Energy Efficiency MicroNews: Ameresco, Green Lease Leaders Standards, Hydrogenics, GE Digital energy

Jan. 20, 2014
Weekly Energy Efficiency News: Washington city selects Ameresco for LED street light project…The Institute for Market Transformation and the DOE create a Green Lease Leaders program…Hydrogenics wins a $3.8 million contract for microgrid energy storage in Canada.

 This week in energy efficiency news…

Yakima, Wash. selected Ameresco to install LED street lights citywide. The energy savings performance contract calls for replacing the cities 4,000 remaining high-pressure sodium streetlights as well as parking, parks and other outdoor lighting fixtures. Ameresco will also help the city apply for a Washington Department of Commerce energy efficiency grant to help pay for the project. Twelve Washington cities now work with Ameresco on LED streetlight projects.

More about Yakima’s LED street light installation by Ameresco

The Institute for Market Transformation and the US Department of Energy have set up a Green Lease Leaders recognition standard. When landlords and tenants want to work together to enhance their building’s performance, they often seem to be speaking different languages.  Little uniform language exists that is widely accepted for green leasing. Nor is there a simple blueprint for leasing agents tasked with bridging the landlord-tenant divides on sustainability. As a result, many firms interested in green leases find it hard to move forward. Green Lease Leaders addresses this problem by creating an industry-approved definition of a green lease program and by recognizing landlords, tenants, and brokers nationally who are successfully meeting that standard.

More about the Green Lease Leaders standards

Hydrogenics has won a $3.8 million contract to supply a micro-grid energy storage application in Canada. The project will store surplus wind energy as hydrogen using a Hydrogenics HySTAT60 electrolyzer operating at 320 kW of energy absorption. The hydrogen will be stored on site and then converted back to energy when needed with a 200-kW Hydrogenics HyPM-R200 fuel cell system. The project will replace a diesel generation system. Hydrogenics expects to deliver the project in late 2014.

More about the Hydrogenics $3.8 million contract

Skiatook, Ontario will use GE Digital Energy’s advanced Grid IQ Solutions in a grid-modernization project. The software-as-a-service product provide cities and utilities with the benefits of a modern grid without requiring the large staff or up-front capital typically needed to do so. The  technology will help Skiatook to respond to changing energy dynamics via a cohesive network, modern meters and advanced metering infrastructure for its utility grids.

More about the Skiatook GE grid installation

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

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