The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is a monumental investment in clean energy; AEG is eager to leverage its network and resources to build the partnerships necessary for winning IIJA grant proposals.
New York City’s building stock is about to set off a journey of electrification. However, this journey comes with countless obstacles. There are countless concerns regarding the reliability, technology, grid support and cost.
With help from representatives of the New York City Housing Authority, Jaros Baum & Bolles (JB&B), BlocPower and ConEdison, here are the most critical obstacles we identified at last quarter’s AEG New York 21Q2 Stakeholder Challenge on Buildings & Construction…
Transportation poses as a vital and complex sector to be decarbonized as we continue to confront the climate crisis. As of 2019, transportation composed 29% of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions. To kickstart a generative partnership with the federal government, the Advanced Energy Group (AEG) Washington 20Q4 Task Force has delivered a letter to the Congressional Delegation which outlines the rationale, requirements, and benefits of bus electrification.
In January 2021, AEG convened Stakeholders in Washington DC to discuss major obstacles the District faces on its path to reaching resilience and equity while decarbonizing critical infrastructure. With equity at its center of focus, the District aims for a 50% decrease in emissions from its 2006 baseline and carbon neutrality by 2050. After a series of conversations, Stakeholders decided to tackle the challenge, presented by DC Water’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Kishia L. Powell, PE, of creating a unified project portfolio based on cost-benefit analysis that would enable collaborators to make informed, expedient, and equitable decisions.
Boston has a goal of becoming net-zero by 2050. This means electrification of buildings and transportation. Boston’s grid needs to modernize to meet this challenge.
Last year, AEG Stakeholders outlined what they believed was the biggest obstacle to meeting Boston’s net-zero target -- lack of a ready-to-go local clean energy workforce. Such a workforce would not only need to be highly skilled but also diverse. To build this workforce, the industry needs to coalesce to provide funding and raise awareness.
Last year, Advanced Energy Group Chicago formed the 20Q4 Trucking Task Force to tackle this exact issue, charging key stakeholders with creating a clean trucking roadmap for the city. Engaging with experts from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) as well Ozinga, Martin-Brower and other local fleets, the Trucking Task Force has identified key barriers to electrification. With a stakeholder-led plan to electrify Chicago’s trucking industry, local fleets could not only benefit long term from reduced fuel costs, but electrification would also aid Chicago’s environmental and equity goals as well, especially with a focus on intra city drayage routes.
In the last two weeks alone, due to either extreme heat or volatile lightning storms, I have received five alerts from ConEdison warning me that the power may go out. New York’s grid is not ready to handle the climate challenges we are facing and the ones that are sure to come. We need to modernize New York’s grid as soon as possible.
While D.C. may have a unique and interesting grid, like all other grids in the country, it needs to be modernized. As our nation’s capital, it would make sense for D.C. to have not only one of the oldest microgrids in the country, representing our rich technical history, but also one of the newest microgrids in the country to represent our technical progress and innovation. Like all other grids in the country, D.C.’s grid needs to modernize to maximize resilience and efficiency in the face of increasing threats such as extreme weather events. However, as part of the PJM Interconnection, D.C. relies almost entirely on the other 13 states in the interconnection for their electrical needs. Modernizing this grid will take major efforts on the part of all stakeholders in both the district and within the wider interconnection.
