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Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

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Electricity Markets, Reliability and the Evolving U.S. Power System

Monday, July 3rd, 2017
Figure 1 Shares of Total U.S. Net Generation by Fuel: 2005 vs. 2016

Fundamental market forces — the addition of highly efficient new gas-fired resources, low natural gas prices, and flat demand for electricity — are primarily responsible for altering the profitability of many older merchant generating assets in the parts of the country with wholesale competitive markets administered by Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs). As a result, some of these resources (mostly coal- and natural gas-fired generating units, but also many oil-fired power plants and a handful of nuclear power plants) have retired from the system or announced that they will do so at a future date.

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ACEC’S ENGINEERING INC. — Ranking Sustainability: What U.S. Cities Can Learn From European Peers

Thursday, June 29th, 2017
2016 Arcadis Sustainable Cities Index

What about North American cities? The index found they have a lot to learn from their international peers. Vancouver was the continent’s leader at 23rd in the overall ratings, while U.S. cities failed to enter the top quartile. The closest contender was New York City at 26th place…Infrastructure differences help explain why European cities outpaced U.S. and Canadian counterparts. Many European urban centers were settled before the automobile age and, as a result, are densely settled and supported by well-established public transportation systems. However, many American cities outside the Northeast grew with automobiles in mind. “Carcentric designs can lead to urban sprawl and a large carbon footprint, with enormous costs,” Dalkmann says. “Those are fundamental challenges for U.S. cities in terms of sustainability.”

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Posted in Engineering Inc., Environment, Global, Infra Views, Sustainability, Technology, Urban Planning

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Nurturing Innovation for a Low-Carbon Future

Tuesday, June 27th, 2017

Renewable energy innovation is starting to really change gears. In the last couple of years, most of the new power generation capacity added has been renewable.

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Global, Show Us Your Infra, Sustainability, Technology

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Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the United States

Monday, June 19th, 2017
TABLE 1 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the U.S. (in order of 2015 net electric generation)

This report examines and compares the stack air pollutant emissions of the 100 largest power producers in the United States based on their 2015 generation, plant ownership, and emissions data. Table 1 lists the 100 largest power producers featured in this report ranked by their total electricity generation from fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy facilities. These producers include public and private entities1 (collectively referred to as “companies” or “producers” in this report) that own roughly 2,900 power plants and account for 85 percent of reported electric generation and 86 percent of the industry’s reported emissions.

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Unpacked: Why does the U.S. need energy innovation?

Tuesday, June 6th, 2017

Brookings Senior Fellow Mark Muro and Devashree Saha discuss the declining number of patents and ventures capital funds going to clean technology in the United States. They also explain why investing in energy innovation is important for the U.S. economy and fighting climate change.

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Three Revolutions in Urban Transportation

Monday, May 29th, 2017
Three Revolutions in Urban Transportation

The world is on the cusp of three revolutions in transportation: vehicle electrification, automation, and widespread shared mobility (sharing of vehicle trips). Separately or together, these revolutions will fundamentally change urban transportation around the world over the next three decades.

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Posted in Energy, Environment, Infra Views, Public Transportation, Sustainability, Technology, Transit, Urban Planning

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First Recipients of the National Green Infrastructure Certification Program

Friday, May 19th, 2017

DC Water and the Water Environment Federation congratulate the recipients of the first certifications under the National Green Infrastructure Certification Program (NGICP). The certification is designed to meet international best practice standards while supporting community-based job creation and establishing national standards for work on green infrastructure projects. For more information, please visit www.ngicp.org.

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Posted in Drinking Water, Environment, Public Opinion, Show Us Your Infra, Wastewater, Water Treatment

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Harvesting the Value of Water: Stormwater, Green Infrastructure, and Real Estate

Tuesday, May 16th, 2017
The courtyard of ECO Modern Flats in Fayetteville, Arkansas, prominently features green infrastructure, including a bioswale that filters runoff from parking areas. (Timothy Hursley)

Water abundance and scarcity are topics of increasing importance in cities across America. With growing concern about flooding, weather-induced overflows from sewer systems, and extreme storms, communities are seeking strategies to better manage stormwater runoff, improve local water quality, and decrease pressure on overloaded sewer systems. At the same time, water is increasingly recognized as a community resource, one that can be harnessed to make cities more sustainable and livable.

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Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030: The Disruption of Transportation and the Collapse of the Internal-Combustion Vehicle and Oil Industries

Wednesday, May 10th, 2017
Figure 2. Consumer Choices: cost-per-mile analysis9

We are on the cusp of one of the fastest, deepest, most consequential disruptions of transportation in history. By 2030, within 10 years of regulatory approval of autonomous vehicles (AVs), 95% of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles owned by fleets, not individuals, in a new business model we call “transport-as-a-service” (TaaS). The TaaS disruption will have enormous implications across the transportation and oil industries, decimating entire portions of their value chains, causing oil demand and prices to plummet, and destroying trillions of dollars in investor value — but also creating trillions of dollars in new business opportunities, consumer surplus and GDP growth.

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Better Buildings Challenge SWAP: Season 3

Friday, May 5th, 2017

Cities and local communities play an integral role in driving energy efficiency throughout the United States. The cities of Atlanta and Boston are energy efficiency leaders, achieving great success in energy saving and energy management creating energy efficient buildings in their cities, both municipal and commercial. Can the two cities; both on the east coast but with completely different climates help each other think differently about ways to save energy?

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