September 18
Low-Income Households Face High Energy Burdens
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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About 25 percent of U.S. households face a high energy burden, meaning they put more than six percent of their income toward energy bills, according to a new report from The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The study analyzed data from 25 U.S. metro areas, gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent American Housing Survey in 2017. Low-income households experience a disproportionately higher energy burden, with 67 percent (25.8 million) of low-income households facing a high energy burden.
Duke Energy intends to convert all of its light duty vehicles to electric, along with half of its medium duty, heavy duty and off-road vehicles to a mix of electric, plug-in hybrids and other zero-carbon alternatives, all by 2030. That would affect around 10,000 vehicles — a staggering uptick, given that the company currently has around just 600 electric vehicles in its fleet. All told, the plan could reduce Duke’s CO2 emissions by 60,000 metric tons and its petroleum usage by 10 million gallons per year.
The Institute for Electric Innovation’s recent report, Rethinking Energy Efficiency as a Carbon Resource, resonates strongly with us at Uplight – it comprehensively articulates the opportunity for power utilities, regulators and solutions providers to unlock a profound new level of energy resource. The author, Val Jensen, refutes the notion that efficiency has run its course and should simply pass the baton to zero-carbon generation technologies, such as wind and solar.
Con Edison is working with the State University of New York at Albany to install 17 weather-monitoring stations in New York City to gather data that will help it better understand climate trends. The “New York City Micronet” project is designed to provide information on warming trends within the city. The conclusions will help guide the investments the company needs to make to protect its energy-delivery systems from severe weather events.
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Industry News
Lucid Motors, which recently unveiled its luxury electric sedan, the Lucid Air, is developing home energy storage systems as well as utility-scale energy storage, CEO Peter Rawlinson said in an interview with Bloomberg Quint. Lucid Motors began its life as Atieva, a battery maker, so it's uniquely positioned among other EV manufacturers to join Tesla in offering energy storage systems, according to Sam Abuelsamid, Principal E-mobility Analyst for Guidehouse Insights.
Over the past three years, some of the country’s biggest utilities have been committing to a goal that few may have predicted they’d undertake on their own: weaning themselves off carbon-emitting generation by 2050. Driving this sea change in long-term planning is a combination of public pressure and energy economics. The falling costs of wind and solar power are pushing utilities to find ways to incorporate them into their long-range plans.
By the start of the next decade, Google wants to make sure all the electricity it uses for its data centers and offices will be truly 100-percent carbon free. Under its previous pledge, the tech giant has been offsetting its consumption with direct renewable electricity purchases and the associated certificates. On paper, that allowed it to claim it used 100-percent renewable electricity. But when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, it’s still drawing its power from polluting fossil fuels.
A widespread transition to electric vehicles could help avoid more than $72 billion in public health costs nationally in 2050 due to emission reductions, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. The Road to Clean Air report found that emission reductions from EVs could prevent more than 93,000 asthma attacks, 6,300 premature deaths and 416,000 lost workdays in 2050.
