CMBlu Energy’s Post

If you’re interested in the progress happing along the journey towards a #decarbonized #energysystem, take a look at what the Smart Electric Power Alliance just released! 2024 Power Player Awards Areas covered include #Equity #Transportation #Electrification #Resilience #EmergingTechnology #EnergyStorage #Policy

Our most anticipated announcement of 2024… Let’s give a round of applause to the 2024 Power Player of the Year Awardees!🏆 Recognizing excellence and leadership in energy innovation across the U.S. and internationally, these awards signify a pivotal moment in the collective journey toward a decarbonized electric power system. Transportation Electrification Power Player of the Year Awardees: 🏅 NYC School Bus Umbrella Services, Inc (NYCSBUS) and The Mobility House These organizations partnered on the “Electrifying School Buses in the Bronx (ESBB)” project to address the transition to electric school buses and charging infrastructure. They plan to expand these efforts across NYCSBUS’ fleet and serve as a model for nationwide adoption. Resilience Power Player of the Year Awardee:  🏅 Green Mountain Power  Green Mountain Power’s initiatives, Lift the Cap, Resilient Neighborhood, and Zero Outages are enhancing grid resiliency, safety, and equity. Their work aims to keep customers connected during severe weather and address climate change impacts. Energy Storage Power Player of the Year Awardees: 🏅 Salt River Project and CMBlu Energy These organizations partnered to launch the Desert Blume long-duration energy storage pilot. It is set to become the world's largest utility-scale, long-term installation of its kind, expected to power approximately 1,125 homes for 10 hours upon its operational start in December 2025. Emerging Technology Power Player of the Year Awardees 🏅 Sensewaves and AEP Texas Adaptix.Grid is enhancing grid reliability and enabling smart operations through artificial intelligence-powered analytics, overcoming aging infrastructure challenges and improving operational efficiency by up to 96%. Policy Power Player of the Year Awardees 🏅 Edison International and Southern California Edison (SCE) This utility and its parent company progressed “Countdown to 2045: Realizing California’s Pathway to Net Zero.” The initiative identifies feasibility challenges to affordably meet state goals and calls for policy changes and technology developments to address them. Equity Power Player of the Year Awardee 🏅 SMUD  SMUD is being recognized for its resources, the Sustainable Communities Resource Priorities Map and the Community Impact Plan, which address energy inequities. These resources aim to benefit all communities in Sacramento by improving health, creating jobs, and fostering resilience to climate change-related events. Last night, the winners were recognized at the #PowerPlayerAwards ceremony in Coronado, California in conjunction with SEPA’s #EnergyEvolutionSummit. To read more about the awardees and their innovative projects and programs, read the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/g94BExYa

When the Board of Commissioners for Washtenaw County, #Michigan, approved a climate action plan in 2022, the county was uncertain what implementation steps it needed to take—and how to pay for all of it. Limited staff, financing, resources, and data meant the county’s fleet management team “needed help in any form,” said Mary Braun, an energy and #sustainability coordinator for Washtenaw County. Braun knew that electrifying the county’s vehicle fleet could contribute to the county’s operations goal of #netzero #greenhousegasemissions by 2030, but she was unsure where to begin. “What are we even supposed to look at?” she said. “What are we supposed to think about?” These questions are among those that national laboratory researchers are helping communities like Washtenaw County answer through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (#DOE) Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program. Braun applied and was accepted to C2C’s Expert Match offering, a three- to four-month technical assistance program that pairs communities with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (#NREL) and other national laboratories to help them address near-term energy goals. Expert Match is one of three offerings within C2C, which also provides six-month and three-year technical assistance paths for communities. Washtenaw County, along with New Haven, Connecticut, and other communities, is using Expert Match assistance to explore how electric vehicles (#EVs) can support clean energy goals. Although Washtenaw and New Haven joined the program with relatively little data and many questions, researchers at NREL and Argonne National Laboratory (#ANL) have since helped them take steps toward integrating EVs into their communities. Understanding Options for Electrifying Washtenaw County’s Municipal Fleet and Integrating EV Charging Stations in New Haven Based on Washtenaw’s goal to integrate EVs into its county fleet, Expert Match researchers at ANL developed an analysis of EV fleet options to create a road map for fleet electrification. The researchers used TechScape, a techno-economic tool developed by ANL, to quantify the benefits of available electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles in terms of total cost of ownership, emissions, and energy savings—with and without the #InflationReductionAct (IRA) tax incentive. The IRA offers a tax credit to those who buy a new, qualified plug-in EV or fuel cell EV. Based on this data, the researchers compared EVs available on the U.S. market with Washtenaw County’s existing conventional vehicles.

Looking for ways to engage on #ElectricVehicles in the Southeast? A new web portal from the Southeast Electric Transportation Regional Initiative highlights funding opportunities, events, and much more. Get the details: http://bit.ly/evsoutheast. Search the portal: https://lnkd.in/eSRhSZbT.   The Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University and Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute co-facilitate Southeast Electric Transportation Regional Initiative (SETRI), a voluntary, nonpartisan collaboration of dozens of stakeholders working to accelerate #transportation #electrification in the Southeast through #EV adoption, equitable #charging infrastructure, manufacturing and more. In April, The White House Electric Vehicle Acceleration Challenge recognized development of the portal as an example of private and public investments aimed at speeding up production and adoption of affordable #EVs. “Electrification of the transportation sector is moving forward at a rapid pace in the Southeast, with substantial public and private sector actions to advance manufacturing, workforce development, EV adoption and charging infrastructure,” said SETRI co-facilitator Trey G., a research lead at the Nicholas Institute. “It can be challenging to keep track of all the major policy developments, procurement solicitations and other participation opportunities. We intend for this tool to provide the region’s residents, community organizations, local governments, businesses and more with easier access to information about the numerous transportation electrification activities available.” Work on this project is supported by Energy Foundation.

This is my last afternoon of work in 2023 so I thought I'd do a bit of a wrap up post. This year I made the decision to leave Midsummer and join City Plumbing. It was a bit of a risky decision - my hope was that it would be an opportunity to use the skills and knowledge I have for maximum impact on decarbonisation through electrification of homes. It's working out. A big year of change for me and a big year of change in renewables at City Plumbing. Renewables is evolving from a niche interest to something that the business knows is an ever more significant part of what we do. Leadership in this business isn't hiding from that and pretending it's not happening, they are embracing the change and planning for it to be a success. I've got some fantastic colleagues in the renewables team at CPS who have been really supportive and kind in helping me get up to speed with the company. We're seeing first hand the commitment of CPS to getting renewables right. It's not just us, our suppliers are all gearing up too. We have such reach as a company with 370 branches (and growing) and tens of thousands of customers. If we get electrification right then that's a big part of electrification being right in the UK. Comprehensive range of heat pumps, radiators, underfloor heating, solar panels, mounting kit, inverters, EV chargers all delivered to site on the day of the install. City Plumbing is already a one-stop destination for the electrified home and we're really getting motoring with an even better customer experience for 2024. The pace is fast here, Hemal Morjaria, Marc Miller, Danny Wilkinson and I have a really exciting plan to execute in 2024 as electrification becomes business as usual here - there's no time to lose because climate change isn't going to stop unless we do this. I'm looking forward to a break, and coming back in 2024 to help make electrification easier for everyone inside and outside this business. Here's a cyberpunk Christmas tree I asked dall-e to make.

"Part of our mission is to move forward solutions at the micro and macro levels that allow us to use less energy. Simply put, the most valuable kilowatt hour of energy is the one you don’t have to use." – Jim Saber, president and CEO, NextEnergy NextEnergy works with innovators and partners to accelerate commercialization in mobility and energy efficiency with the ultimate goal of helping to create a better quality of life for all. We spoke with Saber to learn about their work. Click the link below to read more. #sbndetroit #sustainablebusinessnetwork #sustainablebusinessnetworkdetroit #nextenergy #sustainablebusiness #climatechange #climateaction #socialjustice #environmentaljustice #sustainability #cleanenergy #infrastructure #energysolutions #energy #southeastmichigan #dearborn #detroit #nonprofit

Melissa Washington of ComEd participated in the Energy Central Special Issue on "Electrification in Transportation" "ComEd, the Midwest’s largest utility company delivering energy to 9 million people in northern Illinois, is out with a forward-looking plan to help our customers move toward a cleaner and safer future. With demand for EVs and electrification on the rise, ComEd is moving to help more customers in the region to take advantage of zero emissions technologies that are demonstrated to lower carbon emissions pollution, enhance air quality, and generate net savings for customers using them. We’re investing $231 million over the next three years to enable the increased adoption of electrified technologies, notably on the transportation front. This investment is designed to help more customers interested in EV adoption make the switch, to help fleet managers accelerate their plans for electrification, and to provide incentives so that more communities can install charging infrastructure that’s needed to support the growing number of EVs hitting the road. The investment delivers on a key aspect of Illinois’ forward-looking Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), which includes an ambitious goal of putting 1 million EVs on the roads by 2030, in addition to making Illinois one of the first states in the nation to transition its power sector completely away from fossil fuels by 2050." Read the rest of her piece and the full Special Issue here: https://lnkd.in/eRy2WcmB #EVs #ElectricTransportation

Beam Global is delighted to announce that the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks placed a third order for solar-powered EV ARC™ charging systems, their largest order thus far. The off-grid systems will be used to fuel the City’s growing fleet of electric vehicles. The systems were purchased through the California Department of General Services (DGS) Contract #1-22-61-16, which serves to simplify the government procurement process and make select solutions available statewide at the best negotiated pricing. "The EV ARC systems’ off-grid capabilities eliminate the need for costly infrastructure upgrades and allow us to quickly deploy charging stations wherever they are needed most," said Jimmy Kim, General Manager at the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. "This flexibility allows our recreation and parks fleet vehicles to remain powered and ready to serve our community. We are excited to have more of our parks’ clean vehicles powered by 100 percent renewable energy so we can drive on sunshine." Beam Global is proud to support the City of Los Angeles' electric vehicle initiative with our innovative EV ARC™ charging systems. Off-grid, sustainable, and easy to deploy, they're a perfect fit for parks and recreational spaces. Together, we drive towards a greener future. https://lnkd.in/ey-65VfY #LAparks #EVARC™ #SustainableSolutions #Fleets #EVChargers #RenewableEnergy

Yokogawa provides insight into how the move towards renewables and innovation in city planning highlights the potential for a greener, economically sound future. Read our article in North American Clean Energy here> https://lnkd.in/gvVM6BEZ #renewableenergy #sustainability

"If we can manage demand through VPPs instead of building new peaker plants that would sit idle 90% of the time, that’s a win for everyone. We’ll make better use of the grid infrastructure we already have, we’ll emit less greenhouse gas and air pollutants, and we can reduce the energy burden for millions of Americans...With VPPs, the money saved from reducing infrastructure overbuild is going directly back into consumers’ pockets." Read more about what LPO Director Jigar Shah had to say about virtual power plants (VPPs) to Ryan Hledik as they discussed The Brattle Group's report on the sector and what the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is doing to address the opportunities and challenges facing VPP deployment. LEARN MORE: • If you're going to RE+ 2023 in Las Vegas (11-14 September 2023), you can hear more about VPPs directly from Director Shah and LPO Senior Advisors Jen Downing and David Nemtzow! See LPO's RE+ event page for more info: https://lnkd.in/gw2pjbq5 • Read about Project Hestia, LPO's first VPP conditional commitment for an up to $3 billion partial loan guarantee to Sunnova Energy announced in April of this year: https://lnkd.in/gNBYmqRq • To learn more about VPPs, check out LPO's "VPPieces" blog series, where Director Shah examines technical, financial, and policy aspects of VPPs, from benefits to affordability to barriers to deployment and scaleup: https://lnkd.in/gP_qTTV4 • Read LPO's Sector Spotlight on VPPs which outlines the crucial role that VPPs can play in smoothing the transition as the U.S. economy rapidly electrifies to meet climate targets, pushing the national grid to new limits with an unprecedented increase in demand: https://lnkd.in/gcqNhVSa • Visit LPO's VPPs tech sector page at: https://lnkd.in/gPnNw_3J #DOELPO #FinancingAmericanEnergy #BridgeToBankability #DeployDeployDeploy #Liftoff #OpenForBusiness #BuiltInAmerica #FinancingInnovation #FinancingImpact #FinancingClimateSolutions #FinancingInnovativeCleanEnergy #FinancingDistributedEnergy #FinancingVPPs #VPP #LPONews #LPOEvents #REPlus23