I’ve been spending my summer time in Connecticut. It’s a really totally different place to reside than Florida, in ways in which lengthen past warmth and humidity and into views about fairness, honest play, and local weather air pollution. That’s to not say that Connecticut’s renewable vitality focus prevents local weather deniers from expressing their ill-conceived ideas right here within the North. Actually, I proceed to be consistently baffled once I hear just a few however assured neighbors within the rural countryside query fossil gasoline’s direct reason for our existential plight. It’s now not acceptable to play ignorant, to blindly settle for rampant disinformation, to gloss over sheer science that contains an awesome physique of proof — the Earth is getting hotter. Amongst scientists there may be just about no debate on this scary truth of latest life.
However Connecticut has loads of ahead momentum going relating to vitality effectivity and reliability within the face of a quickly altering local weather and world transition to wash vitality sources. When writing in regards to the local weather disaster, I discover it’s all to simple for us who’ve a voice within the media to interact in false equivalence — to, someway, really feel compelled to steadiness chronicles of emission mitigation successes with information tales about local weather entrepreneurs who disparage local weather motion.
For this text, I’ve determined to be a saccharine optimist. I’m solely going to share tales of Connecticut’s local weather triumphs — or not less than of people who find themselves making a distinction to contribute to a more healthy, cleaner world.
IRA funding makes it to CT: Whereas some states have declined federal local weather funding, members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation are delighted that that the Connecticut Division of Vitality and Environmental Safety (CTDEEP) will obtain $3 million from the US Environmental Safety Company (EPA)’s Local weather Air pollution Discount Grants (CPRG) program. The grant program, funded by the Inflation Discount Act (IRA), will assist to develop and implement plans for decreasing GHG emissions and different dangerous air air pollution and reinforce Connecticut’s renewable vitality focus.
Battery-electric buses are again! The Connecticut Division of Transportation (CTDOT) returned its transit battery-electric buses to service earlier this month after being out of service since July, 2022. The producer recalled the buses after a thermal drawback attributable to a design defect. The answer? Monitoring software program and battery thermal administration methods have been put in to appropriate the defect. CTDOT labored carefully with CTtransit; New Flyer, the bus producer; and ABB, a charger producer.
The recall gave CTDOT the prospect to completely examine and highway take a look at the electrical buses to make sure their system updates and enhancements had been as much as public transportation community wants. Bus operators and staff within the upkeep and charging models additionally acquired enhanced coaching and procedures through the down time.
“The return of those battery electrical buses is a part of Connecticut’s complete effort to enhance the standard of life in Connecticut by holding our air clear,” CTDOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto mentioned. “These buses function in areas which can be disproportionately burdened by air air pollution, and eradicating diesel emissions is significant to the well being and well-being of all our residents. Along with having no emissions, these buses are quieter, present a smoother journey and have decrease upkeep prices than diesel autos.” The buses are categorised as zero-emission autos.
UConn/ UAlbany grant from the Heart for Climate Innovation and Sensible Vitality and Resilience: A brand new, state-of-the-art climate and local weather facility led by researchers on the College of Connecticut and the College at Albany has at its core the hunt to safeguard the vitality {industry}. The Heart for Climate Innovation and Sensible Vitality and Resilience (WISER) goals to leverage the analysis and experience at UConn and UAlbany to create superior
weather- and climate-based options for the vitality {industry}, now and sooner or later. WISER’s analysis path will concentrate on renewable vitality (photo voltaic, hydro, and wind), energy outage administration, electrical grid resilience introduced on by excessive climate, and methods local weather change impacts energy producers and energy distributors.
“We envision WISER to turn into a number one vitality industry-academia partnership, advancing analysis and cutting-edge applied sciences to repeatedly enhance energy grid effectivity and reliability within the face of a altering local weather and transition to wash vitality,” says Manos Anagnostou, a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Eversource Vitality endowed chair in environmental engineering at UConn. WISER additionally will recruit graduate and undergraduate college students from underrepresented teams to extend minority participation in science and engineering and particularly interdisciplinary collaborations and publicity to industry-academia partnerships.
The brand new heart will probably be supported by a $750,000 NSF grant for every establishment and a 5-year, $3.7 million {industry} partnership membership payment. The NSF additionally awarded WISER with a $20,000 grant in 2022 that was used to host a WISER planning assembly at UAlbany with vitality {industry} executives. UConn has different College Cooperative Analysis Facilities funded by the Nationwide Science Basis: the Heart for Novel Excessive Voltage/Temperature Supplies and Constructions, the Heart for {Hardware} and Embedded System Safety and Belief, and the Heart for Science of Heterogeneous Additive Printing of 3D Supplies.
New constructing codes will promote vitality effectivity: As a result of dependable electrical energy entry for residents of multifamily inexpensive housing throughout grid outages is crucial, the US Division of Vitality Constructing Vitality Expertise Workplace has chosen the Local weather Resilient Vitality Code challenge to obtain $1 million in funding assist. The objective of the Local weather Resilient Vitality Code challenge is to develop and advance the implementation of stretch constructing codes to incorporate the installations of resilient vitality methods, together with photo voltaic, battery storage, and environment friendly heating and cooling, to energy important companies for inexpensive housing residents throughout grid outages.
The event and implementation of those codes in Connecticut will set up finest practices and create a template for different states and native governments to boost local weather resilience and cut back vitality burdens in environmental justice communities by establishing a roadmap for multifamily inexpensive properties to undertake vitality resilient applied sciences.
Government actions to cut back carbon emissions: Connecticut’s Government Order No. 21-3 requires 23 actions, supporting 30+ suggestions proposed by the GC3 and directs State govt department state companies to take important actions inside their authority to cut back carbon emissions. If you happen to’d prefer to see the spectrum of plans, click on right here.
I do not like paywalls. You do not like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Right here at CleanTechnica, we applied a restricted paywall for some time, but it surely all the time felt mistaken — and it was all the time powerful to determine what we must always put behind there. In principle, your most unique and finest content material goes behind a paywall. However then fewer folks learn it! We simply don’t love paywalls, and so we have determined to ditch ours.
Sadly, the media enterprise remains to be a troublesome, cut-throat enterprise with tiny margins. It is a unending Olympic problem to remain above water and even maybe — gasp — develop. So …
