Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings are Easier Than They Sound

Grid-interactive efficient buildings are a big deal with an equally big name.

GEBs, for short, were one of the focal areas in a slate of new building-focused programsannounced by the Biden administration earlier this year. Those announcements coincided with the release of a US Department of Energy (DOE) report that sketched out the potential benefits of GEB technologies, which could save more than $100 billion in electric power system costs over the next 20 years. More recently, the DOE awarded $61 million to fund 10 GEB pilot projects across the country.

Decarbonizing Homes to Address Environmental Racism

In the United States, all housing is not created equal. Low-income communities continue to grapple with poor housing quality, high energy costs and disproportionate health burdens stemming from fossil fuel pollution in their homes and communities. On average, these households spend far higher percentages of their income on energy, and 26 million low-income U.S. households still burn costly, health-damaging and climate-warming fossil fuels. Many of these housing issues stem from structural racism and segregation, which have extracted wealth and diminished opportunities for greater prosperity and well-being.

Jigar Shah's Big Idea for Getting Rooftop Solar and Smart Appliances to Low-Income Americans

Can a government program created to back industrial-scale energy infrastructure help get efficient smart appliances and solar-battery systems into the hands of Americans who typically would not be able to afford them?

Jigar Shah, head of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO), sees a way to make it happen by rethinking the definition of the type of infrastructure needed to achieve a decarbonized grid. On one side, there are the wind and solar farms that will supply most of the carbon-free energy in decades to come. On the other are the homes and businesses that use it and can shift when they use power to better match the variability of that wind and solar power — a form of ​“grid-responsive” demand that could play a major role in balancing an increasingly clean-powered electricity supply.

Can Build-Your-Own Solar System Help the US Reach Biden's Climate Goals?

Dr. Joshua M. Pearce is the Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation at Western University in Canada. He has written hundreds of articles on solar energy and received a Ph.D. in materials engineering from the Pennsylvania State University for his work in low-cost solar cells. Pearce is the co-author with Lonny Grafman of the free, opensource e-book To Catch the Sun, a guide for making your own solar photovoltaic systems.

Commit 15% of Your Holiday Basket to Black-Owned Brands

This holiday season, buy Black. Black people in the U.S. make up nearly 15% of the population, yet 0.4% of U.S. revenue goes to Black-owned companies. Use your spending power and commit 15% of your holiday shopping to Black-owned brands with Fifteen Percent Pledge’s holiday guide.