EGEB: New York City to ban new gas hookups by 2030

• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said late last week that the city will “renounce fossil fuels fully.”
• SunPower and EagleView are working together to reduce solar installation timelines and costs.
• UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.

New York City gas ban

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in his 2021 State of the City Address that New York City “will renounce fossil fuels fully. And, therefore, we need to ban fossil fuel connections in the city by the end of this decade, literally ensuring that our only choice is renewable energy.” In other words, no more natural gas by 2030.

He wants to reduce cars in the city, prioritize electric vehicles, and increase access for pedestrians and cyclists:

For the Brooklyn Bridge and the Queensboro Bridge, we’ll create new two-way protected bike lanes. We’ll have space on the bridges devoted solely to clean transportation, and we’ll create new bike boulevards in every borough designed to give bicycles travel priority and put cyclist safety first. 

Referring to the city’s largest pension funds, De Blasio said:

We started by taking the billions of dollars in New York City pension fund investments and taking them away from fossil fuel companies that were poisoning the earth, putting that money into renewable energy development. And now, we resolve to deepen this effort by making a commitment to a $50 billion investment of our pension resources in renewable energy over the next 15 years. We will take all of our pension fund dollars away from any element of the fossil fuel supply chain and make sure those dollars are helping us create a greener future. 

He continued:

We need to turn to renewables like never before and connect New York City to clean Canadian hydropower and invest in the transmission lines that make that possible.

With this new asset, New York City’s government will run on 100% renewable energy in the next four years.

On February 6, 2020, De Blasio signed an executive order that banned new fossil fuel infrastructure in New York City, including pipelines, import terminals, and fossil fuel-based power generation capacity.

Solar innovation

SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR), a San Jose-based solar technology and energy solutions provider, and EagleView, a Bellevue, Washington-based technology provider of aerial analytics, today announced a new agreement to work together to reduce solar installation timelines and costs.

Every new home solar installation requires a custom design tailored to the home’s roof and electrical system. This is traditionally done with an in-person survey. But in-person surveys are costly for installers and extend solar installation cycle timelines. 

The mySunPower Home Survey app with EagleView Roof Reports provides installers all the information they need to create final solar designs without site visits. The app is designed to replace ladder-climbing and drone photography with machine learning technology.

Homeowners use the app to take photos of their home’s structural and electrical components from ground level. SunPower’s AI software automatically evaluates images and provides real-time feedback to homeowners on photo completeness and clarity. EagleView Roof Reports include aerial imagery and proprietary 3D models that clarify accurate roof characteristics.  

With the use of the app, SunPower can reduce project cycle times by up to two weeks and eliminate costs associated with sending a site surveyor to the home.

As renewables ramp up, a lot of exciting innovations and partnerships like this will streamline switching to green energy and make it more cost-effective than the use of fossil fuels.

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