Real estate is the source of around 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, including 11% that come just from making building materials. Mass timber panels, which consist of small pieces of softwood glued together, offer a lower-emissions alternative to steel and cement, as well storing carbon sequestered by trees. Driven...
New York City's Brooklyn Bridge Park, here on a morning during the Covid shutdown, blends public and private capital to broaden open space access. More neighborhoods need parks like this.
In its $62.7-billion budget, HUD subsidizes 4.5 million units of housing in a portfolio directly owned or controlled through HUD partners. Furthermore, HUD resources are used by private developers through project-based vouchers and HOME funds. HUD has a great deal of power to drive the adoption of higher energy standards...
Prosperity arises not only from putting power sources in new places. It also flows from helping people currently powerless to tap energy for more active lives.
Lawyers and VCs have sized up the Inflation Reduction Act by now, and American energy systems will likely never stagnate again. For thinking about investment over the decades that decarbonization will take, take a trip back to another crossroads in the nation's energy history.
The economics in converting buildings to electricity look logical - over the long run, for pension fund investors. For a building owner with cash flow to manage, it's trickier. This explainer runs through the costs and trajectory for turning building systems to potentially clean sources.
(Photo by overWHAMmed, from Flickr Creative Commons). This transmission line in Pelzer, SC, testifies to the market potential for investment in new high-voltage lines.
The main line is the main event. Transmission of clean electricity, combined with storage, means that every state and nearly every community can effectively live on fossil-free power. Financing and permitting involve economic, political, and engineering knots. This explainer takes in the breakthrough ideas and baseline for speedier deployment.
