April 29
SnoPUD Partners on New Solar Project
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) and City of Everett are partnering on a solar project that will generate funds and assist PUD customers with paying their bills. The solar project will be built in south Everett and will direct solar generation benefits to Project Providing Relief for Individuals Dependent on Energy (PRIDE), the PUD’s customer-funded, income-qualified program that currently serves 500 customers annually.
Enervee, a pioneer and leading provider of marketplaces for energy-efficient products, announced it received a total of $35 million from Kerogen Capital and JP Morgan in conjunction with its Series B financing round. The funding supports continued growth in Enervee’s e-commerce and data platform offerings and the further build-out of its world-class team to strengthen Enervee’s leadership position in energy efficiency and decarbonization.
In response to California’s efforts to increase grid reliability and lower energy costs, MCE has launched its latest energy efficiency program, Residential Efficiency Market. This $6 million program increases decarbonization and grid reliability by offering incentives to participants for reducing energy consumption with a focus on summer 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. peak hours.
Duke Energy reported a 20-percent increase in wind and solar power in 2021 as part of its best year ever for adding renewable energy, according to the company’s latest report on environment, social and governance topics. The report found that in 2021 Duke Energy went from almost 8,800 MW of wind and solar at the end of 2020 to just over 10,500 MW by the end of 2021.
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Industry News
In our last column, my colleague Brian Greenfield described how enhanced incentives can promote all-electric equipment in new residential buildings. New home electrification is vitally important, but existing homes and commercial buildings are an even bigger electrification opportunity and require a different approach to utility data. Utility customer information systems have historically focused on the meter-to-cash transaction.
The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday finalized a pair of rules that will phase out older incandescent light bulbs in favor of more efficient LEDs and compact fluorescent lighting. The agency estimates families will save about $100 annually – or almost $3 billion, collectively, when the new rules are fully implemented. Efficiency advocates cheered the move, though they also pointed out that the new rules will allow for older-style bulbs to stay on store shelves for more than a year.
A community development nonprofit has launched a new solar lending program in Massachusetts and Rhode Island aimed at making it possible for more homeowners to invest in solar panels. The DoubleGreen Solar Loan is designed to serve households regularly marginalized by existing financing options by offering lower interest rates, longer loan lengths, transparent terms and more flexible underwriting standards.
Home energy intelligence company Sense said it closed a $105 million Series C financing led by Blue Earth Capital. TELUS Ventures and MCJ Collective also joined the round, along with previous investors Schneider Electric, Energy Impact Partners, Prelude Ventures and iRobot. This brings Sense’s funding to date to nearly $157 million. Sense uses machine learning and AI to provide insights into how energy is used in homes and is intended to be used for automation as appliances become connected.
