New York State Passes Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act

New York State will leverage the clean energy industry to help boost the economy after the COVID-19 crisis. On April 3rd, NY public authorities passed the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act to attract private investment into an industry with a proven track record for job creation that is significantly higher than the economic average as a whole (source: Dr. Ernest Moniz).

The Act will create a first in the nation siting office dedicated to renewable energy projects. The Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) will streamline the process for siting of large-scale (over 25 MW) renewable energy projects which will in turn expedite new private investment and job creation in the green economy. The Act also creates an incentives program that will prioritize the development of “Build-Ready” sites and provide a compelling package for private developers to begin renewable energy projects at the sites as soon as possible. To ensure that renewable power can be delivered to the consumer, the Act also facilitates an “aggressive and comprehensive approach” to drive investment into a reliable grid that can handle renewable energy transmission. The Act ensures benefit to the host communities by providing compensation such as utility bill discounts for the local residents.

While the State pursues its current top priority of protecting public health, these measures ensure that New York is poised to recover from the secondary effects of economic fallout from COVID-19 in a path aligned with their clean energy and climate goals.

Read the official announcement from NYSERDA here.

To hear more about clean energy investment as a key part of economic recovery, check out this Columbia Energy Exchange’s podcast with Dr. Ernest Moniz as referenced above.

IBM's Next Generation Goals, Powered by Energy Hippo

IBM has announced a fourth-generation GHG emissions reduction goal and a second-generation renewable electricity procurement goal. According to a post from IBM, these new goals “cover the energy consumption and corresponding CO₂ emissions associated with the company’s global business — from research, product development and manufacturing activities to [their] enterprise and cloud data center operations…”

The goals entail:

• Procure 55% of global electricity consumption from renewable supplies by 2025

• Reduce CO₂ emissions associated with energy consumption 40% by 2025

To increase their procurement of renewable electricity, IBM is working with their energy providers and collaborating with industry peers and nongovernmental organizations to increase the portion of renewable electricity incorporated into the grid. They plan to achieve their CO₂ emissions reductions goal through energy conservation and efficiency activities, combined with the migration to renewable electricity.

Since 1990, IBM's conservation actions have saved more than 7.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity consumption, avoided 4.4 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions, and saved the company more than $616 million.

IBM tracks their progress using Energy Hippo’s software. EEM Suite™ Project Tracking module supports tracking actual energy projects of three types: (1) energy conservation; (2) cost avoidance; and (3) renewable energy projects. Projects have specific data entry requirements that allow for a robust record of energy conservation measure projects. Project reporting shows historical and predicted project performance, comparisons of energy conservation measures with actual energy usage and spend, supports aggregation of project types and site levels, and provides financial payback calculations.

EEM Suite™ also has the capacity to monitor energy produced by solar and wind systems. Users can access data related to production, savings generated, and ratio of renewable to non-renewable energy sources. Additionally, EEM Suite™ can measure and track greenhouse gas emissions for internal use or for reporting to third-party GHG registries.

Some of the largest energy users in the country use Energy Hippo's energy management software. To learn more about project and renewable tracking, contact support@energyhippo.com.