Sustainable Development Focus
SOLAR INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - Aug 30 Last week, the California Senate passed SB 700, a bill that could result in nearly 3 gigawatts of behind-the-meter energy storage systems at schools, farms, homes, nonprofits, and businesses in California by 2026, according to the California Solar and Storage Association. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for his consideration. The program established by the bill would be on par with the highly successful Million Solar Roofs Initiative, which California set in motion back in 2006. The bill would add up to $800 million for storage and other emerging clean energy technologies, resulting in a total investment of $1.2 billion for customer-sited energy storage.
SFGATE - Sep 4 The University of California (UC) is committing to using only clean and renewable energy at all of its 10 campuses and 5 medical centers by 2025, university officials announced this week. Among UC’s new energy-related goals are to use 2 percent less energy each year on its campuses and other properties; to have UC’s own power company supply 100 percent clean energy to participating campuses by the end of this year; require that any new UC structures built or major renovations after June 2019 will not burn fossil fuels onsite for heating; to make more environmentally sustainable products and services available; and to have each UC campus cut landfill-bound waste by 25 percent before 2025 and by 50 percent before 2030.
GREENTECH MEDIA - Aug 30 Facebook committed last week to contract renewable energy for all of its electricity consumption by 2020. The social media giant consumes an ample amount of electricity to power its data centers around the world. The company previously committed to procuring 50 percent renewable power and surpassed that goal ahead of schedule last year. The announcement comes amid the busiest year ever for corporate renewables procurements. Companies have purchased nearly 3.86 gigawatts so far in 2018 across 46 deals, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Business Renewables Center, which tracks such transactions.
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Aug 28 A controversial 2-year-old program that opened the door for potential high-density residential development at designated locations along Harbor and Newport Boulevards in Costa Mesa moved closer to the waste bin Monday when the city Planning Commission voted to recommend it be eliminated. The commission’s 3-0 decision sends the issue to the City Council, which will decide whether to officially scuttle the “residential incentive overlay” at a future meeting. The overlay, created as part of a 2016 update to the city’s general plan, permits building up to 40 housing units per acre at certain sites on Harbor and Newport that are developed with “marginal commercial uses” such as gas stations, restaurants, auto services, and motels, according to a city staff report.
KPCC - Aug 31 Oakland voters could approve the state’s first tax on privately owned vacant properties in November. The city estimates the tax could raise as much as $10 million annually for homeless services, blight remediation, and to stem illegal dumping. Tax revenue would also go toward new affordable housing. Owners of properties in use fewer than 50 days per year would be taxed as much as $6,000 per parcel annually, if two-thirds of voters approve the measure in November. Two weeks after the Oakland City Council voted 6-2 to place the tax on the ballot, officials in the neighboring city of Richmond approved a similar proposal.
LOS ANGELES TIMES - Sep 4 The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the city’s first set of rules for the companies that have deposited thousands of electric scooters on sidewalks in neighborhoods from the Westside to Koreatown. The council created a one-year program to allow any company to apply for a permit to deploy up to 10,500 scooters. The temporary rules will give transportation officials time to tinker with the policies before lawmakers approve a permanent plan, they said. Tuesday’s vote follows months of debate over how Los Angeles should address the Bird and Lime scooters that began popping up on city sidewalks nearly a year ago.
THE WASHINGTON POST - Aug 29 Across the Southwest, people have long made accommodations to the heat, but climate change and urban development are forcing far more considerations. An increasing number of cities face extreme heat for much of the summer, with highs surpassing 100 and even 110 degrees for weeks at a time. Los Angeles, where the number of 95-plus-degree days is expected to triple by 2050, is among the municipal pioneers. In 2013, it became the first major U.S. city to require new and remodeled homes to install what is called cool roofing, made from materials of lighter shades such as white, pale gray, or tan. The mandate took effect in 2016, and officials say at least 18,000 homes across the L.A. basin are now topped with cool roofs. The city also has experimented with pavement treatments in an effort to reduce extreme heat.
