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Dive Brief:

• In Oregon, a switch to sales of only zero-emissions residential heating and cooling appliances by 2030 could nearly halve climate pollution by 2035 while increasing electricity demand from homes and buildings 13% by the middle of the century, according to a recent report from Synapse Energy Economics.
• The report, prepared for the Sierra Club, found that making this transition could lead to $1.1 billion in gas and electric system savings for the residential and commercial sector through 2050, with cost savings beginning in 2030.
• The city of Eugene is currently developing a local policy to wean developers off natural gas in new construction, making it the first in Oregon to do so. The state is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Dive Insight:

Meeting Oregon’s climate goals will mean reducing the carbon footprint of residential and commercial buildings, which currently produce 35% of the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the report. One approach is to electrify building appliances and systems and switch to efficient electric heat pumps.

There are two types of heat pumps, according to Fred Heutte, senior policy associate with the NW Energy Coalition: those that can provide air heating and air conditioning and those that provide hot water.

“We’re poised to do a pretty big upward market transformation [with] both kinds of heat pumps in the next few years,” Heutte said, adding that the recent Synapse report builds on work that has been happening in the state for a long time. The transition to heat pumps represents a shift away from natural gas heating as well as older styles of electric resistance heating, he said, which tend to not be as efficient.

The report took a closer look at two electrification pathways: one that assumes a 100% market share for efficient electrical systems by 2025 and another that reaches that goal by 2030. The more-aggressive 2025 deadline would reduce carbon emissions by 56% by 2035, according to the report, while increasing electricity consumption 12% by 2030, and 13% by the middle of the century.

The 2030 pathway, meanwhile, would reduce emissions by 47% by 2035 while increasing electricity demand by 10% by 2030 and 13% by 2050. These efforts will likely lower energy system costs in both scenarios, the study found: The 2030 pathway is estimated to lead to $1.1 billion in savings through 2050, while the 2025 pathway saves around $1.7 billion in the same timeframe.

Heat pump technology can also help the power system by shifting load around, according to Heutte, because they can be scheduled to operate outside of peak electricity demand hours, essentially functioning like a kind of battery storage.

“In effect, what you’re doing is shifting the renewable energy from when it’s generated to when it’s needed,” he explained, by, for instance, pre-heating water or pre-cooling a house. “All those things are basically smart ways to manage the customer side of energy use.”

Moreover, the report shows that because of the high efficiency of heat pump technology, electricity consumption in residential buildings in Oregon would actually decrease even as the amount of homes using electricity for heating and water heating doubles, Dylan Plummer, senior campaign representative with Sierra Club , said in an email.

The main challenge standing in the way of widespread adoption of heat pump technology is ensuring that the financial burden of the transition does not fall on historically marginalized households, according to Plummer.

“That is why organizations across the State are working to put in place policies at all levels of government to fund targeted retrofit programs to ensure that the clean energy transition has values ​​of economic and racial equity at its core,” he said.

The post Switching to environment friendly, electrical HVAC home equipment might save Oregon $1.1B by means of 2050, research finds appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Listen to the article
4 mins

This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.

Dive Brief:

• In Oregon, a switch to sales of only zero-emissions residential heating and cooling appliances by 2030 could nearly halve climate pollution by 2035 while increasing electricity demand from homes and buildings 13% by the middle of the century, according to a recent report from Synapse Energy Economics.
• The report, prepared for the Sierra Club, found that making this transition could lead to $1.1 billion in gas and electric system savings for the residential and commercial sector through 2050, with cost savings beginning in 2030.
• The city of Eugene is currently developing a local policy to wean developers off natural gas in new construction, making it the first in Oregon to do so. The state is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Dive Insight:

Meeting Oregon’s climate goals will mean reducing the carbon footprint of residential and commercial buildings, which currently produce 35% of the state’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the report. One approach is to electrify building appliances and systems and switch to efficient electric heat pumps.

There are two types of heat pumps, according to Fred Heutte, senior policy associate with the NW Energy Coalition: those that can provide air heating and air conditioning and those that provide hot water.

“We’re poised to do a pretty big upward market transformation [with] both kinds of heat pumps in the next few years,” Heutte said, adding that the recent Synapse report builds on work that has been happening in the state for a long time. The transition to heat pumps represents a shift away from natural gas heating as well as older styles of electric resistance heating, he said, which tend to not be as efficient.

The report took a closer look at two electrification pathways: one that assumes a 100% market share for efficient electrical systems by 2025 and another that reaches that goal by 2030. The more-aggressive 2025 deadline would reduce carbon emissions by 56% by 2035, according to the report, while increasing electricity consumption 12% by 2030, and 13% by the middle of the century.

The 2030 pathway, meanwhile, would reduce emissions by 47% by 2035 while increasing electricity demand by 10% by 2030 and 13% by 2050. These efforts will likely lower energy system costs in both scenarios, the study found: The 2030 pathway is estimated to lead to $1.1 billion in savings through 2050, while the 2025 pathway saves around $1.7 billion in the same timeframe.

Heat pump technology can also help the power system by shifting load around, according to Heutte, because they can be scheduled to operate outside of peak electricity demand hours, essentially functioning like a kind of battery storage.

“In effect, what you’re doing is shifting the renewable energy from when it’s generated to when it’s needed,” he explained, by, for instance, pre-heating water or pre-cooling a house. “All those things are basically smart ways to manage the customer side of energy use.”

Moreover, the report shows that because of the high efficiency of heat pump technology, electricity consumption in residential buildings in Oregon would actually decrease even as the amount of homes using electricity for heating and water heating doubles, Dylan Plummer, senior campaign representative with Sierra Club , said in an email.

The main challenge standing in the way of widespread adoption of heat pump technology is ensuring that the financial burden of the transition does not fall on historically marginalized households, according to Plummer.

“That is why organizations across the State are working to put in place policies at all levels of government to fund targeted retrofit programs to ensure that the clean energy transition has values ​​of economic and racial equity at its core,” he said.

The post Switching to environment friendly, electrical HVAC home equipment may save Oregon $1.1B by way of 2050, research finds appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Construction of 30 Van Ness in San Francisco is expected to be complete in 2025.

SAN FRANCISCO — Lendlease, a global investment firm headquartered in Australia, has broken ground on 30 Van Ness, a $1.1 billion mixed-use tower that will be located in between San Francisco’s Hayes Valley and Mid-Market districts. The price tag represents Lendlease’s largest investment to date in the Americas. Completion is slated for 2025.

Designed by SCB Architects, the 540-foot-tall building will consist of 333 residential condominiums and 290,000 square feet of office and retail space. The property’s 38 stories of residential space will be constructed atop the nine-story podium that will house the office and retail components.

Residences will come in studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans and have an average size in excess of 1,000 square feet. About 25 percent of the units will be reserved as affordable housing, specific income requirements for which were not disclosed. The 10th floor of the building will house residential amenities.

Each level of office space will offer outdoor terraces and dynamic glass that lowers energy usage throughout the building. In addition, the site’s event and retail space will open into a public plaza at the northeast corner of Market and Van Ness streets. This space will be used to host both public performances and private events.

Lendlease is developing 30 Van Ness with numerous health and wellness features and concerns in mind. In addition to targeting LEED Platinum certification, the building will feature touchless entry and exit mechanisms, ionic air purification systems in elevators and MERV-15 filters in the HVAC systems . Lendlease also expects to achieve net zero emissions during construction and subsequent operations.

“This flagship project signifies our commitment to creating the next-generation workplace of the future in great locations within world-class cities,” says Mark Dickinson, managing director of development for Lendlease Americas. “With few other projects of this scale planned, we believe now is the right time to launch this long-term vision to deliver a global best-in-class asset of the future.”

—Taylor Williams

The post Lendlease Breaks Floor on $1.1B Blended-Use Tower in San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The San Francisco tech startup that helped popularize a push for a four-day workweek in Silicon Valley, is now laying workers off.

As first reported by the New York Times, Bolt, the payment services startup with offices near San Francisco’s Union Square, laid off around 250 of its around 900 employees Wednesday in a move to “secure our financial position, extend our runway, and reach profitability with the money we have already raised” amid industrywide financial challenges, according to a letter to staff.

A Bolt spokesperson confirmed to SFGATE Thursday that “approximately a third of the company” was laid off.

“It’s no secret that the market conditions across our industry and the tech sector are changing, and against the macro challenges, we’ve been taking measures to adapt our business,” recently appointed CEO Maju Kuruvilla said in the letter, which was made public Wednesday.

One laid-off employee, posting on the anonymous forum Blind, said that they received the news “after getting a pay-raise just a couple of weeks ago.”

The company, already dealing with a rocky 2022, now has to contend with the realities of a challenging period for fledgling tech startups.

Shortly after the wave of good press Bolt received in January for implementing a permanent four-day workweek (and, more crucially, its titanic $11 billion valuation), the company suffered a torrent of bad news. Founder and former CEO Ryan Breslow posted a fiery Twitter thread accusing notable startup accelerator Y Combinator of “Mob Sh*t” and being corrupted by “money, power, and greed.” (Breslow stepped down as CEO for the company just days later.)

In April, Authentic Brands — a fashion retail conglomerate that owns Forever 21 and Reebok and one of Bolt’s most high-level clients — sued the company for its failure to deliver on its promises for a checkout system for the brands in a timely manner.

The New York Times also ran an exposé earlier in May alleging that the company stretched the truth about its services to investors and prospective merchants.

“There’s no good way to share news of a restructure but it’s in our culture to be committed to candor and care, today and always,” Kuruvilla ended the letter. “I can’t thank you enough for all of your past, present, and future dedication to make Bolt what it is. We have an incredible team, great product, and the market needs us more than ever before. But today, my focus is on our people. Please be mindful and caring for your colleagues and yourself.”

It is unclear what severance benefits employees who were laid off will receive.

The post Bolt, San Francisco startup valued at $11B, has mass layoffs appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.