Energy Efficiency

With aspirations to be a national leader in energy efficiency and sustainability, City leaders in Holland, Michigan adopted a progressive Community Energy Plan with goals to ensure economic competitiveness, provide reliable and affordable energy and protect the environment. Watch the video to learn more from Schneider Electric Project Manager Ty Miller about how the city will meet its goals.

Ten Grand Rapids Public Schools students have been selected from a record number of entries in an annual art competition focused on energy-related subjects. The artwork will be on display this fall during Project 1 by ArtPrize through collaboration with the district and Consumers Energy.

In 2012, General Mills set a 10-year goal to improve energy efficiency in the company’s 26 largest U.S.-based plants by 20 percent (from FY12-FY22). Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that General Mills achieved its goal four years ahead of plan, with a total efficiency improvement of 20.4 percent since fiscal year 2012.

The $13 million development, called The 200, includes plans for 86 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments on four floors. It’s on pace to open in spring 2021, said Kevin Thomson of Jackson Downtown Partners, developer of the complex.

The city is giving over the land for $1 and Consumers Energy is incorporating the project into its Jackson Smart Energy District.

Plans for complex include solar panels on the roof and energy efficiencies throughout.

HARC and Green Mountain Energy Sun Club leaders celebrated the completion of a sustainability project signifying a major step towards the organization’s goal of achieving a highly regarded net zero energy (NZE) status, which would make the HARC headquarters in The Woodlands the first commercial building in Texas to accomplish the feat.

Southern California Edison announced that it has signed seven contracts for 195 megawatts of battery-based energy storage resources to meet local capacity requirements in the Santa Clara sub-area of its electrical system. Contracts were the result of SCE’s Aliso Canyon Energy Storage 2 Request For Offers and last year’s Local Capacity Requirements Request For Proposals.

Hauling freight with big rigs in the Golden State just got greener, thanks to Penske Truck Leasing. The Pennsylvania-based company recently announced the installation of 14 fast charging stations for heavy-duty electric vehicle trucks at four Southern California facilities. Mike Marelli, vice president of Southern California Edison’s Business Customer Division, was on hand at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the installation of the fast chargers at Penske’s La Mirada site.

Manufacturing plants using oil-free compressed air solutions like pharmaceutical, food and beverage, chemical and automotive industries can lower their environmental footprint and reach their ISO 50001 goals in energy management with the new Energy Recovery Units (ERU) from Ingersoll Rand®. The new sustainability oriented solutions work with oil-free compressors transferring the heat generated throughout the compression process to warm water, which customers can use in industrial processes or to heat spaces in the plant.

Energy efficiency dominates corporate energy investments, with 93 percent of companies using efficiency technologies today. While technology is an enabler, companies are struggling to accelerate energy conservation results portfolio-wide. Funding is perceived to be a top barrier, but CapEx is only the tip of the iceberg. Today's global executives face difficult questions to solve...