This week in cleantech and renewable energy news, Massachusetts is the place to be. The MassChallenge Awards took place, a new order provides certainty for community solar and Boston’s Mayor Marty Walsh announced plans to protect against rising city waters. In other news, US corporate renewable energy deals crushed records this year. What news have you been reading this week? Share with us @GreentownLabs!
BostInno – These 19 MassChallenge Startups Just Won $1.65M
- At the MassChallenge awards this week, current and future members of Greentown received awards! Out of the 128 startups, we’re excited to congratulate Boston Materials and Infinite Cooling (future Greentown Labs member) on their incredible achievements. Four of the winners are Massachusetts clean tech companies – including WatchTower Robotics.
“The startup accelerator’s top four winners — EBT Medical, Infinite Cooling, Mobile Pixels and WatchTower Robotics — each won $100,000, while two more startups received $75,000 each and nine other companies brought home $50,000 each.”
Greentech Media – What a New Order Means for Community Solar and Storage in Massachusetts
- In Massachusetts, a new bill-credit mechanism was outlined and approved in the Mass. Department of Public Utilities’ order. The change [Order 17-140-A] provides community solar developers with valuable certainty about how to structure savings in near-term contracts.
“The AOBC enables standalone generators (i.e., community solar) to allocate on-bill credit to multiple offsite customer accounts like net metering. Yet, unlike net metering, the AOBC will be valued at the customer’s basic service rate (i.e., the supply portion of the full retail rate value). Under the utilities’ earlier proposals, such rules would have only been able to offset 40 to 50 percent of a customer’s bill — significantly less than the discount community solar providers have been able to offer to date.”
CBS Boston – Boston Announces ‘Resilient Boston Harbor’ Plan To Protect City Against Rising Waters, Climate Change
- In local news, the Mayor of Boston recently announced a plan to help protect the city from rising waters due to climate change. Mayor Marty Walsh’s goal is to increase the city’s resilience to prevent potential future damage.
“A 2016 city report projected sea levels around Boston could rise 36 inches (91 centimeters) by 2070, affecting some 90,000 residents, 12,000 buildings and potentially causing more than $14 billion in economic losses.”
Greentech Media – Corporate Renewable Energy Deals Smash Records in 2018
- United States corporate renewable energy deals are breaking records this year. The latest figures from RMI show that these deals are on track to surpass 5 gigawatts of renewable energy purchased by December.
“Many companies are taking the push for 100 percent renewables seriously because they see it as good business — not just today, but for the long term. At the time of publication, 152 companies of various sizes have made a commitment to go 100 percent renewable through RE100. Big names like Apple and Google have already met their targets, while other companies are looking out further into the future, some as far as 2040. That timeline indicates companies are looking beyond today’s prices and present-day marketing benefits.”
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