Energy Efficiency, Solar, Sourcing Renewables, Wind  -  August 4, 2018

Weekend reads: One trillion watts; Energy vs. facility managers

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

Milestone: Over one trillion watts of wind and solar installed (PV Magazine)  BloombergNEF reports that wind and solar energy hit a trillion watts of capacity in the first half of 2018. According to its latest research, a significant uptake in installations in Asia, led by China, enabled this milestone. Installing this first trillion watts reportedly required an investment amounting to US$2.3 trillion. However, as technology and markets are maturing and adapting, installing the second trillion watts will require an investment of just $1.23 trillion, thus marking a large reduction in costs. 

Should big corporations pay for clean energy? Portland voters will decide. (Grist)  A new ballot initiative in Portland would raise $30 million a year for clean energy through a tax on giant retailers. Sound unusual? It is. The campaign for the Portland Clean Energy Fund is led by groups representing communities of color and grassroots environmental organizations. The local branches of the Sierra Club, 350.org, and the NAACP are all involved, too. “It’s groundbreaking,” says Jenny Lee, advocacy director at the Coalition of Communities of Color, another organization spearheading the measure. 

Is there a difference between a Facility Manager and an Energy Manager? (Modern Building Services)  Energy management needs to be embedded into all sectors of British Business, but the sector that should be most clearly focused on efficiency seems to a degree to ignore the issue. Why is the FM industry often ignoring leading on energy management? The UK’s facilities management (FM) sector is widely accepted by academics as being the most mature and competitive in Europe, with most estimates putting its value in 2017 as high as £120 billion (estimated to reach £139 billion by 2021). 

How did sustainability become so business-critical? (Edie.net)  In the corporate world, 20 years is a very long time. Businesses – entire industries, in fact – have emerged and disappeared, struggling to remain profitable against a tide of economic pressures and ever-changing consumer demands. In the mid-to-late 1990s, corporate sustainability was still viewed as an add-on, chiefly as a means to meet regulatory requirements. There was an alarming gap between global pressures and the focus of business chief executives. Stakeholder concerns, resource pressures and societal damage were failing to traverse into the business sphere, with most companies instead pulling up the drawbridge to focus purely on economic gains.

Helping Building Owners and Cities Partner to Reach Efficiency Goals (Urbanland)  Cities across the United States continue to make new commitments to global climate mitigation—240 municipalities have signed on to the We Are Still In campaign, referring to the Paris Agreement, and more than 50 cities now have set 100 percent renewable energy targets for the future. With buildings accounting for 75 percent of U.S. electricity consumption, achieving these commitments will require the active participation and cooperation of the real estate sector. However, many cities are still in the very early stages of developing new policies and incentive programs to support the real estate industry in transitioning to more energy-efficient building development and management.

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