Archive for year: 2014

Last month, Clean Energy States Alliance awarded a State Leadership in Clean Energy (SLICE) award to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) for its groundbreaking resilient power microgrids grant and loan program.

Investors in the United States increasingly want to invest in solutions to climate change. The good news is that investors have growing opportunities to make those investments, with clean energy bonds.

What do you get when the largest retailer in the US decides to partner with the biggest rooftop solar developer in the country? A lot more solar energy and some solar + storage too.

The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), a national, nonprofit coalition of public agencies working together to advance clean energy, has announced the recipients of the 2014 State Leadership in Clean Energy Awards.

Over the past year, we have seen a number of states initiate resilient power and microgrid initiatives. But in addition, a few states have begun a process of revisioning their electric grids.

It’s been two years since Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast. It knocked out electric grids and left millions of people to suffer for weeks without power in public housing, senior centers, hospitals and shelters.

According to a report from the New York City Resiliency Initiative, 88% of the city’s steam generating capacity, 53% of the in-city electric generation capacity, 37% of transmission substation capacity, and 12% of large distribution substation capacity currently lie within the 100-year floodplain.

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and the Patrick administration have awarded $7.4 million to six municipal-led resilient power projects that will support critical infrastructure and services during natural disasters and other emergencies.

With recent announcements from New York and New Jersey, we now have two emerging finance models to fund community level, climate resilient infrastructure.

Clean Energy Group has released a new paper about the progress of “resilient power” efforts since the New York City blackouts in 1999 to Superstorm Sandy.