Six Tax Credits to Help Decarbonize Buildings

There is much talk about the urgency of climate change and how federal policy is being crafted to address it. However, there remains a critical need for targeted tax credits for zero-carbon buildings and retrofits. Buildings are the largest single contributor of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, producing about 40 percent of global emissions.

How Managing Building Energy Demand Can Aid the Clean Energy Transition

A comprehensive new study quantifies what can be done to make buildings more energy efficient and flexible in granular detail by both time (including time of day and year) and space (looking at regions across the U.S.). The research team found that maximizing the deployment of building demand management technologies could avoid the need for up to one-third of coal- or gas-fired power generation.

Why Southern California Has Largely Been Spared by the State’s Worst Drought Conditions

Los Angeles received less than half its average rainfall last year, most of the state is in a drought emergency, and Governor Gavin Newsom has asked all residents to reduce their water usage by 15%. But a stroll through any well-watered neighborhood in Southern California would suggest otherwise.

Cutting Carbon Pollution Quickly Would Save About 74 Million Lives, Study Finds

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions quickly would save tens of millions of lives worldwide, a new study finds. It's the latest indication that climate change is deadly to humans, and that the benefits of transitioning to a cleaner economy could be profound.

In recent years, the connection between a hotter planet and human death and disease has become clearer, thanks to a series of research papers. A study published in 2021 found that about a third of heat-related deaths worldwide can be directly attributed to human-caused climate change. A 2020 Lancet report warned that climate change is the biggest global public health threat of the century.

How the California Grid Can Become More Resilient to Wildfire

As the Bootleg Fire in Oregon continues to burn, the impacts of the largest US wildfire of 2021 have been felt well beyond the state’s border. Not only have the Bootleg Fire and other active fires blanketed skies with smoke as far away as New York City, but the fire also disrupted the delivery of electricity to nearby California, which depends on energy imports to keep the lights on.

Webinar: Office Buildings and Ventilation - How COVID-19 and Other Pathogens Spread Between Zones

How does COVID-19 and other pathogens spread between different zones of the office? Dr. Jason DeGraw of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) discussed the effect of ventilation rates on the concentration and spread of COVID-19 and other pathogens within office buildings as well as the energy implications of the ventilation strategies addressed. Analysis of air movement using CONTAM, a multizone indoor air quality and ventilation model developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), provides a detailed understanding of how ventilation rates and office building design can affect the exposure of office workers and can help building operators balance these considerations with the associated energy impacts.