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The case for building highly efficient affordable housing

By Andy Balaskovitz

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EFFICIENCY: Some affordable housing developers, including in Illinois, embrace Passive House building standards that make homes highly energy-efficient with only slightly higher upfront costs. (Energy News Network)

HYDROGEN: North Dakota officials are working to secure a new partner for a hydrogen production hub project after a key player withdrew from plans last month amid fertilizer market challenges. (North Dakota Monitor)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

  • Minnesota will soon have about 100 electric school buses statewide with the help of state, federal and private funding. (Sahan Journal)
  • ComEd awards a $45,000 rebate to a Chicago suburb that plans to electrify its public works, police and fire department fleet vehicles. (WLS)

SOLAR:

  • A southern Indiana city council rejects rezoning for a utility-scale solar project that faced pushback from some neighbors. (WHAS)
  • Retail grocery chain Hy-Vee completes the first phase of a solar project in Iowa that’s part of the company’s broader sustainability goals. (Progressive Grocer)

GRID: Ameren Missouri’s calls to speed up the regulatory process for building new power plants to meet anticipated load growth face skepticism by some who question the necessity of new projects and are concerned about fast-tracking utility spending. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, subscription)

PIPELINES: Iowa regulators will start public hearings next week on Summit Carbon Solution’s plan to expand the route of its proposed multi-state carbon pipeline. (The Courier, subscription)

WIND:

  • A North Dakota labor union accuses a wind energy developer of hiring out-of-state workers to build a project after promising to use local labor during the approval process. (North Dakota Monitor)
  • A company that pledged to remove used wind turbine blades from a vacant Minnesota property to have them recycled in Ohio abruptly went out of business, leaving state regulators to decide whether to intervene. (Star Tribune)

UTILITIES: Ohio consumer advocates raise concerns about Duke Energy’s request to raise average electric bills by $11 a month over the coming years to pay for grid modernization and energy efficiency projects. (WLWT)

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