Expert Columns

Hundreds of engineers, electricians, and construction workers are building two new, energy-efficient Google data center campuses in the Southeastern U.S.—one in Tennessee and another in northern Alabama. As this blog post from Google notes, they are not stopping there.

With nearly 4,000 utility accounts across more than a dozen different municipal departments as well as a need to leverage more granular data, the City of Boston needed a plan to improve their energy management processes. This column from Better Buildings reviews Boston's programmatic overhaul to how energy data was collected, analyzed, and reported, leading to the creation of real-time energy meter dashboards and recovering over $1.2 million in identified utility billing errors.

As we move into 2019, let’s check in on the top public utility commission (PUC) actions and trends of the past year. Ten prominent trends and actions stand out above the rest, from renewables continuing their downward price trajectory, to electric vehicle charging infrastructure build-outs getting approved, to exploration of utility business model reforms and non-wires alternatives to traditional distribution investments.

While renewable energy goals are part of a very promising trend towards adding more renewable energy to the grid, this column by Neil Kolwey suggests setting a strong climate goal based on energy efficiency and more selective renewable purchases is a more meaningful approach.

The efficiency you get out of your building today is rarely what your building is capable of. In this column, Sal Alhelo of JCPenney discusses the issue of efficiency degradation and how to avoid it in five steps.

This column by EDF Renewables North America asks, what do you do with too much of a good thing—namely an oversupply of cheap solar during daylight hours? The answer could be battery storage systems.

In this column from Microsoft, the company presents the Volume Firming Agreement (VFA), a new solution to mitigate the risks and simplify the complexities that exist in the current PPA structure that may inhibit their effectiveness as a risk management tool for the corporate procurement market.

Reaching corporate sustainability goals can be like running a marathon: the early rush of adrenaline followed by miles of hard work before crossing the finish line. In this column, Daniel Hill of EDF Climate Corps follows the journey of evian and Danone Waters to reduce its carbon footprint and offers advice to those running a similar race towards these goals.

Fluctuating electricity prices and high energy costs make managing a franchise especially challenging. This column, presented by Zen Ecosystems, shows how the use of energy management systems (EMS) can lead to decreased utility expenses and improved sustainability efforts.