DG+Design

As many of us gear up for holiday travel, the DG+ team has been following how mobility sector decarbonization might unfold in the coming years: Major automakers want electric vehicle regulations to stay ???? Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis want current regulations requiring car companies to reduce tailpipe emissions to be kept intact, reports The New York Times. It’s estimated that by 2032, compliance with the rule would lead to 72% of new passenger cars sold being either EVs or hybrids. Why do car companies want this? They’ve already invested billions to transition to EVs, and abrupt rule changes would jeopardize the models they’ve designed for showrooms in 2028. American auto companies (except Tesla) sell EVs at a loss today because they haven’t recouped their investments, so they’d like to reach economies of scale. EV manufacturing facilities and battery plants also create jobs and tax revenue for American workers and businesses. (https://lnkd.in/gSeNa8e3) What’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), anyway? ????? The airline industry, one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize, represents nearly 2.5% of the world’s annual CO2 emissions, and that number is rising. SAF is the most promising solution today, but according to Maria Gallucci of Canary Media Inc., its development is complicated. The lifecycle CO2 emissions from these biofuels are lower than conventional jet fuels. But they’re by no means CO2-free, and the industry needs to grapple with SAF’s complex environmental impacts, including competing with food for agricultural land. In the U.S., projects representing >3 billion gallons’ worth of SAF production are expected to come online by 2030, but we’ll need 35 billion gallons per year by 2050 to meet 100% of industry needs. (https://lnkd.in/g3NwDq3f)

Happy Thanksgiving from the DG+ team! Our team is grateful to help power the clean energy transition through our clients work as well as our own. As we reflect on the past year, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and look forward to another productive year with our growing community here at DG+. ?? from left to right: David Ganske, Nadia Johnson, Mary Duncan-Sain, Melissa Stafford-Woodruff, Dana Filek-Gibson, Julianne Waite, Barbara Weber, Daniel Jones, Phoebe Skok, MAS

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been at the forefront of tech news for the past few years. These platforms rely on their proprietary bots to access content across the internet and build their knowledge base to improve their outputs. Have you considered how these crawlers might be interacting with your website? If not, don’t worry; we’ve outlined the pros and cons of AI bots crawling your content. Check out our latest Insight article below ?? Author: Jordan Griffin https://lnkd.in/gNrcvbGs

Policymakers and businesses at the state and local levels play a key role in the U.S. clean energy transition. And their importance will only grow in the future. This week, the DG+ team has been watching clean energy developments in states and municipalities. Check them out ?? Kentucky. Batteries. Jobs. A Canadian Solar subsidiary just announced that it’ll build a new battery manufacturing plant in Shelbyville, KY. The plant will cost $712 million to build, create 1,572 jobs, and will start making batteries by late 2025. Kentucky is now the nation’s largest producer of electric vehicle batteries. (https://lnkd.in/gYuwU-N6) Eastport. Microgrid. Resilience. Eastport is an island city off the coast of Maine with ~1,300 residents. When big storms come through, Eastport loses power that’s generated on the mainland. To make the island more energy resilient, a community-driven initiative is developing solar and tidal power to feed a microgrid, reports Inside Climate News. The tide is one of Eastport’s greatest assets, and the ORPC plans to use a 1-2 megawatt tidal power generator to harvest that energy by 2030. The power utility Versant Power, for its part, is experimenting with incorporating a microgrid into its regular grid to serve Eastport. (https://lnkd.in/gX2HYq4u). Massachusetts. Renewables. Decarbonization. The Bay State is aiming for 50% emissions (vs. 1990) by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. To do this, state legislators approved a long-awaited climate bill that’ll limit gas pipeline expansion, speed up renewables deployment, and let utilities use geothermal instead of gas. According to Canary Media Inc., the bill reduces red tape by allowing renewables developers to go through a single regulatory agency for the entire process instead of having to go through multiple agencies. (https://lnkd.in/g_D7yQRq) It also sets targets for long-duration energy storage, allows contracts for offshore wind and battery storage for up to 30 years instead of the current 20, and allocates $200 million to its offshore wind investment fund and another $200 million to its clean energy investment fund, reports Utility Dive (https://lnkd.in/gmdmX5fG). #ClimateChange #RenewableEnergy #Main #Massachusetts #Kentucky #Battery

DG+Design is excited to welcome Genevieve Resnick aboard as our Strategy and Operations Manager! Genevieve will focus primarily on improving internal operations and efficiency to ensure that DG+ provides high-quality work to all clients. We sat down with her recently to learn about her background and why she wanted to join the team at DG+. Read what she had to say in our Q&A through the link below.

The 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29), a 2-week UN climate summit, began in Baku, Azerbaijan this week. Dubbed the “finance COP,” it’s expected to be the pivotal event where rich nations ramp up their commitments to provide climate finance to developing nations. This week, we take a break from US cleantech news to focus on the big announcements from Azerbaijan. ?? Finance, finance, finance Funding outlooks are especially dire for developing countries, which face the biggest challenges in mobilizing enough finance to meet Paris Agreement goals. According to the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, they need $1 trillion in international climate finance by 2030 and ~$1.3 trillion by 2035. Much of this money will have to come from multilateral development organizations like the World Bank. (https://lnkd.in/gy3KjvHF) Negotiations continue in Baku on the size and structure of a new finance target. ?? Carbon market rules: groundbreaking, controversial, and needs more work Negotiators agreed on a set of rules for an international carbon credit market run by the United Nations. A groundbreaking agreement on an issue that’s been stalled since 2015, this global carbon market will allow emissions mitigation projects in one part of the world to generate and sell credits to buyers in other countries. Proponents think the new market will be the “gold standard” for emissions trading and unlock billions in finance in developing countries. (https://lnkd.in/g62Uc3PW) But others are critical of how these rules bypassed established COP processes and worry that they don’t address risks that hound discussions around carbon markets. (https://lnkd.in/gjYiZJSV) Negotiators have much more to do to hammer out specifics. ?? More support for nuclear At last year’s COP in Dubai, 25 countries — including the U.S. — signed the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy. Six more countries announced their endorsement for the declaration at COP29, bringing the total number of countries to 31. (https://lnkd.in/gEmRTGf5) #UnitedNations #COP29 #Nuclear

If you’re still anxiously processing the results of this week’s elections, you’re not alone. Like many in the clean energy community, we’re also pondering how the incoming administration and Congress will impact the industry and climate progress. But, there’s a case for optimism! This week, the DG+ team brings you the stories that cheered us up. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has benefitted Republican constituencies ?????? Businesses and workers across the country have benefited from the IRA’s support for clean energy. Red states and rural communities, in particular, are experiencing tremendous economic benefits, making it hard for any administration to reverse course, according to Latitude Media (https://lnkd.in/gNMsCB7s) And as Canary Media Inc. explains, a complete repeal of the IRA would be highly disruptive to a sector that’s seen planned investment grow to roughly $500 million since the law was passed in mid-2022. (https://lnkd.in/gX2YfkFB) Besides, clean energy is good for American energy security and manufacturing ??????? The tax incentives that spurred domestic clean energy supply chains bolster two of the goals laid out in President-elect Trump’s platform — energy independence and the onshoring of manufacturing, reports Utility Dive. (https://lnkd.in/gBUdwxyj) Cheap electricity provided by renewables could also help lower consumer energy bills and end inflation, another item on Trump’s platform. Environmental groups and world leaders are ready to keep working ???? The Environmental Protection Network and the Center for Biological Diversity are just two of the many groups vowing to keep fighting to uphold climate and environmental policies, according to E&E News (https://lnkd.in/gfvmFGH7) As COP29 is scheduled in Azerbaijan next week, climate leaders around the world — including the UN climate chief — are also ready to press on despite the results of the election, reports Climate Home News. (https://lnkd.in/gs2dkDek) #ClimateChange #Election #RenewableEnergy

With Election Day just around the corner, there are a lot of questions about how the next administration might impact clean energy. Globally, the energy transition is slowing down (https://lnkd.in/gDFSHAQH). But in the U.S., we’re encouraged by top-down and bottom-up momentum for renewable energy. Here are the stories we’ve been reading this week The government is catalyzing domestic clean energy manufacturing ?????????? The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service just rolled out final rules for the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit—often called the 45X tax credit—as part of the push to boost clean energy manufacturing in the U.S., according to Solar Power World. These rules set clear credit amounts for making solar, wind, battery, and critical mineral components here at home. Designed to create jobs, strengthen supply chains, and enhance energy security, this credit also helps smaller startups by making it easier to access the full incentive value. This clarity should drive even more investment in American-made clean energy tech. (https://lnkd.in/gbhBArn7) Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been a boon to Republican-led states ?? The IRA was initially opposed by Republicans but it’s driving major cleantech investments in states that lean Republican, reports Cipher News. These areas now lead in new wind, solar, and EV projects, largely due to their existing infrastructure, natural resources, and business-friendly environments including favorable permitting, tax breaks, and lower labor costs. The fact that red states are capitalizing on the IRA’s incentives shows that cleantech investments align with economic benefits, job creation, and community development, regardless of political stances. (https://lnkd.in/gDu9MqWr) A nonprofit is rallying support for renewables at the grassroots level ?? Inside Climate News highlighted nonprofit Greenlight America that’s working to rally local support for renewable energy projects, countering strong opposition often seen at local government meetings. While public support for renewables is high, opposition voices tend to be louder and more organized. Greenlight’s team provides information and training, helping residents feel comfortable advocating at meetings. Inspired by grassroots movements, they aim to increase local engagement without funding from developers. Their approach focuses on coordination rather than direct lobbying, as seen in Erie County, PA, where they facilitated a coalition to support a solar ordinance revision. (https://lnkd.in/g9wYsagG)

Compared to the boom in solar energy in recent years, wind energy is lagging. This week, the DG+ team has been reading stories that help us understand wind’s predicament. Wind probably won’t reach the global 2030 goal ?? While solar capacity has more than tripled globally in the last five years, wind has only doubled, with bottlenecks in equipment supplies, grid capacity, and permitting, reports Bloomberg. Solar's growth is fueled by its low costs, smaller size, and ease of installation, but wind turbines are massive and face logistical hurdles at every turn. Governments are taking action to ease these barriers, but the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) urges them to do more, faster. (https://shorturl.at/G3Iik) Offshore wind doesn’t get the props it deserves ?? New Jersey voters don’t care much for offshore wind projects. A recent Stockton University poll found that only 17% of NJ voters feel candidates’ views on offshore wind would really influence their vote. Support remains politically divided, with 74% of Democrats backing wind projects versus 28% of Republicans. Last year, controversy around a now-abandoned project (?rsted Ocean Wind 1 and 2) soured offshore wind’s public perception. (https://lnkd.in/gEKeEZN9) No funding for Maine’s offshore wind ?? The U.S. Department of Transportation - Office of the Under Secretary for Policy rejected Maine’s $456 million funding request for a wind port on Sears Island. The competitive grant was part of $4.2 billion allocated for clean energy and transit projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, The Center Square reports. Wind energy is key to Maine’s 80% renewable energy goal by 2030. Maine and other New England states are calling for expanding and upgrading interconnection points for undersea cables that will eventually help connect offshore wind farms to the grid. (https://lnkd.in/gtRmJcph) #RenewableEnergy #WindTurbine #WindEnergy #OffshoreWind

Working at the intersection of climate and communications isn’t for the faint of heart. To succeed, you have to be an expert in both topics. DG+’s latest Insight from Phoebe Skok, MAS lays out a “required reading list” for climate communicators. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gYHfgaHM