This week in buildings, land and industry decarbonization news, our K Kaufmann has the details on a report from the Department of Energy that shows how artificial intelligence can help the grid. In addition to speeding up interconnection queues, the technology could also help optimize energy use in buildings and be used to predict their demand more accurately.
San Francisco’s public radio station KQED-FM has a story on its website asking whether California’s building codes, which are regularly praised by efficiency advocates, need an update — specifically to remove utilities’ obligation to serve. The obligation to serve is still there for natural gas local delivery companies, even though the state’s goal of net-zero emissions will require moving beyond the fuel eventually. Legislation to change the rule has been introduced in recent sessions, but never passed.
Geothermal heat pumps are the subject of initiatives to clean up big buildings in New York City and Austin, as Canary Media reports. The systems drill hundreds of feet deep into the ground below buildings and then pump heat down to cool, and back up to warm the facilities. Compared to air-source heat pumps, geothermal systems can cut energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 44%.
For The New Yorker, Bill McKibben gave the publication’s treatment to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s plans to make federally funded homes more efficient. Federally funded homes will have to meet more efficient building codes; the hope is that will have spillover impacts as contractors building private homes adopt the practices too.
The federal government is taking care of its own business as well, with the Department of Energy finalizing a rule recently to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels on site at federal buildings by 2030. RMI has the details and then some.
Portland, Ore., is working to help renters see which available apartments are more efficient by requiring landlords to release how much residents spend on energy. Oregon Live has the details.
In land-use news, The New York Times asks whether forests can be more profitable than raising beef. Cattle ranching is the biggest driver of deforestation around the world, and the firm Re.green is trying to make a new business of planting trees on previously deforested ranches. The article highlights one of its projects along the edge of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil.
Read all that and more in this week’s Intelligence Report:
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