The Climate Fix is our twice-a-month guide to the most important solutions to climate change across the world. Have comments about what we should cover? Email us at [email protected].
Ann Arbor, Mich., has an aggressive goal of net-zero emissions by 2030, and it is taking its desire for clean power into its own hands.
The City Council this week approved plans to create a sustainable energy utility, or S.E.U., which is an organization that helps local residents use less energy.
Traditional S.E.U.s, which have grown increasingly popular in recent years, mostly focus on helping customers get rebates or make energy-efficiency upgrades. But Ann Arbor’s plans go further. The city wants to stand up its own solar and geothermal power facilities, with the ultimate aim of building microgrids that can operate on their own, particularly when the traditional electricity grid goes down.
In a local power grid, fallen trees can cause outages. “When you have less of that, you have a less vulnerable system,” said Missy Stults, Ann Arbor’s director of sustainability and innovations, noting that the area’s grid was old and not that clean.
Ann Arbor’s hope is to build a kind of local, renewable grid close to homes and businesses, with solar power and connected buildings that draw power from geothermal power sources. It is intended to be cheaper than a traditional energy grid and more affordable than adding solar panels or battery storage to individual homes.
Ann Arbor residents, businesses and local organizations will be able to opt in to use power from the S.E.U., but the city will own the infrastructure. Users will still receive some power from the current electric grid when needed, according to Stults.
A fresh take on an old idea
S.E.U.s have been around for years, but there has been fresh interest in the concept recently, according to Rebecca Foster, the chief executive officer of VEIC, a nonprofit organization that runs several programs across the country.
A traditional utility’s job is mostly to keep the lights on. But S.E.U.s often focus on helping customers lower energy use and find rebates for products like heat pumps, refrigerators or lighting systems, Foster said.
In 2000, Vermont became the first state to start a utility focused on energy efficiency. At the time, Vermont’s 22 power utilities each had their own energy-efficiency programs, Foster said, meaning there were different criteria for qualifying for product rebates, for example.
“Simplifying all of that with one statewide program that could have a uniform and consistent approach with the market was the solution,” said Foster, whose nonprofit still runs Vermont’s S.E.U., along with one in Washington, D.C. Since its inception, the S.E.U. has lowered energy costs in Vermont by $3.3 billion, she said.
What’s next
Ann Arbor’s ambitious plans will take time. The city hopes to hire an executive director for its S.E.U. over the next three months and is working on requests for proposals from contractors, Stults said.
The city aims to begin with 20 megawatts of power, which Stults said could require $50 million in capital upfront, but it’s possible the city could start with less funding, she said.
The goal is to start operating by the middle of 2026 at the earliest, Stults said. The falling cost of solar and improvements in battery storage technology, she said, have made S.E.U.s increasingly appealing. “The economics have only recently started to make sense,” she said.
Times Insider
Finding positive climate news, one state at a time
On a sunny day last July, Cara Buckley traipsed through a former hog farm in Iowa. Ms. Buckley, a reporter on the Climate desk of The New York Times, was there to meet the farm’s owners, who sold off their hogs in 2022 and began growing mushrooms in an effort to restore the land and get out of factory farming.
It was at that farm that an idea came to her: Why not highlight local climate solutions in every state?
“I just thought, What other stories are we missing?” said Ms. Buckley, who this year began working on the project with Catrin Einhorn, another reporter on the Climate desk.
The first installment of the “50 States, 50 Fixes” project was published last month. It highlights climate and environmental solutions in five states, including a 100-acre nature preserve in Hawaii, a car-free neighborhood in Arizona and geothermal energy that is helping to power Idaho’s capital. — Josh Ocampo, Times Insider
Read more.
New pact would require ships to cut emissions or pay a fee
Amid the turmoil over global trade, countries around the world reached a modest but remarkable agreement Friday to reduce climate pollution from shipping worldwide — with what is essentially a tax, no less.
A draft accord reached in London under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, would require every ship that ferries goods across the oceans to lower their greenhouse gas emissions or pay a fee.
The targets fall short of what many had hoped for. Still, it’s the first time a global industry would face a price on its climate pollution no matter where in the world it operated. The proceeds would be used mainly to help the industry move to cleaner fuels. It would come into effect in 2028, pending approval by country representatives, which is widely expected. — Somini Sengupta
Read more.
Thanks for being a subscriber.
Read past editions of the newsletter here.
If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here. And follow The New York Times on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and TikTok at @nytimes.
Reach us at [email protected]. We read every message, and reply to many!
