Sacramento is one of the first cities to renegotiate its path towards sustainable power. Since the inception of California’s rooftop solar mandate, several municipalities have scrambled to accommodate the push towards clean energy. Sacramento may be the first of many cities to take advantage of a loophole in the mandate. Community solar The California Energy Commission approved a proposal from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) that would allow developers to use offsite solar panel installations in some new construction. The community solar option would allow developers to explore more cost-effective options for powering homes off-site. The existing community solar provision applies to shaded apartment buildings and single-family homes. The approved proposal opens the door for developers to choose rooftop solar or SMUD’s community solar for any project in the municipality. Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment explains the implications of the new provision. “There is a really strong precedential value here,” he said. “This is a new regulation that just went into effect, and this community solar piece of it hasn’t really been tested, and so it’s going to set a precedent for years to come for how utilities and real estate developers will respond to this regulation.” New yet weakening regulation? In essence, the new mandate is already accepting exceptions. Rooftop solar advocates fear the broader implications.  Laurie Litman, member of the climate group 350 Sacramento, expressed her apprehensions: “The concern is that if it’s cheaper for developers to not put solar on people’s homes, then they’re going to opt for that choice,” says Litman. “That’s going to undermine the solar homes mandate throughout the state because then other areas and other utilities will ask for that waiver as well.” Secondly,...

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, using energy efficiently is one of the fastest and most effective ways to save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs and meet growing energy demand. Yardi has once again been named ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year. The award celebrates companies demonstrating superior leadership, innovation and commitment to environmental protection through energy efficiency and ENERGY STAR. ENERGY STAR provides information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed energy efficiency decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state and local organizations — including more than 40% of the Fortune 500® — rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. The award acknowledges Yardi’s effort to educate and support clients with benchmarking services and technology solutions across a variety of real estate sectors. In 2019, Yardi helped more than 100 clients benchmark energy in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® for over 2,300 buildings, leading to a nearly 110 percent increase from the previous year. Yardi helped clients benchmark water in over 2,000 buildings, a 300 percent increase from 2018. In addition, Yardi actively promotes ENERGY STAR benefits, publishing more than 20 articles and providing resources for benchmarking energy performance and energy management such as  webinars, client conferences courses, executive briefings sessions and other activities. “We are very proud of our clients’ continued success in using ENERGY STAR resources to achieve their corporate and community sustainability goals and we look forward to helping them and the industry reap even more ENERGY STAR benefits going forward,” said Anant Yardi, president and founder of Yardi. The company has earned ENERGY STAR certification for its corporate headquarters in Santa Barbara, Calif., and helps its real estate clients measure success and provide visibility into their ENERGY STAR...

The U.S. Energy Information Administration distributes information on energy-related trends and milestones. Here’s a sampling of recent postings from the EIA’s Today in Energy news and information resource. Renewables on the rise The EIA projects that electricity generation from renewable sources such as wind and solar will surpass nuclear and coal by 2021 and natural gas in 2045. Most of the growth in renewable electricity generation comes from wind and solar, which account for about half of renewable generation today. These technologies will account for nearly 80% of the renewable total in 2050. New wind capacity is expected to continue at much lower levels after production tax credits expire in the early 2020s. Growth in solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity will continue for both utility-scale and small-scale applications through 2050 because of declining PV costs. In April 2019, U.S. monthly electricity generation from renewable sources exceeded coal-fired generation for the first time. Wind blows by hydro In 2019, annual wind generation exceeded hydroelectric generation as the top renewable source of energy generation in the U.S. for the first time. Wind generation totaled 300 million megawatthours (MWh) in 2019, exceeding hydroelectric generation by 26 million MWh. Energy consumption heats up World energy consumption will grow nearly 50% by 2050, with the growth focused in regions where strong economic growth is driving demand, particularly Asia. The industrial sector, including refining, mining, manufacturing, agriculture and construction, will account for more than half of end-use energy consumption through 2050, by which time global industrial energy consumption will reach about 315 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu). Transportation energy consumption is slated to increase nearly 40% by 2050 and is largely driven by developing countries with non-market economies. Energy consumed in the buildings sector, which includes residential and commercial structures, is...

Here’s a look at some energy milestones from the last time a ’20s decade dawned—a period described by Marquette University economics professor Gene Smiley as “the first truly modern decade.” Wind. In 1919, two Danish engineers advanced windmills’ state of the art by designing blades that worked like the wings of an airplane. Their “Agricco” could turn to adjust to the wind flow and automatically rotated to face into the wind. A German-developed windmill capable of producing electricity from wind and the U.S.-bred first wind power company followed in 1920 and 1922, respectively. Wind technology was superseded in the 1930s by power lines capable of transmitting electricity to rural areas. In common with other renewable energy sources, wind experienced a renaissance in the wake of the oil crises of the 1970s. Today, “renewable energy is seeing a boom in growth, with wind energy leading the way” and accounting for nearly 7% of U.S. electricity generation, according to the National Geographic. The World Wind Energy Assn. reports that global capacity for wind turbines reached 600 gigawatts by the end of 2018. There are 57,000 land and offshore wind turbines in the U.S. alone. Geothermal. At The Geysers, some 70 miles north of San Francisco, molten rock lying relatively close to the Earth’s service heats water in overlying permeable rock to very high temperatures. In 1921 an engineer drilled a geothermal well that powered a generator for lighting a local resort. In 1960, a steam-generated plant at The Geysers began generating electricity commercially. The Geysers stands today as the world’s largest commercially productive geothermal field. Its average output in 2017 was 647.7 net megawatts. Geothermal energy—which can be used for heating, cooling and generating electricity—contributes more than 3.7 gigawatts to the national grid, making the U.S....

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the U.S. Department of Energy’s R&D arm, has provided about $2 billion dollars for more than 800 potentially transformational energy technology projects since 2009. Here’s a sampling of projects currently receiving support from ARPA-E. Fill it up, fast.  The University of Illinois, Chicago, is designing a new high-power converter circuit architecture for charging electric vehicles quickly. “The reduced weight and size of the universal battery supercharger can enable both off-board stationary fast charging systems and [serve] as a portable add-on system for EV customers who require range enhancement and quick charging in 15 minutes,” ARPA-E says. The system’s bidirectional power flow capability enabling vehicle-to-grid dispatching offers another potential benefit. No-pain windows. Massachusetts-based thermal management solutions provider Aspen Aerogels and its partners are working on a cost-effective, silica aerogel-insulated windowpane for retrofitting single-pane windows. Silica aerogels are strong insulators that resist the flow of heat. The team’s design consists of an aerogel sheet sandwiched between two glass panes to make a double glazed pane. It would be manufactured using an innovative supercritical drying method that significantly reduces drying time. The windowpane could be used to replace, at substantially lower cost, single panes in windows whose thickness or weight preclude replacement with common double-pane units. Frozen hope. Massachusetts renewable energy technology provider American Superconductor (AMSC) is developing a freezer that doesn’t rely on harmful, inefficient liquid refrigerant systems and is more energy efficient than conventional systems. The solution uses helium gas as its refrigerant, offering hope for a safe, affordable and environmentally friendly approach to cooling. High-efficiency freezers could be mass-produced cost effectively and without polluting refrigerants. Scrap value. Lexington, Ky.-based advanced materials developer UHV Technologies Inc. is working to apply X-rays to distinguishing between high-value metal alloys found in...

If sustainability is a part of your branding, the holidays are your time to shine. Did you know that from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, Americans toss about one million extra tons of trash each week? The additional waste is mostly holiday packaging, wrapping, and shipping supplies. Americans are particularly wasteful with energy during the holidays, too. Households in the US consume more energy during the holidays that some countries do in a year. Multifamily properties can set new precedents for the holidays. Below are six tips to make your property more environmentally friendly and cost efficient. By implementing conservation techniques and rewarding resident participation, we can break the tradition of holiday waste. Sustainable Switches, Great and Small Do you have a healthy budget for sustainable upgrades, or are you’re advocating for Mother Earth with your bare hands? Below are a few tips for budgets of any size. Make the Switch to LEDs If you haven’t already made the switch to LED lights, do so. This includes your holiday lighting. According to Eartheasy, the average business can save about $3,700 per year, per 25 bulbs. Each LED bulb last up to 200,000 hours, meaning that you replace bulbs and strings of lights less often. Step Up Recycling After the holidays, host recycling hauls for residents. For example, invite residents to bring their outdated electronics down to a truck near the leasing office. It’s then a single trip to recycle tablets and smart phones for the entire community. (Many electronics store offer recycling services.) You can also invite a tree specialist to the property to clear Christmas trees. Some companies will bring a mulching truck and recycle trees on the spot! Improve Utility Billing Some residents decorate like there is no tomorrow. Others leave town or skip the décor...

Those summer tees and shorts are but a memory. With fall here and winter on deck, how do you stay comfortable at home without spiking your utility bills? Here’s a compilation of tips from the U.S. Department of Energy and other sources. Study up. Conduct an energy audit to find out where you can save and invest for long-term energy savings. Don’t miss sunshine. Open curtains on your south-facing windows during the day to allow sunlight to naturally heat your home. Close them at night. End the draft. According to energy services marketplace Choose Energy, up to 30% of a home’s heat can escape through low-efficiency windows. Cold air can lead into a home through cracks and gaps in windows and doorways. Covering windows and sliding doors with clear plastic film can cut about 14% from your heating bill. Install tight-fitting, insulating drapes or shades on windows that still feel drafty. Seal any gaps with caulk or weather-stripping. Check the equipment. Have your heating system serviced. Replace furnace and heater filters as needed. Air filters should be replaced monthly. Clean the flue vents on wood- and pellet-burning heaters. Reset the temp. When you’re home and awake, set your thermostat as low as possible to remain comfortable. Turn it back 10° to 15° at nighttime and when you’re gone. A smart or programmable thermostat makes this easy. Get a smart ’stat. Almost half of monthly energy costs are controlled by your thermostat, according to Efficiency Vermont, and Choose Energy says a programmable thermostat can cut heating costs by up to 12%. Cut your losses. Close your fireplace damper when not in use to keep warm air from escaping up the chimney. Install tempered glass doors and a heat-air exchange system for the fireplace. Add caulking around the fireplace...

The world’s largest single-site solar power plant recently commenced operation. It outpaces the leading solar power farm by a hair’s width and leaves America’s largest in the dust. Sweihan Power Plant vs. The World Japan’s Marubeni Corp Sweihan photovoltaic power plant, located in the United Arab Emirates, took two years to complete. The site contains 3.2 million solar panels that produce 1,177 megawatts of energy. For comparison, the largest solar power plant in the United States is Solar Star in California. It has 1.7 million solar panels that produce 579 megawatts of energy. That’s enough to power about 255,000 homes, reports Solstice, the leading solar power provider in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was the largest of its time when completed in 2015. Learn how the United States is nearing the end of solar ITC programs. Solar Star is, in fact, not among the largest solar farms in the world. India and China dominate the sun-powered energy. Shakti Sthala, Pavagada, Karnataka of India produces a contested 2,000 megawatts. It is followed by Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park of India which generates 1,000 megawatts. Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China generates 850 megawatts. Kamuthi, Tamil Nadu of India offers 648 megawatts of power to nearby communities. Marubeni Corp, JinkoSolar Holding Co., and Abu Dhabi Power Corp. co-own the $870 million Sweihan solar farm. The project required eight international banks to secure funding. The UAE Energy Plan 2050 The project, also called Noor Abu Dhabi, is part of the UAE’s Energy Plan 2050. Introduced in 2017 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the energy plan is designed to produce renewable, nuclear and clean energy sources. The plan invests $163 billion in pursuit of a more sustainable and diverse energy supply including “44 percent clean energy, 38 percent...

Commercial building owners and managers, especially those equipped with the Yardi Pulse Suite, can lead the way in optimizing energy consumption. But with tenants accounting for as much as 80% of the energy used in office buildings, energy efficiency requires nothing less than a full team effort. ENERGY STAR® suggests making the quest for energy efficiency collaborative, stimulating, rewarding and—last but certainly not least—fun for tenants. Advice in the program’s “8 Great Strategies to Engage Tenants on Energy Efficiency” guidebook from 2016 includes: Be transparent and open with timely information. That includes sharing energy efficiency goals, building energy use data and ENERGY STAR scores. Vornado Realty Trust, for example, launched an energy information portal that enables submetered tenants to access their energy usage profile and data. JLL publishes an annual building environmental report while Wells Real Estate displays ENERGY STAR scorecards that report progress toward sustainability goals. Leverage the ENERGY STAR brand, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says is recognized by 80% of Americans. The program’s resources include tip sheets, interactive tools and other guidance for inspiring tenants to provide energy consumption information. Beacon Capital Partners Inc. and Cushman & Wakefield are among the property managers that apply ENERGY STAR branding to its posters and other materials. ENERGY STAR also offers opportunities for positive visibility through certifications, competitions and other recognition. Educate tenants on their energy use and impacts and help them identify opportunities for improvement. Examples among industry leaders include CBRE, which sends letters rich with energy-saving tips; Beacon Capital, which hosts a plug load educational program; and Liberty Property Trust, which created a green guide web portal. Meanwhile, Cushman & Wakefield offers tenants a green office tool kit, Bentall Kennedy distributes a sustainable tenant improvement manual and JLL sponsors a “go...

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, is ENERGY STAR Day, described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as “a celebration of energy efficiency” and a means to raise awareness of the benefits of favoring products and properties with ENERGY STAR® certification. And there’s a lot to celebrate. On average, ENERGY STAR-certified buildings use 35% less energy than typical buildings nationwide and command a premium of up to 16% for sales prices and rental rates. More than 34,000 buildings have earned certification, which requires an ENERGY STAR score of 75 or higher, meaning that such a building performs better than at least 75% of similar buildings nationwide. All told, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped save American families and businesses more than $450 billion and over 3.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity since 1992 while also achieving broad emissions reductions. Another facet of the ENERGY STAR program has been similarly fruitful for industrial plants, while ENERGY STAR-certified homes, apartments and products are built to an equally high standard of efficiency. Yardi is intimately familiar with ENERGY STAR and its benefits. Property managers use the Yardi Pulse Suite to capture energy data for ENERGY STAR® benchmarking and reporting. The company employs experts who can help clients identify conservation opportunities and comply with ENERGY STAR and other standards. Yardi is also sponsoring a series of webinars this month on new ENERGY STAR compliance requirements taking effect in the U.S. and Canada next year. The EPA, co-manager of ENERGY STAR, has recognized Yardi as an energy efficiency leader. In April 2019, the company earned designation as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year, the highest level of recognition the agency offers, in the service and product provider category. Check out the EPA’s toolkit for spreading awareness of ENERGY STAR Day through...

Your tenant in the eastern wing is chronically cold. You’re fighting an uphill battle for safety as your tenant’s employees bring personal heaters into the space.  In the western wing, however, your tenant’s employees can’t get cool enough. They complain of high energy bills while swearing the humidity will lead to mold problems. Uncomfortable tenants are more than a headache. They are a threat to your bottom line. Thermal comfort can impact your tenants’ desire to renew their leases. Additionally, a commercial property with low thermal comfort may indicate inefficiencies in its climate controls or building envelope. High turnover and an inefficient building will adversely affect your bottom line. Thermal Comfort + Your Bottom Line The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers defines thermal comfort as the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment. It is subjectively assessed by using the Comfort Scale or Thermal Index, both of which evaluate temperature, humidity, air velocity, and radiant temperature. As comfort is subjective, a commercial building’s thermal comfort ranking will vary from person to person. Health and Safety Executive recognizes an international standard which suggests that a building has “reasonable comfort” when at least 80 percent of its occupants are thermally comfortable. Improving Thermal Comfort in Commercial Properties There are three ways to notably improve tenant comfort and protect your investment: 1. Identify and Fix Leaks Address leaks in the building envelope. Contact a contractor to identify areas where your heating and cooling efforts are defeated by oversights in construction or maintenance. Resealing windows and adding weather stripping to doors, for example, are two quick fixes for drafts. Leakage significantly decreases the energetic efficiency of an HVAC system. As a result, the HVAC system may be working overtime to regulate indoor conditions. Have your units...

If encouragement to “save money; cut carbon; breathe easier” seems more prominent than usual where you live and work, it’s because today is Energy Efficiency Day, and that’s the key message the event’s organizers are promoting. A nationwide alliance of energy efficiency advocacy groups sponsors Energy Efficiency Day to share “tips, tools and stories that promote the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, from lower costs to healthier homes,” as stated in the event’s website. About 450 local governments, universities, organizations, corporations and utilities are hosting an array of activities including expos, energy-saving device installations, free energy assessments and symposia with thought leaders. Organizers of Energy Efficiency Day, an annual occurrence since 2016, encourage people to stage their own events, such as a “treasure hunt” check of home appliance, lighting and insulation efficiency, and to share their experiences from the day (#EEDay2019). Technologies that lower energy bills and make properties more comfortable are part of Energy Efficiency Day’s focus—and have long been a staple of Yardi’s business. The Yardi Pulse Suite, an integrated set of software solutions, supports sustainability efforts by maximizing efficiency across all property types. “October 2 is Energy Efficiency Day. But efficiency is year-round,” says the event’s website, which pretty well summarizes Yardi’s approach as well. Every month last year, for example, the company benchmarked more than 1,700 buildings across 47 client portfolios in 27 compliance jurisdictions in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®. A grant to the BOMA Water and Waste Challenge helped property owners and managers improve their water and waste management practices. Ongoing leadership, innovation and commitment to environmental protection earned Yardi designation as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year. The company joined GRESB’s Global Partner program this year as a sustainability consultant and solution provider. Yardi promotes energy management...

Solar power is a burgeoning alternative energy source that accounts for 1.6% of total U.S. electricity generation and encompasses enough installed capacity to power 12.3 million homes. It’s the second-fastest source of new generation on the U.S. power grid, but it’s not flawless. Arrays that capture solar energy don’t work at night or when obscured by cloud cover, atmosphere or seasonality. The United Nations estimates the global population will be 9.6 billion by 2050, so the rush is on to find new ways to generate large quantities of clean energy. For decades, scientists have explored putting solar arrays where night never falls and clouds don’t form and power transmission need not be interrupted by fickle weather or unfavorable orbital tilt. Specifically, in geostationary or low-Earth orbit, where satellites could capture solar energy, convert it into a microwave or a laser and beam it to Earth. Ground-based receivers would then convert the energy into useable electricity and add it to the electric grid. “If solar power is going to be the principal so-called ‘dispatchable’ baseload source of power that replaces today’s fossil-fuel-powered electric-generating stations, inherently you have to have the generating source be available all the time,” environmental scientist Dr. Deanna Conners wrote in 2018. Efforts to put space-based solar power generation into production have been hindered by cost and technology impediments. But recent developments are bringing the concept closer to reality. In 2018, scientists at the California Institute of Technology announced that they created a prototype lightweight tile, the building block of solar arrays capable of harnessing and transmitting solar energy from space. Earlier this year, China announced plans to place the first solar power station in geostationary orbit by 2050. Other countries in Asia and Europe are working on their own projects. A...

Want to cut costs across your portfolio while improving environmental conditions for future generations? Of course you do. You can achieve both when you turn sustainability initiatives into games that get residents and tenants involved. The basic tools below can help you get started today. Gamification: Undercover Education (and Self-Help) Meetings, lectures, and classes on saving energy rarely alter our habits. Feedback, seeing the results of our actions often in real-time, has proven to help to change habits. That’s where gamification fits into your energy-saving strategy. What is gamification? In short, it’s implementing game design elements in non-game contexts. It’s making something that tends to be unexciting and intangible more exciting and interactive. Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development in the Netherlands published research on the gamification of energy savings. Researchers concluded that solely issuing smart meters in buildings did not result in optimal energy savings. It was also necessary to change residents’ energy usage behavior. Games proved to be an effective way to heighten awareness and alter user habits. Historically, residents and tenants are slow to change comfortable behaviors even if we know that we can save money. That’s because changing our behaviors takes effort, such as closing blinds before we leave the building to minimize radiant heat or using an app to turn off lights and outlets. None of those tasks takes much effort. But any task is yet another thing to do in a world where we already feel too busy! Gamification helps to take the effort out of changing our comfortable behaviors and makes conserving resources more entertaining. Copernicus Institute details the following components for effective gamification of energy savings. What Makes Gamification Successful? Gamification can be simplified for both commercial and multifamily properties. The American Council for an Energy Efficient...

The processes and technology needed to start moving to “net zero” buildings—those that produce enough renewable energy to meet their annual energy consumption requirements—are available today. How to make them widely understood, accepted and implemented was the focus of a recent webinar featuring Akshai Rao, Yardi vice president of procure to pay and energy, and other industry experts. ENERGY STAR® estimates that the average commercial building wastes 30% of its energy consumption. Real estate is the fourth largest generator of greenhouse gas emissions; if that industry alone cut its emissions by 30%, the U.S. could hit the Paris Agreement targets, Rao told the webinar audience. This means there are significant monetary as well as societal incentives for achieving net zero. “Because energy is a building’s second largest controllable cost, it can really eat into investor returns. Having a cohesive energy strategy is one of few things the real estate industry can do from an operations perspective that increases portfolio value,” Rao said. Any hope of achieving a net zero building or portfolio, he said, starts with understanding a building’s load factors and prioritizing which buildings to invest in, which is based on benchmarking the portfolio against the industry with ENERGY STAR. ”There’s so much cost and consumption data to be gained just from utility bills. Rather than just approving and paying them, you can achieve portfolio-wide insights and property cost/consumption trends that help identify capital investment that can reduce consumption,” Rao said. Properties can couple this data with real-time metering to visualize the demand profile of a building, which can highlight tactical actions for reducing spend. Once you have data on your portfolio, the next step is to identify properties to invest in for the highest energy savings return. Several solutions on the market...

Dallas-based multifamily community manager Pinnacle sought to reduce utility late fees and increase vacant utility cost recoveries at 170,000 residential units that it manages. “We needed to automate the entire process—payables, receivables, consumption data analysis and reporting that drilled down to a granular level of detail,” said Nicole Ellery, the company’s ancillary performance manager. Doing all this required replacing its cumbersome manual utility consumption tracking and billing with the Yardi Energy Suite. One element of the suite, Yardi Utility Expense Management, receives, validates and completes payments for Pinnacle’s utility bills. Another part, Yardi Utility Billing, monitors and bills residents for their utility consumption, which helps the company recover vacant unit costs, monitor usage, forecast utility revenue and cut waste with consumption alerts. How has the Yardi Energy Suite worked out for Pinnacle? The bottom line, Ellery said on a utility expense management panel at the most recent Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC), is “lower late fees across the board.” That happened because the comprehensive solution for utility billing, energy management and submeter data administration helps the company “track how properties are performing with line-by-line data down to the individual meter level as opposed to only invoice data.” “When we onboard a new property, we can see red flags such as high consumption on a meter and follow up with an investigation,” Ellery said. “Our property managers and accountants can drill down to each general ledger account and invoice if anything looks off and see what’s going on. We can see gradual increases in consumption and process invoices as soon as they come in.” She added, “We have saved thousands of dollars every year by nearly eliminating late fees. The suite vastly simplified our vacant unit recovery process, so it maximizes income too. We’d be...