Practical Facilities Tips, News & Advice.
City officials have announced completion of a $2.4 million project to install solar photovoltaic (PV) systems atop six New York City Fire Department (FDNY) firehouses in Queens and Brooklyn. In addition to generating emissions-free energy, these systems will use battery storage to ensure that the firehouses remain operational during blackouts, brownouts, or storms if electric […]
As climate change progresses, we can expect storms to become more frequent and more intense. Already, coastal communities are experiencing the devastating effects of severe hurricanes and tropical storms, while midwestern communities are encountering massive destruction from tornadoes and hail. As storms only continue to worsen, ensuring our facilities are designed and built to withstand catastrophic […]
The Biden administration has taken an important step forward to decarbonize all U.S. federal facilities, with two major agencies launching a request for information (RFI) to help meet the clean energy goal. Issued by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the RFI aims to gather market information and […]
Distributed energy resources (DER), including electric vehicle (EV) chargers, rooftop solar PV, and battery energy storage, are rapidly expanding in commercial buildings, according to a report from Guidehouse Insights. The report forecasts global spending on DER in commercial buildings to reach $17.6 billionin 2021, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.1% to […]
Florida International University (FIU) and Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) have unveiled a solar-powered energy microgrid—the latest project to emerge from a decades-long partnership between the university and the utility. In the event of an outage due to severe weather, the FIU-FPL microgrid is capable of supplying backup power to FIU’s engineering center for approximately 24 hours […]