Sign In or Create an Account.
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Tuesday HeatRisk forecastNWS HeatRisk
Thursday HeatRisk forecastNWS HeatRisk
Meanwhile, about 30 groups (including health organizations, climate movements, and labor unions) have filed a petition urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to add extreme heat and wildfire smoke to the list of emergencies that are considered “major disasters.” Such a declaration could allow communities access to federal funds to prepare for heat and fire emergencies. It could also help pressure employers to provide better protections for workers who toil away in dangerously warm conditions.
Crux, the New York-based startup that helps companies trade clean energy tax credits made transferable by the Inflation Reduction Act, announced this morning that it has secured strategic investments from some of the largest energy developers, including Clearway Energy, Intersect Power, Pattern Energy, and Électricité de France. “We had an opportunity to bring in some of the leading developers who collectively represent a pipeline of more than 100 gigawatts of power,” Alfred Johnson, Crux’s CEO, told Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer.
Let’s back up a bit. As Meyer explains, companies can claim money on their taxes by building zero-carbon electricity generation, new factories, buying electric vehicles, and more. But energy developers and utilities rarely need to use all the tax credits they generate from their projects. The IRA created a market for those tax credits, and Crux forecasts that $7 to $9 billion of these new “transferrable tax credits” will be sold in that new market this year (with huge potential for growth through 2030). Its product is a platform that lets developers, utilities, and manufacturing companies describe and sell their tax credits to buyers, with the goal being to make these transactions “efficient and standardized.” Crux has now raised more than $27 million in capital since its founding early last year.
Plans are underway to build North America’s first commercial-scale ocean-based carbon removal plant and have it up and running by 2027. The facility will be built in Quebec, Canada, by carbon removal startup Equatic in partnership with Deep Sky, a Canadian-based developer of carbon removal projects. Equatic uses electrolysis on seawater to trap carbon both in the ocean and in the air. The process also creates clean hydrogen, which the company plans to sell, and use to power its own technology. Equatic already has two pilot plants – one in Los Angeles and another in Singapore. It says that in its first year, the commercial-scale plant will remove 109,500 metric tons of CO2 and produce 3,600 metric tons of green hydrogen, and help bring the cost of carbon dioxide removal down below the key benchmark of $100 per metric ton by 2030.
A group of Olympians have teamed up with academics to put out a new report warning that the Paris Olympics could be dangerously hot for athletes. The 2024 Games run from July 26 through August 11, the hottest part of the year in Europe. The 2024 “Rings of Fire” report found that July in Paris is 5.58 degrees Fahrenheit warmer now than it was in 1924 when the city last hosted the sporting event. Last year more than 5,000 people died in France due to excessive heat. The report has several recommendations, including scheduling events for cooler times of the day, but also includes suggestions from the athletes themselves, such as eliminating the stigma that may come with speaking out about heat risk, and weeding out fossil-fuel sponsorship in sports.
Vermont’s House and Senate yesterday pushed through a law that will significantly shift the state’s utilities to renewable electricity within the next decade. The legislature voted to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of H.289, a bill that will require all electric utilities to get to 100% renewable energy by 2035 – a shift from the existing law that says utilities must hit 75% renewables by 2032.
More than 800 coal plants in developing nations have the potential to be profitably decomissioned and transitioned to large-scale solar and storage systems, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Equatic’s carbon removal process.
U.S. household electricity bills are projected to rise by 8% on average this summer compared to last year, according to analysis from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association and the Center for Energy Poverty, and Climate. Costs are going up everywhere as Americans rely heavily on air conditioning to stay cool during intense heat. Here’s a look at expected summer electric bills across the country:
NEADA and CEPC
The report finds that “due to the unprecedented rise in summer temperatures and higher rates of extreme heat events,” summer energy bills have risen from an average cost of $476 in 2014 to a projected $719 this year. Low-income households will feel this financial strain the most because they spend a larger amount of their income (about 8%) on energy. Startlingly, the survey found that the percentage of customers that couldn’t pay their energy bills for one month or longer jumped from 21.3% to 23.5% last year, which saw the hottest summer on record. The largest increase was among households with children. The report calls for more efforts to ensure houses are weatherized, and installing heat pumps.
The recent floods in southern Brazil, which have killed more than 170 people and displaced nearly 600,000, were made about twice as likely by human-induced climate change, according to an international group of researchers. The analysis from the World Weather Attribution also said the El Niño weather pattern played a big role in the disaster, increasing the risk by nearly five times and making rainfall between 3% and 10% more intense. Meanwhile, a bit farther north in Brazil’s “citrus belt,” orange growers are seeing a significant drop in crop production thanks in part to severe weather such as drought, disease, and pests. One research group is forecasting that the 2024-25 season could see production drop by a quarter. Brazil is the world’s top orange producer and exporter.
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
An Australian company called 5B has designed solar arrays that can withstand some extreme weather. The 5B Maverick arrays are modular, fold up like an accordian for transporting, and can endure winds up to 166 mph. That makes them a good option for hurricane-prone areas like Puerto Rico, where 5B is installing 1,392 arrays, Electrekreported. Now, if only someone could design solar panels that can withstand the force of six-inch hail stones...
5B
Volvo is rolling out a “passport” for EV batteries that will show the origin of the battery’s components as well as its carbon footprint, according toReuters. The passport rollout will begin with Volvo’s EX90 SUV before expanding to include all of Volvo’s EVs. Drivers will be able to access the passport by scanning a QR code on the driver’s-side door. The European Union is set to require battery passports for all EVs starting in 2027, but Reuters reported that U.S. automakers are taking notes, as rules for EV subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act dictate where battery parts can be manufactured.
The band Coldplay says it has reduced the carbon footprint of its latest world tour by nearly 60% compared to its 2016-17 tour using solutions like power-generating dance floors and bikes that charge the show’s battery system.
