Decarbonized Buildings & Vehicles Create Good Missouri Jobs
Originally published on the NRDC Expert Blog.
By Gabrielle Habeeb & Ashok Gupta
Eliminating carbon emissions from our building and transportation sectors will be critical to maintaining a healthy and livable climate. This week’s IPCC report makes it clear that heat waves will continue to worsen — so we must rise to the challenge in addressing and living with extreme heat events. The good news is that decarbonizing these sectors is also good for our economy. Today, Missouri is home to more than 50,000 clean energy jobs.
This employment sector was growing steadily prior to the economic stress induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, with clean energy jobs growing more than 3 times faster than the rest of the state’s jobs on average in 2019. Despite an overall decrease in the number of clean energy jobs in 2020, this employment sector is recovering quickly from the pandemic lull, with more than 9 percent job growth documented in the latter half of the year. This resilience demonstrates the incredible potential for clean energy jobs to employ an ever-increasing number of Missourians.
While cities like Kansas City and Saint Louis house many of the clean energy jobs in the state, nearly a quarter of jobs were found in rural areas in 2020 — illustrating that these jobs are everywhere and benefit folks all over the state.
Clean Energy Jobs Missouri. CleanJobsMidwest.com 2021
Decarbonizing Buildings
Just under three quarters of Missouri’s clean energy jobs are in the energy efficiency sector. Think: buildings and construction. This means jobs in heating, cooling, lighting — the things that makes our homes more comfortable and reduce utility bills. Buildings make up a whopping 63 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the Kansas City metro region. Large metropolitan areas, suburban cities, and rural areas are all rife with opportunities when it comes to energy efficiency.
Decarbonizing the building sector can be a daunting task. It involves a combination of different energy efficiency measures, low and zero carbon space heating (e.g., heat pumps), and distributed renewable energy generation. Such initiatives support local jobs, improve air quality, enhance affordability, and increase property value — all while combating climate change!
NRDC
That is why we have prioritized the creation of building energy hubs in the Saint Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas, modeled after the Building Energy Exchange (BE-Ex). Once fully operational, BE-Ex KC and STL will provide building owners, especially those in low-income communities, with technical assistance, financing help (including accessing utility incentives), and hand holding. BE-Ex will also work with partners on policy strategies that can help reduce the urban heat island effect.
Projects like BE-Ex compliment NRDC’s traditional building decarbonization policy toolkit (i.e., utility efficiency investments, building codes, and appliance standards) with strategies to help speed up market transformation and support community partners on the ground. In both Kansas City and Saint Louis, we will work to advance the IECC 2021 building codes with amendments that strengthen the requirements for building envelopes.
These amendments will help us prepare our buildings for extreme temperatures in both the summer and winter, as well as ensuring buildings are zero-emission ready. This will result not in only cost savings and comfort for occupants but will also be less taxing on the electric grid during times of peak usage, increasing reliability.
Decarbonizing Transportation
After energy efficiency, the next largest clean energy employment sector in Missouri is advanced transportation. In fact, advanced transportation was Missouri’s fastest growing sector of 2020! These are the people who work in electric and hybrid vehicle manufacturing — driving us toward a future with fewer planet warming emissions and cleaner air along our roads and highways.
Electric vehicles are going to play a pivotal role in combating the climate crisis as, nationwide, transportation is the end-use sector responsible for the greatest amount of climate change causing carbon dioxide emissions. Eliminating emissions from our cars and busses will go a long way toward reaching our national and regional climate goals.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review, Tables 11.1 to 11.6, April 2021, preliminary data.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are growing in popularity and presence on the road, though too slowly. Policies to support EV adoption and charging infrastructure will be critical to ensuring the advanced transportation sector continues to employ a growing number of workers in Missouri, while supporting a smooth transition to these cleaner modes of travel.
This transition will be good for local air quality, human health, the climate, and driver’s wallets; though, without policy support to incentivize domestic manufacturing, EV adoption has the potential to disrupt the current automotive manufacturing industry. Europe and China currently lead on EV adoption and the manufacturing that goes along with it, while the U.S. lags in both respects. If the U.S. waits until the last minute to invest in the domestic EV supply chain, consumers will have fewer domestic car buying options and the U.S. automotive manufacturing industry will find themselves behind the competition.
Thankfully, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, recently passed by the Senate, invests $7.5 billion in EV infrastructure with explicit goals of accelerating EV adoption and supporting domestic manufacturing jobs. If states like Missouri can position themselves as leaders in EV supply chain manufacturing, it will further support existing and new Missouri workers as they create the vehicles and their components that will move us forward into a cleaner, healthier future.
Buildings and transportation are two sectors that are putting Missourians to work while investing in a cleaner, more climate resilient future. Supporting and enhancing this investment will be critical to minimizing the worst impacts of climate change and making Missouri a safe and prosperous place to live for years to come.
Leading yard operation 3PL YMX Logistics has announced plans to deploy fully twenty (20) of Orange EV’s fully electric Class 8 terminal trucks at a number of distribution and manufacturing sites across North America.
As the shipping and logistics industries increasingly move to embrace electrification, yard operations have proven to be an almost ideal use case for EVs, enabling companies like Orange EV, which specialize in yard hostlers or terminal tractors, to drive real, impactful change. To that end, companies like YMX are partnering with Orange EV.
“This relationship between YMX and Orange EV is a significant step forward in transforming yard operations across North America,” said Matt Yearling, CEO of YMX Logistics. “Besides the initial benefits of reduction in emissions and carbon footprint, our customers are also seeing improvements in the overall operational efficiency and seeking to expand. Our team members have also been sharing positive feedback about their new equipment and highlighting the positive impact on their health and day-to-day activities.”
This Orange looks good in blue
One of the most interesting aspects of this story – beyond the Orange EV HUSK-e XP’s almost unbelievable 180,000 lb. GCWR spec. – is that this isn’t a story about California’s ports, which mandate EVs. Instead, YMX is truly deploying these trucks throughout the country, with at least four currently in Chicago (and more on the way).
“Our collaboration with YMX Logistics represents a powerful stride in delivering sustainable yard solutions at scale for enterprise customers,” explains Wayne Mathisen, CEO of Orange EV. “With rising demand for electric yard trucks, our joint efforts ensure that more companies can access the environmental, financial, and operational benefits of electrification … this is a win for the planet, the workforce, and the bottom line of these organizations.”
We interviewed Orange EV founder Kurt Neutgens on The Heavy Equipment Podcast a few months back, but if you’re not familiar with these purpose-built trucks, it’s worth a listen.
HEP-isode 26
SOURCE | IMAGES: YMX Logistics.
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On today’s thrilling episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got the all-new Hyundai IONIQ 9 and its “a “rolling living room” pivoting captain’s chairs, Kia gets a go-fast 7 passenger SUV and an updated EV6, while Honda announces plans to start producing solid-state batteries at its new facility in just a few weeks.
We’ve also got big news for American workers – a Minnesota power company is ditching coal for solar while ExxonMobil and LG Chem get to work extracting thousands of tons of lithium out of Tennessee’s soil.
Today’s episode is sponsored by BLUETTI, a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems. For a limited time, save up to 52% during BLUETTI’s exclusive Black Friday sale, now through November 28, and be sure to use promo code BLUETTI5OFF for 5% off all power stations sitewide. Learn more by clicking here.
You can watch the episode, below.
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Read more: Farm-fegnugen? Volkswagen rolls out an electric tractor.
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Arevon Energy has kicked off operations at Vikings Solar-plus-Storage – one of the US’s first utility-scale solar peaker plants.
The $529 million project in Imperial County, California, near Holtville, features 157 megawatts of solar power paired with 150 megawatts/600 megawatt hours of battery storage.
Vikings Solar-plus-Storage is designed to take cheap daytime solar power and store it for use during more expensive peak demand times, like late afternoons and evenings. The battery storage system can quickly respond to changes in demand, helping tackle critical grid needs.
Vikings leverages provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that support affordable clean energy, strengthen grid resilience, boost US manufacturing, and create good jobs.
The Vikings project has already brought significant benefits to the local area. It employed over 170 people during construction, many local workers, and boosted nearby businesses like restaurants, hotels, and stores. On top of that, Vikings will pay out more than $17 million to local governments over its lifespan.
“Vikings’ advanced design sets the standard for safe and reliable solar-plus-storage configurations,” said Arevon CEO Kevin Smith. “The project incorporates solar panels, trackers, and batteries that showcase the growing strength of US renewable energy manufacturing.”
The project includes Tesla Megapack battery systems made in California, First Solar’s thin-film solar panels, and smart solar trackers from Nextracker. San Diego-based SOLV Energy handled the engineering, procurement, and construction work.
San Diego Community Power (SDCP) will buy the energy from the Vikings project under a long-term deal, helping power nearly 1 million customer accounts. SDCP and Arevon have also signed an agreement for the 200 MW Avocet Energy Storage Project in Carson, California, which will start construction in early 2025.
Vikings is named after the Holtville High School mascot, and Arevon is giving back to the local community by funding scholarships for deserving Holtville High students.
Arevon is a major renewable energy developer across the US and a key player in California, with nearly 2,500 MW in operation and more than 1,250 MW under construction.
Read more: Minnesota’s largest coal plant goes solar: Sherco Solar comes online
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