Tag Archives: CDP

Aggressive clean energy bill would push Illinois to 100% renewables by 2050

By Kari Lydersen, Energy News Network

An ambitious energy bill introduced Thursday in Illinois would mandate the state shift to entirely renewable energy by mid-century with an emphasis on job creation and equity. The Clean Energy Jobs Act (HB 3624/SB 2132) grew out of listening sessions held statewide last year by environmental and energy groups that are members of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.

The coalition says the bill will expand on and address shortcomings in the implementation of the Future Energy Jobs Act, passed with much fanfare in 2016. They say it would create four times as much wind and solar power as FEJA, enough to power 4 million homes through 40 million solar panels and 2,500 wind turbines. Continue reading here.

Daniel Schwen / Wikimedia Commons Photo

Related: Vote Solar Announces Support for Clean Energy Jobs Act to Bring 100% Clean Energy to Illinois

MORE 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY NEWS

Mills sets goal to fight climate change: 100% renewable electricity by 2050, The Portland Press Herald. Gov. Janet Mills outlined an extensive climate agenda on Thursday, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, work toward 100 percent renewable electricity generation and to work with other governors on regional solutions. Mills said she joined a coalition of more than 20 governors committed to pursuing the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate. U.S. Climate Alliance Website

BOOSTING RENEWABLE ENERGY’S VALUE

Cost-Effective Solutions for Boosting Solar Farm Production, Power Magazine. According to Berkeley Lab, solar trackers accounted for 80% of installations in 2017, among projects larger than five megawatts. By following the sun, output can be boosted by 20%, increasing capacity factors and lowering the production cost of electricity. Photo: Fremont’s first of two solar farms installed by GenPro Energy Solutions, both with sun trackers.

Google’s DeepMind Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Wind Farm Energy Output 36 Hours in Advance, Fortune
According to the company, DeepMind’s predictions have boosted the value of Google’s wind energy by roughly 20%.

Google Blog Post: Machine learning can boost the value of wind energy
Based on these predictions, our model recommends how to make optimal hourly delivery commitments to the power grid a full day in advance. This is important, because energy sources that can be scheduled (i.e. can deliver a set amount of electricity at a set time) are often more valuable to the grid. About DeepMind for Google

Previously Posted Article: Google announces plans to build data center in Nebraska; signs point to Omaha area, Omaha World-Herald 

GREENTECH MEDIA PODCAST

How to Get a Job in the Clean Energy Economy
Resources listed in the accompanying article include:

Environment America partners with students and faculty to urge colleges and universities to shift to 100 percent clean, renewable power

Environment America News Release

Campaigns planned on more than 50 campuses.

BOSTON — Environment America, along with students across the country, will launch 50 campaigns in 15 states this year, imploring colleges and universities to generate 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources. The nationwide initiative will include educational forums, petition drives and direct engagement with administration officials to press for 100 percent renewable energy on campuses. In support of these efforts, more than 950 faculty and campus leaders have signed a statement calling for higher education administrators to make a clear commitment to achieve 100 percent renewable energy for all operations. Read more here.

More Environment America News Releases

Related
These dozen states could move to 100% renewable electricity, CBS News

ADDITIONAL 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY NEWS & OPINION

GREEN NEW DEAL 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for a Green New Deal as the ‘moonshot’ of our generation. Here’s everything we know about it so far, 
by Aylin Woodward, Business Insider

Ocasio-Cortez has succeeded in generating enthusiasm for a Green New Deal — 92% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans support such a plan, according to one survey.

ALSO IN THE NEWS

Cities collectively buying renewables: “LA led way to leveraging EV RFPs, more cities follow with renewables”

By Robert Walton, Utility Dive

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced in June plans to partner with other cities to explore collective purchasing of renewable energy in order to bring down costs and incentivize more development. So far on board are cities including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland and Orlando. The RFI aggregates the 20 cities’ combined 5,700 GWh of annual municipal loads said Adam Jacobs, Boston’s energy manager in the webinar hosted by the American Council on Renewable Energy.

Read more here.

Photo Credit: Depositphotos

Related

MORE AGGREGATION NEWS

Photo by SunEdison: San Diego Canopies

  • San Diego to form world’s largest Community Choice Aggregation, PV Magazine
    The announcement comes as a part of Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer’s ambitious 100% by 2035 renewable energy mandate for the city. CCAs happen when local governments, either municipalities or counties, form an entity to procure electricity for their communities. In the Golden State they have allowed communities to procure renewable energy even more rapidly than the statewide 60% by 2030 mandate. 
  • Businesses Unite To Drive Uptake of Renewable Energy In Australia, The Climate Group
    RE100 has gone Down Under, demonstrating the potential for corporate sourcing of renewables to help shift the energy market in Australia away from polluting coal. This week saw the first Australian meeting of RE100 – the global corporate leadership initiative on renewable electricity led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP.

MORE NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Photo Credit: Google

CLEAN ENERGY JOBS

1.8 Million Clean Energy Workers Employed In Top 50 American Metro Areas

ADDITIONAL CLEAN TECHNICA INTERVIEW

Google’s Renewable Energy Leadership (#CleanTechnica Interview)

Is California Dreaming? Energy storage’s role in reaching 100% renewables

By Andy Colthorpe, Editor and Journalist, Energy Storage News

“The US really is one of the leading markets for the storage business in the world. Here in the western part of the US with such aggressive renewable portfolio standard targets, California is on a path to perhaps 100% renewables in less than 30 years. “There’s a lot of activity in Arizona too. So the western part of the US continues to blaze a trail towards much longer duration, bulk energy storage and shifting, from daytime to early evening peak. “[But] We’re [also] beginning to see the same developments in the eastern part of the US, in Massachusetts, in New York State, which has some pretty aggressive aspirations in this area. Another interesting thing is that in addition to solar and onshore wind there’s a tremendous amount of offshore wind activity in the northeast US, which was virtually unheard of a few years ago.”
– NEC Energy Solutions CEO Steve Fludder

Read more here.

Pixabay Photo

MORE 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY NEWS

An aerial view of the Lapeer Solar Park in Michigan. Credit: DTE Energy

ADDITIONAL CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY NEWS

Portland could make big businesses pay to protect communities of color from climate change,
Fast Company. A first-of-its-kind ballot measure in Portland, Oregon, would create a fund–via a surcharge on large companies–to support clean-energy projects in low-income communities of color.

That $3 Trillion-a-Year Clean Energy Transformation? It’s Already Underway.

By Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News

To keep global warming in check, the world will have to invest an average of around $3 trillion a year over the next three decades in transforming its energy supply systems, a new United Nations climate science report says. It won’t be cheap, but it’s also a change that’s already underway . . . Corporate giants including Google and Apple, for example, purchase enough renewable energy to cover 100 percent of their power needs. The research and sustainability advocacy group Ceres has been working with companies and large investors for years to help them understand both the risks to their portfolios from high-carbon sources and the opportunities of investing in cleaner infrastructure as renewable energy prices fall. Ceres argued in a report released earlier this year that achieving a “clean trillion” in additional annual investment in clean energy and infrastructure is “eminently feasible.” Read more here.

Photo Credit: Dennis Schroeder/NREL

Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization working with the most influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. Through powerful networks and advocacy, Ceres tackles the world’s biggest sustainability challenges, including climate change, water scarcity and pollution, and human rights abuses.
Initiatives include:
Climate Action 100+
Clean Trillion

ADDITIONAL INITIATIVES – JUST SOME OF THEM

The Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers’ Principles and the Business Renewables Center are the core initiatives of the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA). 

REBA helps companies understand the benefits of transitioning to renewables, connecting large buyer demand to renewable energy supply, and helping utilities better understand and serve the needs of all energy buyers.

Click these links to learn more:

RE100 is a collaborative, global initiative uniting influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity, working to massively increase demand for – and delivery of – renewable energy. A growing number of RE100 businesses are also helping their suppliers access renewable energy for their own operations, exponentially contributing to global wind and solar energy deployment.

RE100 is sponsored by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP. Both organizations are part of the We Mean Business coalition, working with leading businesses around the world.

Sierra Club’s Ready for 100
Over 100 cities have committed to 100% renewable energy in Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 initiative. The Sierra Club, founded in 1892, has 3.5 million members and supporters nationwide.
2018 Case Studies Reports featuring 10 new cities that are ready for 100% clean energy!

The Billion Dollar Green Challenge
The Billion Dollar Green Challenge encourages colleges, universities, and other nonprofit institutions to invest a combined total of one billion dollars in self-managed “green revolving funds.” The Sustainable Endowments Institute launched The Challenge in 2011. Download a brief summary that explains The Billion Dollar Green Challenge, including partners and funders.

Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
Currently celebrating their 47th year, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) pioneered the use of shareholder advocacy to press companies on environmental, social, and governance issues. This coalition of over 300 global institutional investors currently represents more than $400 billion in managed assets. Leveraging their equity ownership in some of the world’s largest and most powerful companies, ICCR members regularly engage management to identify and mitigate social and environmental risks resulting from corporate operations and policies.

Green Faith
Green Faith’s mission is to inspire, educate and mobilize people of diverse religious backgrounds for environmental leadership. “Our work is based on beliefs shared by the world’s great religions – we believe that protecting the earth is a religious value, and that environmental stewardship is a moral responsibility.”

As You Sow
Founded in 1992, As You Sow promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies. Their vision is a safe, just, and sustainable world in which protecting the environment and human rights is central to corporate decision making. “Corporations are responsible for most of the pressing social and environmental problems we face today — we believe corporations must be a willing part of the solutions.”

Green America
Green America’s mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. The organization focuses on four areas for system transformation, insisting on social justice and environmental health across all sectors. “We believe if we can get these right, the rest of the economy will follow: 1. Climate and clean energy, 2. Sustainable food and agriculture,
3. Responsible investing and 4. Fair labor.” Campaigns include: Clean Energy Victory Bonds

Proxy Preview
Proxy Preview is a collaboration between three organizations: As You Sow, Sustainable Investment Institute, and Proxy Impact to help investors align their values with their investments. Publishes Annual Guide: Proxy Preview 2018 is the 14th edition of the insider’s guide to social and environmental shareholder proposals. This free publication is the #1 resource for shareholders looking to align their values and investments. “Bible for socially progressive foundations, religious groups, pension funds, and tax-exempt organizations” – Chicago Tribune

SocialFunds.com
Social Funds.com features over 10,000 pages of information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news.

The Shine Campaign is a new, global campaign blending communities of faith, philanthropy and finance to solve energy poverty.

Information about organizations updated February 22, 2019

ReThink Energy NJ poll shows 2 of 3 New Jersey voters say natural gas is not clean energy; Overwhelming support for 100 percent renewables by 2050

PR Newswire

Sending a strong message to state policymakers, a new survey of the state’s registered voters conducted by The Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll for ReThink Energy NJ found that 66 percent do not consider natural gas to be clean energy, an astounding 23-point increase since 2016, and that three of every four want New Jersey to achieve a goal of 100% of energy from renewable sources by 2050.

“As the Murphy Administration develops a new Energy Master Plan to achieve 100 percent clean energy, it is clear that most New Jersey voters do not think natural gas is clean and want the state to move to renewable energy like wind and solar,” said Tom Gilbert, campaign director, ReThink Energy NJ and New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

Read the entire news release here.

Photo: Tom Gilbert

ALSO IN THE NEWS: CITIES ANNOUNCING 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY GOALS


Clean energy in St. Louis, Fox2 Now
While a 100% clean energy goal is ambitious for any city, it is perhaps even more so in a longtime coal industry capital like St. Louis—home to two of the country’s largest coal companies.

RESOURCE

100% Commitments in Cities, Counties, & States, Sierra Club

BUSINESSES COMMITTED TO 100% RENEWABLE ENERGY

First 100% Solar-Powered Marriott-Branded Property in U.S. in Service

FAITH GROUP MAKING THE COMMITMENT

Adrian Dominican Sisters Commit To Michigan Renewable Energy, North American Windpower
A Michigan-based religious order that represents 600 Dominican sisters has committed to matching its electricity use with 100% renewable sources. Specifically, the Adrian Dominican Sisters are taking part in Consumers Energy’s Green Generation program, which matches electricity use with clean energy that is generated in Michigan. Nearly 20,000 homes and businesses participate in Green Generation, supporting renewable energy in Michigan.

California’s Zero-Carbon Bill Aims To Set Climate Example

By Bobby McGill, Bloomberg BNA

If enacted, Senate Bill 100 would make California the second state to adopt a 100 percent renewables mandate. Hawaii became the first state to set that target, in 2015 . . . The Senate bill would accelerate the development of energy storage technology and its integration with the power grid, Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the Energy Storage Association, told Bloomberg Environment. Read more here.

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING

IN NEBRASKA – PREVIOUSLY POSTED

Google And Apple Lead The Corporate Charge Toward 100% Renewable Energy

Post written by Silvio Marcacci, Communications Director at
Energy Innovation. Published by Forbes

America’s technology corporate giants have led the corporate renewables procurement trend, but two of the biggest names in tech just reached a new mark: Apple and Google are now both 100% powered by renewable energy . . . This trend is opening up new markets for renewable energy, leading corporate suppliers to decarbonize, and saving money on corporate bottom lines – and it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Read more here.

Photo Credit: hpgruesen / Creative Commons

MORE ABOUT CORPORATE RENEWABLE ENERGY PROCUREMENT NATIONWIDE

The Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers’ Principles and the Business Renewables Center, which Silvio Marcacci references, are the core initiatives of the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, or REBA. The alliance’s goal is to help US corporations procure renewable energy to meet their needs.

Click these links to learn more:

U.S. Renewable Energy Map: Click map to link to it. 

CORPORATIONS’ GLOBAL RENEWABLE ENERGY PURCHASING

About RE100, which Marcacci also references in his article:
RE100 is a collaborative, global initiative uniting more than 100 influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity, working to massively increase demand for – and delivery of – renewable energy.

RE100 is sponsored by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP. Both organizations are part of the We Mean Business coalition, working with leading businesses around the world.

CORPORATE RENEWABLE ENERGY PROCUREMENT IN NEBRASKA


Facebook’s recently-announced expansion increases the corporation’s total investment in the Papillion Data Center to
$1 billion. Facebook is partnering with Adobe to help them enter
the U.S. renewable energy market with Enel; 10 MW of Nebraska’s Rattlesnake Creek Wind Project will be allocated to Adobe.


Links to More Information

  • Facebook’s Nebraska reach expands, by Jason Kuiper, The Wire, OPPD March Blog Post
    Facebook announced today their Nebraska data center will be three times the size of its original announcement. The Papillion data center will be six buildings instead of two with groundbreaking set to begin in May on the additional buildings. Facebook announced last April their plan to build its next data center here and credited the development of OPPD’s Rate 261M as one of the biggest draws. Read the entire blog post.
  • Facebook’s Press Release: Papillion Data Center Expanding to Six Buildings
    Author: Jim Piazza, Director of Data Center Operations, East. Last year, we worked with Omaha Public Power District to create a new renewable energy tariff that ensures we can power our data center with clean and renewable energy. With the tariff in place, we could seek new, in-state wind projects, which we found in Enel Green Power‘s Rattlesnake Creek Wind Project. We will now increase our purchase from 200 MW to 320 MW to support our growth, and we are excited to share that we have partnered with Adobe to help them enter the U.S. renewable energy market with Enel; 10 MW of Rattlesnake Creek will be allocated to Adobe.

Additional Recommended Reading 

Enel sells energy from new US wind farm to Facebook and Adobe, Enel Press Release
The new deal between Enel and Facebook widens the scope of the bundled, long-term power purchase agreement for 200 MW signed in November 2017 to gradually include the plant’s overall output by 2029, following Facebook’s decision to significantly expand its data centre in Papillion, around 120 miles from Rattlesnake Creek. The energy produced by the entire wind farm will enable the expanded data centre to be 100% renewable-powered.

“Powering our data centers with 100% clean and renewable energy is not just a goal for Facebook, it is a requirement of our business,” said Bobby Hollis, Director of Global Energy at Facebook. “The Rattlesnake Creek wind farm will enable us to power our future Papillion Data Center, and fulfills our passion to expand the energy market for other corporate buyers, like Adobe.”