2Sustain

Last week, President Obama visited the Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) manufacturing facility in Mount Holly, North Carolina, where he announced a new $1 billion National Community Deployment Challenge to spur deployment of clean, advanced vehicles in communities around the country.

DTNA is a partner in the Energy Department’s SuperTruck initiative, which is focused on increasing the fuel efficiency of long haul trucks (aka, 18-wheelers) by 50 percent by 2015.

While these particular trucks represent only 4 percent of the on-road vehicles in America, they are responsible for almost 20 percent of the country’s on-road fuel consumption, and this class of vehicle currently consumes more than 30 billion gallons of gasoline each year.

In order to achieve the SuperTruck imitative goal, companies like Daimler are developing and improving a number of vehicle technologies, including engine efficiency, aerodynamics waste heat recovery and hybridization.  Through these types of improvements, the Energy Department estimates fuel economy increases could save long-haul truckers more than $15,000 per truck per year in fuel costs. (In an earlier post, I reported that MIT researchers also have identified significant cost savings for businesses that use electric vehicles to make deliveries on an everyday basis in big cities.) (more…)

Last week, IKEA announced plans to install solar energy panels on five locations in the Midwest, extending the company’s solar presence to nearly 85 percent of its US locations. Pending governmental permits, installation can begin this winter, with completion expected in summer 2012.

Collectively, the five stores will total approximately 20,400 panels, 4.8 megawatts (MW) of solar generating capacity and an annual output of 5.62 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity –that’s the equivalent to reducing 4,273 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and  equal to eliminating the emissions of 760 cars or providing electricity for 484 homes yearly (calculating clean energy equivalents at www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html).

This investment by IKEA reinforces the company’s long-term commitment to sustainability and confidence in photovoltaic (PV) technology, and it’s worth noting that IKEA will own and operate each of its solar PV energy systems atop its buildings, as opposed to a solar lease or PPA (power purchase agreement).

If you’re curious about more details, here are a few of the locations, along with approximate system statistics and corresponding clean energy equivalents: (more…)

Walmart plans to install solar panels on up to 60 more stores in California –which means the company will be generating solar energy at more than 75 percent of its stores in the state.

When complete, Walmart’s total solar commitment in California is expected to:

• Generate up to 70 million kilowatt hours of clean, renewable energy per year, which is the equivalent of powering more than 5,400 homes (using the EPA calculator).
• Avoid producing more than 21,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, which is the equivalent of taking approximately 4,100 cars off the road (using the EPA calculator).
• Provide 20 to 30 percent of each facility’s total electric needs.
• Total more than 130 stores by the end of 2013.
• Make California the first state in the US where Walmart has devoted this level of commitment to renewable energy. (more…)

Back in 2007, China earned the dubious distinction of overtaking the US as the world leader in greenhouse gas emissions.

Since then, it seemed there would be “no end in sight.” As China’s economy continues to soar, won’t its energy use and GHG emissions follow the same trajectory?

Surprisingly, a new analysis by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) suggests the answer to that question is a rather emphatic “no.”

According to the research, China’s energy use will level off well before mid-century, even as its population edges past 1.4 billion. Why? Because, somewhere between 2030 and 2035, China will: 1) reach a “saturation” point with regard to consumer goods, and 2) develop alternative energy sources.

For example, the study predicts that before 2050: (more…)

We’ve known for years that smart grid management is important.

A new report shows just how significant updating the grid can be.

As remarkable as it sounds, the report, ‘Battle of the Grids,’ produced by engineering consultancy Energynautics on behalf of Greenpeace, concludes that Europe can convert to almost entirely renewable energy-supplied electricity by 2050 using smart grid management.

More specifically, the report uses extensive computer modeling to show that:

1. Large-scale integration of renewable electricity in the European grid (68 percent by 2030 and a whopping 99.5 percent by 2050) is both technically and economically feasible with a high level of security of supply, even under the most extreme climatic conditions with low wind and low solar radiation.

2. Of course, this type of integration would require significant changes in the energy mix. For instance, in the model presented in the report, by 2030, gas plants provide most of the non-renewable electricity and serve as a flexible backup for wind and solar power. Then, between 2030 and 2050, natural gas as a fuel is phased out, as are 90 percent of the existing coal and nuclear plants.
(more…)