A new law in Seattle marks the latest in a wave of local efforts to electrify homes and other buildings. Under the city’s Building Emissions Performance Standard, signed into law last week, all existing commercial and multifamily residential buildings over 20,000 square feet will need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Meeting that target will effectively require building owners to replace oil and gas-powered furnaces, water heaters, gas stoves, and other appliances with electric alternatives like heat pumps and induction stoves. Buildings in Seattle generate 37 percent of the city’s total emissions, and the new law is expected to slash that number by more than a quarter.

Seattle’s ordinance reflects a growing push to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in buildings, which would reduce indoor air pollution and cut carbon emissions. But some other local electrification policies have hit a wall. In April, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Berkeley, California’s first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas in new buildings. The ruling caused several cities across the 9th Circuit region, which spans 11 western states and territories including California, Oregon, and Washington, to suspend similar policies. Yet despite the setback, clean energy experts told Grist that governments still have plenty of options to electrify buildings. Cities and states like Seattle; Ashland, Oregon; and Washington state are sidestepping Berkeley’s legal challenges by finding creative alternatives to banning gas outright — including by setting emissions targets, updating building codes, and restricting indoor air pollution.

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In 2019, Berkeley became the first city in the country to ban new buildings from connecting to natural gas lines. The California Restaurant Association quickly mobilized to file a lawsuit against the city for its policy, backed with more than $1 million in funding from SoCalGas, the nation’s largest gas distribution utility. In 2021, a federal district court ruled against the restaurant industry, but in April 2023, a panel of three judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s decision, shooting down Berkeley’s ordinance. The judges ruled that because national efficiency standards for appliances under the federal Energy Policy Conservation Act prevent cities and states from setting their own standards, local governments can’t ban infrastructure to prevent the use of fossil fuel-powered appliances. “The decision does not make a lot of sense legally,” Jan Hasselman, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, wrote at the time. Since the ruling, other cities in California, including Encinitas, Santa Cruz, and San Luis Obispo, have pulled back their own natural gas bans. Eugene, which was the first city in Oregon to adopt a natural gas ban modeling Berkeley’s, also suspended its ordinance in June. The Berkeley city attorney’s office has requested a rehearing of the case before 11 judges on the 9th Circuit, which could result in a new decision.

In the meantime, Hasselman told Grist that building emissions standards like the one passed in Seattle are one way for cities to dodge legal hurdles by avoiding an explicit ban on gas. The Seattle policy sets benchmarks that ramp up every five years for large buildings to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and lets building owners decide how they want to reach those standards. Theoretically, they could hold onto their oil and gas appliances, though Plummer pointed out that avoiding electrification will likely become more and more difficult over time. Commercial buildings covered under Seattle’s new law must reach net-zero emissions by 2045, and multi-family buildings by 2050 — a requirement that would effectively require swapping out fossil fuel appliances with heat pumps and other electric options. (Carbon offsets purchased by utilities would be allowed to count toward buildings’ net-zero calculations.) A handful of other cities have also passed building performance standards to cut emissions, including Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.

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Full article: https://grist.org/buildings/a-court-struck-down-local-gas-bans-so-seattle-and-other-cities-are-getting-creative/

Two solar cycle paths came online in the Netherlands, and they’re the country’s first to have 1,000 square meters (10,764 square feet) of solar surface area each.



Colas Group company Wattway and Dutch construction company BAM Royal Group installed the solar cycle paths in the North Holland and North Brabant provinces. Wattway makes solar road surfaces that produce clean electricity while bearing vehicle traffic.

Wattway, which claims to be the world’s first solar road surfacing company, has been running around 40 trial sites in multiple countries since its founding in 2015. As a result, it’s been making improvements to its solar roads.

The Dutch installations have increased power – 148 Wp/m² compared to older paths with 119 Wp/m² – and the provinces hope to produce “160 MWh/year of renewable energy in its first year, helping to supply the Dutch grid.” The sites will be monitored and maintained for five years.

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The solar cells are coated in a multilayer substrate composed of resins and polymers. They’re translucent enough to let in sunlight and resistant enough to withstand bike traffic. The solar panel surfaces aren’t like smooth rooftop panels – they’re treated so that they provide the same grip as conventional road mixes.

Kentucky’s largest solar farm is coming

National Grid Renewables has broken ground on what will be the largest solar farm in Kentucky once it comes online in 2024.

The 160-megawatt (MW) solar farm is called Unbridled, and it’s in Henderson and Webster counties in western Kentucky. National Grid is partnering with North Dakota-based Wanzek Construction to build the solar farm. It will be capable of generating enough clean energy annually to power around 120,000 households.

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The solar farm is expected to provide around $42 million in direct economic impact over the first 20 years of operations. This includes the creation of at least 200 jobs, the production of more than $11 million in new tax revenue, and more than $24 million to local farmers and landowners.

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As of the third quarter of 2023, the percentage of Kentucky’s electricity from solar was a measly 0.41% – that’s only enough solar to power 18,311 homes. The state is ranked 43rd in the US for solar energy, so Unbridled will significantly boost its renewable capacity next year.

Even more renewable growth is coming for the Bluegrass State. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) projects Kentucky’s solar gain to be 3,370 MW over the next five years, which would rocket the state to 16th in the country for installed solar.

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Full Article: https://electrek.co/2023/12/18/largest-solar-farm-in-kentucky/

Here are some reactions to the deal:

Former U.S. vice president Al Gore:

"The decision at COP28 to finally recognize that the climate crisis is, at its heart, a fossil fuel crisis is an important milestone. But it is also the bare minimum we need and is long overdue. The influence of petrostates is still evident in the half measures and loopholes included in the final agreement."

"Whether this is a turning point that truly marks the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era depends on the actions that come next and the mobilization of finance required to achieve them."

Denmark's Minister for Climate and Energy Dan Jorgensen:

"We're standing here in an oil country, surrounded by oil countries, and we made the decision saying let's move away from oil and gas."

Samoa representative Anne Rasmussen on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States:

"We didn't want to interrupt the standing ovation when we came into the room, but we are a little confused about what happened. It seems that you just get on with the decisions and the small island developing states were not in the room."

"We have come to the conclusion that the course correction that is needed has not been secured. We have made an incremental advancement over business as usual, when what we really need is an exponential step change in our actions."

The COP28 climate talks in Dubai ended in a historic deal that committed the world to a transition away from all fossil fuels for the first time.

The president of this year’s UN-sponsored summit, the UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber, brokered an agreement that was strong enough for the US and European Union on the need to dramatically curb fossil fuel use while keeping Saudi Arabia and other oil producers on board.

The final agreement calls for countries to quickly shift energy systems away from fossil fuels in a just and orderly fashion, qualifications that helped convince the skeptics. Under the deal, countries also are called to contribute to a global transition effort — rather than being outright compelled to make that shift on their own.

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Al Jaber used his presidency to bring the oil and gas industry firmly into the COP process and there were more representatives of fossil fuel companies than at any previous summit, drawing criticism from climate activists.

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GM and Komatsu will codevelop a hydrogen fuel cell power module for Komatsu’s electric drive mining truck – here’s why that makes sense.

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GM has been conducting hydrogen fuel cell research and product development for more than 50 years and has homegrown technology platforms for both lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.

Hydrogen fuel cells are a great zero tailpipe emissions solution for extreme hauling vehicles like the Komatsu 930E mining truck, with a nominal payload of 320 tons. Mining trucks typically operate at a single mine throughout their life, and that simplifies the challenge of rolling out a hydrogen refueling station.

GM and Komatsu are aiming to test the prototype HYDROTEC-powered mining vehicle in the mid-2020s at Komatsu’s Arizona Proving Grounds research and development facility. The prototype mining truck will be powered by over 2 megawatts of HYDROTEC power cubes.

Komatsu’s targets are a 50% reduction of global emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. GM aims to be carbon-neutral in products and operations by 2040.

Toyota thinks it’s a good idea to put a fake manual transmission in an EV.

Jennifer Mossalgue, Dec 12 2023
Full Article: https://electrek.co/2023/12/12/toyota-thinks-its-a-good-idea-to-put-a-fake-manual-transmission-in-an-ev/

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It’s been a little over a year since we first heard rumors that Toyota was devising a fake manual transmission with a clutch pedal and shifter to pretend you are shifting gears, and apparently, some patents date back to 2017. But lately, Toyota has been back at devising the system, which it dubs a “manual BEV concept.” At the Japan Mobility Show at the end of last month, it debuted a concept version of its Lexus UX 300e that featured the gearbox and clutch, the whole works. Excitement from the trial apparently encouraged the company to take it further.

While outside the vehicle, things run quietly as any typical EV; inside, you are transported to Fast and Furious, with artificial engine noise piped through the speakers to fully replicate the experience of driving an ICE engine. “From the outside, this vehicle is as quiet as any other BEV. But the driver is able to experience all the sensations of a manual transmission vehicle,” said chief engineer of Lexus’s EVs Takashi Watanabe. “This gave us so much fun that the project is now under serious development.”

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Most EVs just have a single-speed transmission, which can feel a bit flat for lovers of manual transmissions. EVs are way more efficient than ICE vehicles and can deliver full 100% torque after 0 RPM, whereas an ICE engine needs gears with different ratios to transfer that energy from the engine to the wheels at varying speeds. Some EVs from Porsche, Audi, and Jaguar use multispeed transmissions in their vehicles, which have two or more gears to reduce the load on the electric motor at higher speeds and extend driving range.

Fake transmissions certainly aren’t a new concept, with Dodge releasing a feature in its Charger Daytona SRT “Banshee” concept called eRupt transmission. Honda also toyed with the idea of a simulated manual transmission for its future EV lineup, not even the high-performance models, but decided to drop it.

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Nearly $7 trillion of public and private finance each year supports activities that directly harm nature – some 30 times the amount spent on nature-based solutions annually, according to a shocking UN report launched on Saturday at COP28 in Dubai.

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This year’s State of Finance for Nature report is the first such survey to focus on what is known as “nature-negative finance flows” and underscores the urgency to address the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.

This year’s State of Finance for Nature report: https://www.unep.org/resources/report/state-finance-nature

The report, launched to coincide with a day set aside at the latest UN climate conference for discussions on nature and land use, also highlighted the fact that these investments dwarfed the annual amount being invested in nature-based solutions, which totaled roughly $200 billion last year.

A staggering $5 billion of these nature-negative finance flows come from the private sector, which is 140 times larger than private investments in nature-based solutions, and almost half of that stems from only 5 industries: construction, electric utilities, real estate, oil and gas, and food and tobacco.

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Full Article: https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144597

A draft deal to cut global fossil fuel production is “grossly insufficient” and “incoherent” and will not stop the world from facing dangerous climate breakdown, according to delegates at the UN’s Cop28 summit.

The text put forward by the summit presidency after 10 days of wrangling was received with concern and anger by many climate experts and politicians, though others welcomed elements of the draft including the first mention in a Cop text of reducing fossil fuel production.

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The text avoids highly contentious calls for a “phase-out” or “phase-down” of fossil fuels, which have been the focus of deep disagreement among the more than 190 countries meeting in Dubai.

But instead of requiring fossil fuel producers to cut their output, it frames such reductions as optional, by calling on countries to “take actions that could include” reducing fossil fuels. “That one word ‘could’ just kills everything,” said Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s environment minister, adding that the EU could walk out of the talks if the text did not improve.

New York City has relaxed its zoning laws for renewables, including opening over 8,500 acres of parking lots for solar canopies.

The New York City Council approved the “City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality,” a game-changing zoning code update that will make it easier to deploy clean energy and EV chargers, along with other sustainable initiatives.

City of Yes! website: https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/plans/city-of-yes/city-of-yes-carbon-neutrality.page

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The initiative also more than doubles commercially zoned land where EV charging stations can be sited. These changes mean EV charging is now possible in an additional 400 million square feet of space throughout the city.

“Building climate solutions, like solar power and battery storage, often comes down to the nuts and bolts of permitting and zoning, and we are so thrilled that the New York City Council and the city administration are recognizing this through the ‘City of Yes’ initiative,” said Anne Reynolds, executive director, Alliance for Clean Energy New York.

Full Article: https://electrek.co/2023/12/08/new-york-city-opens-8500-acres-parking-lots-to-solar-canopies/