This week in buildings, land and industry decarbonization news, the Australian Financial Review has a suggestion for eliminating emissions from big buildings in New York City and other big cities. The world’s cities are full of skyscrapers like New York’s Seagram Building, which are covered in glass windows. Windows can be a bane to energy efficiency, but the magazine highlights the work of architect Ben Berwick, who has developed a modular glazing system that can help such structures save significantly on energy bills by making better use of natural light while still ensuring comfortable temperatures efficiently.

Engineering News-Record highlights Illinois’ decision to adopt a new energy-efficient building code, based on the 2021 Energy Conservation Code. The code has already been adopted by 13 other states and the Department of Energy for federally owned buildings, and it could save an average of 9.38% compared to earlier iterations. 

The Virginia Mercury has a story on plans to bring economic activity and jobs back to the state’s coal patch from an industry that is huge on the other side of it: data centers. Data Center Alley is just outside D.C., in Northern Virginia, but now the goal is to bring more of the facilities to mined lands in southwest Virginia that would also lead to new generation capacity being built in the region. 

Artificial intelligence is often cited as a major reason for the recent growth in data centers and related power use, but Entrepreneur India focuses on how the technology could actually cut loads. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are a major source of building energy use, and AI can help make their operations more efficient by constantly monitoring the systems and optimizing them. 

Canary Media looked into a startup called Balto Energy that seeks to help consumers navigate the economic choices involved in distributed solar power and electrification of major appliances. The firm can help homeowners design their renewable power systems around likely future cases for their overall demand. Its software looks in home energy use, efficiency upgrade impacts, solar production, battery algorithms, utility tariffs and appliance performance to assess the best options for consumers. 

Canary Media also wrote about a report by Global Energy Monitor that found low-carbon technologies are increasingly being used in iron and steel production. Coal has been used to manufacture the metals for centuries and higher global demand means its use continues to grow in the sector as well, but the report found that manufacturers are responding to demand for lower-emissions steel and adopting clean technology at increasing rates. 

Read all that and more in this week’s Intelligence Report: