting trends in the voluntary carbon offset market (Phys.org)   Researchers from Kyushu University, Japan, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, have conducted a worldwide analysis of voluntary carbon offset programs and identified trends into which types of carbon reduction technologies are selected and prioritized. Their findings, published in the journal, Cleaner Environmental Systems, provide important insights for policymakers to improve the effectiveness and credibility of the carbon offset market.

New York's JFK Airport to embark on eco-friendly revamp with stunning new construction plans (The Cool Down)  Electricity bills for New York residents are expected to nosedive in the next few years thanks to a game-changing solar carport and battery storage system project that broke ground last month at JFK Airport. The solar carport canopy is slated to be the state's largest combined solar and energy storage facility, with 12 megawatts of capacity to provide power for the airport's AirTrain and cut energy costs for low-income residents in nearby Queens, per Electrek.

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