Ask the Expert: What is Decarb, Really?

Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 11/15/2022 Zondits spoke with Gary Epstein of DNV who leads an initiative to assist utilities, businesses, and governmental entities with meeting their decarbonization goals. I am often hearing the terms decarb and decarbonize either in reference to the economy or buildings. But I am not clear on what it really means. … Read more

“Sustainable aviation fuels offer an important way to quickly decarbonize aviation with existing aircraft currently in use around the world.” 

Originally posted in a Breakthrough Energy article October 2022: “Aviation accounts for approximately 2-3% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, and as a “drop-in” fuel, sustainable aviation fuels offer an important way to quickly decarbonize aviation with existing aircraft currently in use around the world.”   Read the full article: Breakthrough Energy Announces First Catalyst Project … Read more

New Buildings Institute Introduces a Building Decarbonization Model Code

Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 11/9/2022 Expanding its focus on advanced building energy codes, New Buildings Institute (NBI) has announced the release of a new model code with a focus on decarbonizing the U.S. residential and commercial building stocks. Model codes are intended to be used as templates for developing and adopting new building codes. Advanced … Read more

Is Spatial Analysis the Path to Energy Equity?

Lindsay Keane, Zondits guest, 11/4/2022 Lowering energy costs and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in hard-to-reach (HTR) communities are key goals of the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The bill includes $9 billion for consumer home energy rebate programs, $60 billion for environmental justice (EJ) initiatives in underserved communities, and consumer tax credits for … Read more

Get Schooled on the Viability of Two-Way Vehicle to Grid Energy Storage

Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 11/1/2022 In the Greater Boston area, electric school buses are doing more than taking students to and from school. Energy stored in the buses’ batteries is transferred back to the grid during times of demand stress on the regional electric generation and distribution systems. In the town of Beverly, a Boston … Read more

And Now, Electric Flying Boats

Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 10/28/2022 Zondits has posted numerous articles covering the transition of transportation from diesel and gasoline powered vehicles to hybrid and all-electric power. Trains, trucks, ferry boats, airplanes, motorcycles, and of course automobiles have all been featured. And now, we are able to report that an all-electric “flying boat” has been successfully … Read more

“We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world.”

Simon Stiell, head of the U.N. climate office, said in a statement. “To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years.”

Read the full article: World ‘nowhere near’ hitting Paris climate targets, U.N. warns (nbcnews.com)

Zondits Interview: Actually, You Can Get There From Here

Brian McCowan, Zondits staff, 10/25/2022 Zondits speaks with a rural Mainer about his experiences with EV ownership. Richard Doughty is a recently retired professional engineer who specialized in energy efficiency and clean energy project development and assessment. Richard was previously featured in the annual Zondits April Fools issue when it was reported that he applied … Read more