One thing we know for sure–It will take a long time for the country to adjust to the drought across the western states, particularly in California. But this is about more than California. It’s about economics. And it’s about apartment utilities.
First, economics: California is the largest federal taxpayer of all U.S. states, paying more […]
Submetering enables utility cost recovery as it allows utility billing providers like NWP to allocate utility charges to residents based on actual consumption, helping property owners recover several hundred dollars per unit in annual operating expense.
Submetering increases property value because it is a capital investment that leads to increased recurring revenue. You gain resident […]
Amory Lovins was right. In 1989, the American physicist noticed a misprint in a report of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission: negawatt for megawatt (MW). He borrowed the word to describe power saved through conservation or efficiency measures, and argued that these were the best way to meet rising demand for power, both for […]
Last year brought about a number of interesting developments in the energy industry. Here are five key trends we’ll be watching closely in 2014.
Energy efficiency policies continue to spread worldwide
The introduction of new energy efficiency policies and regulations was widespread in 2013—and that momentum appears poised to continue around the […]
From backyard tinkerers to big corporations, inventors have been struggling to find a way to store solar, wind and other renewable energy so it can furnish electricity when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow.
California is offering businesses a big incentive for success—contracts that the utility industry estimates could total as […]
Allow me to provide a first-hand account from the beautiful Northeast: this winter was brutal. Endless snow, bouts of extreme cold and a polar vortex have made this mother-of-all-winters colder than most winters across the last twenty years.
Chicago had its third snowiest winter on record, Detroit had its second snowiest and others broke wintery-white […]
There is an inherent connection between energy and water use and the need for co-management of energy planning. Most of the energy we use requires copious amounts of water to produce, and most of the water we use requires a considerable amount of energy to treat and transport.
Despite this inherent connection, it’s actually uncommon […]
California Governor Jerry Brown signed more than a dozen bills aimed at improving access to water in the state, where drought is common and tension is high over the competing needs of residents, agriculture and the environment.
The new laws attempt to address some of the most immediate concerns, including the difficulty faced by small […]
With so much focus on carbon emitted from the nation’s power plants, another environmental challenge related to electricity generation is sometimes overlooked: the enormous amount of water needed to cool the power-producing equipment.
In the U.S. almost all electric power plants, 90 percent, are thermoelectric plants, which essentially create steam to generate electricity. To cool […]
Renting an apartment can seem like a compact, environmentally-efficient way of living, but when it comes to energy use, that’s not always the case. University of California, Berkeley economists Lucas Davis and David Levine recently found that renters are significantly less likely than homeowners to report having efficient Energy Star appliances.
What’s going on here? Davis and Levine think it’s the so-called “landlord-tenant problem.” […]
Historical perspective
- March 2024
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- July 2022
- March 2022
- June 2021
- February 2021
- August 2020
- February 2020
- July 2019
- April 2019
- June 2018
- April 2018
- October 2017
- May 2017
- November 2016
- June 2016
- November 2015
- June 2015
- September 2014
- June 2014
- April 2014
- December 2013
- July 2013
- December 2012
- July 2012
- October 2011