MVM, the leading energy company of Hungary, is set to engage audiences worldwide with its unique online talk show, MVM Future Talks. The free, online programme focuses on the biggest challenges of planet Earth and humanity, featuring Dr. Michio Kaku theoretical physicist, bestselling author, acclaimed public speaker, renowned futurist, and popularizer of science. The show also features Hungarian scientists to share their views on three key topics about how science can help us saving the world. On mvmfuturetalks.com on November 23 from 6 PM CET.
BUDAPEST, Hungary, November 20, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Saving our world is the focus of this season of MVM’s science series, MVM Future Talks. In the fourth season of the science series celebrities and key experts will present the most pressing global issues and the phenomena that threaten society and planet Earth most, along the so-called “planetary boundaries”. The headliner of the event is Dr. Michio Kaku theoretical physicist, bestselling author, acclaimed public speaker, renowned futurist, and popularizer of science.
This year, the educational program focuses on energy security, food, transport, climate change, waste management and the role of artificial intelligence. Besides doomsday scenarios, science will take the center stage again. Will science be able to provide solutions for a sustainable future? If so, will we be able to live with them? MVM Future Talks 2023 will seek answers to these questions and more. The talk show is preceded by a documentary series with key Hungarian opinion leaders.
In the previous years, MVM Future Talks has explored the most important issues of the future, such as the data-driven future or the possibilities of space exploration, with the help of star scientists in a series of science-talk talk shows. This year the series is breaking out of the box with a seven-part series featuring mini-documentaries by Hungarian celebrities, more topics and a science-entertainment debate series.
For the first time in the history of the MVM Future Talks series, the celebrities and opinion leaders travelled around the world to personally investigate the global challenges threatening humanity and planet Earth. In a documentary-style video series, celebrity chefs, presenters and YouTubers show the most important issues of the future and the solutions science can offer. The MVM Future Talks ambassadors have filmed 6 mini-documentaries in 12 countries on three continents, including Singapore, the Maldives, the United Arab Emirates and Las Vegas. The results of the online voting have determined which three of the global challenges will be included in this year’s science debate talk show: food, climate change and energy security.
The fourth MVM Future Talks online talk show will be available to watch free online at www.mvmfuturetalks.com on November 23 from 6.00 p.m. CET.
This Vantem home had very little damage after going through category five Hurricane Dorian.
Vantem
As you read this you may be experiencing one of the hottest days in history in your area or breathing smoke from a wildfire. These situations are more and more common, causing physical impacts, but also bringing process and design questions into discussion.
Adaptation means taking on responsibility for those who live in dangerous areas. Through smart innovations in new home design and construction and advanced retrofits, people can be protected, live well and even save energy costs.
In 2018, Hurricane Michael wrecked 60,000 homes causing $25 billion in total damages according to InsideClimate News. When that storm hit, Annette Rubin was at home with a newborn, healing from a C-section. Listening to the impact of the storm outside her home and fearing for her baby and her own life, Rubin started thinking about building code and how or if her home was going to protect her.
In a frantic state, she pulled out the house plans to see what the five-year-old home could withstand. It was built to the standard category three level winds that are building code in that area and the forecast was showing that Hurricane Michael was a more severe category five storm.
“I thought if it hits our house, we probably won’t make it,” she said. “We couldn’t leave. We couldn’t go down because of storm surge, and it wasn’t safe to go up. Luckily for us, it went over us and hit east of us, but it was traumatizing enough that I wanted to figure out a different way to do this because hurricanes aren’t new. They happen every year.”
After lots of due diligence, Rubin found a strong, sustainable panel system manufactured by Emmedue. Then, she took the next step. She started the company Vero Building Systems to be an owner and operator installing the Emmedue panel system.
With 77 plants around the world, the technology has been used and distributed for years, but Rubin is the first to bring it to Florida where it exceeds category 5 hurricane resistance and will be able to withstand up to 250-mile-per-hour winds.
Home built with VERO Building System panels in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.
VERO Building Systems
Looking for a proof, she found the panels installed locally in a 7,000-square-foot home that has survived 3 hurricanes in 14 years.
“He lives a mile from me, has two times the size of our house and pays one-third the price for energy,” she said. “His energy bill is $300. Mine is double. There are no thermal bridges, so it is astronomically better than a traditional stick build.”
The core of the panels is polystyrene with steel wire mesh on both sides that are welded together for strength. Once the panel is put in place, a layer of shotcrete (a high velocity application of concrete) goes on top of the wire mesh to create a super insulated, strong structure. Plus, extra mesh goes around angles and to reinforce windows and doors.
VERO panels are not only sustainable when installed, but so is the manufacturing process. Rubin sources a petroleum-based polystyrene feed that is steamed using natural gas to compress it down. Plus, everything in the plant is recycled, from the beads to the wires, and the manufacturing has no off gassing.
“We are able to cut emissions by about 40% during an onsite installation,” Rubin said. “There is no heavy machinery. Plus, we cut about 60% of emissions over the lifetime of the building.”
Most of the work is in manufacturing the panels, that are very light and easy to install on site. Rubin estimates that VERO’s installation process could be up to 40% less time from traditional building methods.
“We did a whole house in two and a half days with installers speaking three different languages,” she said. “One installer had experience and two did not.”
With the energy savings and the added protection, the system has about a 5% premium compared to stick-built construction.
VERO ships nationwide and also is working on a package for tornado safe rooms, again with the capability to withstand more than 250-mph winds.
Protecting Homes… And Dollars
Some of the solutions that jurisdictions are exploring to help their communities are focused on reactive measures like evacuation plans and risk communications, along with proactive measures like new zoning, building codes, and improvements to the physical landscape.
These are hefty, include many different stakeholders to move forward, and therefore need long timelines to come to fruition. In today’s market, the longer the timeline, the more housing costs go up. So, more people are forced into migrating to the areas with the highest climate risks so they can find affordable housing options, which means that people not only need resilient housing, it has to be affordable as well.
This single-family modular house was delivered and installed in Marindia, Uruguay.
Juan Nin for Vantem
Chris Anderson is the CEO at Greensborough, North Carolina-based, modular home building company Vantem that delivers a solution at only $100 per square foot. This product, backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy fund, is made with refractory materials to be fire resistant, survives category 5 hurricane damage, and withstands up to 8.2 magnitude earthquakes.
To address the migration into coastal areas in Florida, Vantem acquired a plant in southern Georgia to build fast and efficiently.
“The homes are built like on an automotive construction line and all MEP [mechanical, electrical and plumbing] is already installed when it is delivered to the job site,” said Anderson. “The factory will be converted by early 2024, and we are looking at two other facilities to get to 20 plants over the next 10 years.”
Vantem is looking for joint ventures with local developers that have strong pipelines aimed at affordable housing in high risk climate markets.
Similar to VERO, Vantem is already accepted and well used around the world, with more than three million square feet currently built out across the globe. In the United States, Vantem has code approvals to build up to three stories.
Anderson says that even with the cost and process efficiencies, solutions can be customized on a large scale.
“We translate architecture into the Vantem system as fully engineered product for that market,” he said. “Each factory has a particular focus. If you are going to do a lot of multifamily, the factory is designed for that. There are factories specifically designed for single family, like the first in Georgia.”
At the core of Vantem’s efficiency and sustainability is the innovation of the panel.
“People who are doing high production modular worldwide are trying to standardize traditional process, but the better way to do it is to simplify the system,” Anderson said. “In modular, you have a water shed between 1 to 5 modules a day to 6 to 10, where high output usually requires a bigger capital expense, but they tried to automate a complex system. Automation applied to inefficiency, just magnifies inefficiency. Our capital expenses are one-fifth the cost of other modular factories.”
The Need For More Innovation
This forecast shows that more than 24 million American properties are at risk of flood today, which … [+] will increase 5% in the next 30 years.
First Street Foundation, 2023
Many reports show that the frequency and intensity of climate events will continue to increase. VERO and Vantem have fabulous solutions that will help many in the Florida region now, but as Zillow reports, unchecked greenhouse gas emissions could put 802,555 homes nationwide at risk from a 10-year flood by 2050. Not to mention the other climate disasters impacting the country.
Efforts like Ed Barsley’s Climate Creatives Challenge offer opportunities to reward innovation in support of new and novel approaches for communicating the impacts of climate change and the benefits of mitigation, adaptation and resilience. As the founder of The Environmental Design Studio, Barsley wants to unleash creative energy to communicate climate related themes to the public, along with adaptive actions.
The contest is a series of eight challenges and open for entries now, including prize money. Initiatives like this will spotlight the need, bringing much needed innovation forward.
One of the hottest movies of the summer is the staggeringly good biopic “Oppenheimer,” about the man who oversaw the frantic race to develop the atomic bomb during World War II.
The atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug 6, 1945 was a fission-style device. This also happens to be the same basic physics behind nuclear reactors that are in use today. It’s a reminder that technology can be, at its essence, agnostic: Whether it is used for malevolent or benevolent purposes (in nuclear fission’s instance, an instrument of death or clean, carbon-free electricity) depends upon the intent of the user.
These percentages are likely to rise as global demand for electricity — and concerns about global warming and climate change — rise. This will present opportunities for long-term oriented investors. The lion’s share of this demand — about 70%, says the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), will come from India, which the United Nations says is now the world’s most populous country, China, and Southeast Asia. Put another way, “the world’s growing demand for electricity is set to accelerate, adding more than double Japan’s current electricity consumption over the next three years,” says Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director.
While fossil fuels remain the dominant source of electricity generation worldwide — the Central Intelligence Agency estimates that it provides about 70% of America’s electricity, 71% of India’s and 62% of China’s, for example—the IEA report says future demand will be met almost exclusively from two sources: renewables and nuclear power. “We are close to a tipping point for power sector emissions,” the IEA says. “Governments now need to enable low-emissions sources to grow even faster and drive down emissions so that the world can ensure secure electricity supplies while reaching climate goals.”
“ The Biden administration is a big booster of nuclear energy. ”
It’s helpful that the Biden administration is a big booster of nuclear energy, which the White House sees as an integral part of its broader effort to move the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels. The Department of Energy says that the country’s 93 reactors generate more than half of America’s carbon-free electricity. But price pressures from wind, solar and natural gas (which the feds call “relatively clean” even though it emits about 60% of coal’s carbon levels) have putseveral reactors out of business in recent years.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill that Biden signed into law in November 2021 includes $6 billion, spread out over several years, for the so-called Civil Nuclear Credit Program, designed to keep reactors — and the high-paying jobs that come with them — running. If a plant were to close, it would “result in an increase in air pollutants because other types of power plants with higher air pollutants typically fill the void left by nuclear facilities,” the administration says. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has said the Biden administration is “using every tool available” to get the country powered by clean energy by 2035.
The private sector is beginning to stir. Last week, Maryland-based X-Energy said it would build up to 12 reactors in Central Washington state, for Energy Northwest, a public utility. These wouldn’t be the behemoth-type reactors we’re used to seeing, but “advanced small, nuclear reactors.” X-Energy, which is privately held, has also been selected by Dow DOW, -1.40%
to construct a similar facility in Texas.
Other companies are also rolling out new technology to meet demand. Nuclear fusion — a breakthrough in that it creates more energy than the Oppenheimer-era fission model and at a lower cost — is likely to be the basis for reactors in the years ahead; the Washington, D.C.-based Fusion Industry Association thinks the first fusion power plant could come online by 2030. After seven rounds of funding, one fusion company, Seattle-based Helion Energy, is currently valued at around $3.6 billion, and appears headed for a public offering.
Here too, the Biden administration is getting involved. In May, the Department of Energy announced $46 million in funding for eight other fusion companies. “We have generated energy by drawing power from the sun above us. Fusion offers the potential to create the power of the sun right here on Earth,” says Granholm.
There are several opportunities here for long-term investors. You can pick your way through any number of publicly held companies, including more traditional utilities, or spread your bet across the industry through a handful of exchange-traded funds. The largest of these is the Global X Uranium Fund URA, +0.78%,
with about $1.6 billion in assets. It’s up about 9% year-to-date. The VanEck Uranium + Nuclear Energy Fund NLR, +0.41%
is up almost 10% and sports a 1.8% dividend yield. These are respectable year-t0-date returns, even though they lag the S&P 500 SPX, +0.32%
(up close to 19%) by a wide margin.
After burning in direct flames for more than three minutes, wood treated with Fire Terminator … [+] maintains its integrity.
Fire Terminator
There is no shortage of media coverage on the housing industry right now. Most of it points to rising prices and the lack of affordability. Missing from most of those stories are the escalating costs and ever increasing requirements to build homes.
There are hundreds of inputs into the cost of a home, including land, labor, regulation, and materials. However, in the age of climate crises, there is more focus on finding the perfect, protected land, the right materials, and following the regulations that hopefully are written to keep the home and owner safe in the advent of a climate event.
While all of that sounds incredibly rational, pressure is on for builders to lower costs. The National Association of Home Builders doesn’t have average construction cost increases for housing, but offered average construction values instead.
The group’s chief economist Rob Dietz shared with me that US Census permit data shows that the average construction value, which does not include land, increased 78% since 2015 – going from $166,276 to $295,965 in 2021.
Dietz added that values have been increasing due to rising regulatory costs, rising material costs, limited lot availability, and skilled labor shortages among other factors.
“Moreover, it is an average, so if entry level homes are simply not built, it rises as an average,” he said. “And that has happened.”
Burning Up
Wildfires are just one climate event adding pressure to the housing industry. USA Today reported that in 2022 there were 65,000 wildfires in the US, adding up to more than 7 million burned acres.
Nonprofit research organization First Street Foundation reports that more than 20 million properties across the US are threatened by at least “moderate” wildfire risk, or have up to a 6% chance of being in a blaze at some point in the life of a 30-year mortgage.
During these fires, homes are destroyed, and at the same time, building codes are revised and become more complicated to navigate. Plus, surrounding land becomes more expensive, all adding to the costs to build again.
PolicyGenius reported on the risks in the most fire-prone states and the meanings of the risk. For instance, Colorado has 2.2 million homes and the number of those at risk sits around 17%. In 2021, the state’s worst year for wildfire losses that were tracked by insurance, it added up to $450 million. At an even higher risk is Idaho, where 26% of homes are at risk.
Even though this data shows the significant risks to homeowners, Colorado’s legislative efforts to require fire-resistant construction materials have not been successful. At the same time, the number of homes being built in the wildfire prone areas is growing, and in Colorado has more than doubled between 1990 and 2020.
There continues to be a snowball effect. The more wildfires that occur, the more land is susceptible to the burning, the more homes are at risk, the more costs increase for finding land and building homes.
The US Fire Administration shows that the amount of the wildland urban interface, or the zone between development and wildlife, is growing by nearly two million acres per year. The group also reports that homes in 70,000 communities worth $1.3 trillion are now within the path of a fire event.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, adopting and carrying out building codes is the most effective mitigation strategy. In 2019, the National Institute of Building Science published a report underlining this finding. The report showed that implementing the International Code Council’s 2015 International Wildland Urban Interface Code saved $4 for every $1 invested and that bringing existing buildings up to that code could provide up to $8 in benefits for each dollar spent.
Blazing Innovative Solutions
A hand with FireGuardia core compound withstands the heat from a blow torch blasting more than 3452 … [+] degrees Fahrenheit.
Idalma R. Vicente
Former fire chief and now chief scientific officer at FireGuardia, Oscar Dominguez, is working to commercialize a fireproof plastic he invented in 2002 to bring the 100-year-old fire detection and suppression techniques used today up to date.
“Many insurance carriers are refusing coverage or won’t renew policies when homes are built in fire prone zones,” said Heather Towsley, president and chief executive officer at FireGuardia. “The demand for greater smart home construction technology could accelerate homeowner insurance incentives for using more sophisticated home fire suppression technology – much like water conservation and solar panel rebates.”
She shares that the FireGuardia solution can retrofit without driving up costs. The product can be applied to a number of construction materials to make them fireproof.
The company has a focus on bringing the solution to scale with an incredibly affordable coating product, targeting between $50 to $60 per 5-gallon bucket where other solutions land between $180 to $600, and hopes to be available later this year after an investment round.
The FireGuardia home fire suppression system integrates detection, suppression and a software tool. It also is nontoxic, sustainably sourced, and has low VOC output, taking out the poisonous materials that have historically been used in fire retardants, so there would be no hazardous material to clean up post fire.
Towsley shared an example of the product’s performance. In the first 20 seconds of a piece of Kevlar subjected to fire, it rose to 360 degrees Fahrenheit. A FireGuardia-coated piece of paper only reached 100 degrees in that time.
Another similar solution is from Singapore-based Fire Terminator. Judah Jay is the founder, inventor and scientist behind this plant-based, liquid technology that provides an aerodynamic shield on each molecule of a combustible material, like the wood and drywall used to build homes.
Jay’s technology comes from work on combustion research for aerospace applications that he did in the 1980s with Russian, Bulgarian and other Eastern European scientists.
“Once you introduce heat to our product, free radicals are produced that negate the combustion molecule that fuels the fire,” Jay said. “Without combustion, the fire cannot start or spread. That is how we can prevent and extinguish any fire. The higher the temperature, the more free radicals are produced, therefore, the better the performance of our product. Once the fire is extinguished, it can no longer be reignited.”
Jetfire Xin is the company’s business developer and is working on ways to commercialize the innovation across North America. Fire Terminator’s goal is to provide every homeowner with a home protection product. The product will be sold by the liter, retailing at $20. After mixing, one liter can cover 172 square feet.
In addition, treating wood with Fire Terminator makes it incombustible and protects it against insect infestations and mold. A coating process over the wood can also be done, which would substantially increase its resilience against fire damage.
Finally, Xin points out that homes and buildings that are equipped with sprinkler systems can add Fire Terminator into the water in the system to prevent a fire from spreading, putting it out quickly.
Home Design to Minimize Risk
California builder Connect Homes incorporates design features to minimize fire risk while also … [+] helping owners feel connected to the natural landscape.
Connect Homes
California builder Connect Homes has been focused on thoughtful design meant to minimize the risk of fire damages. Its homes are designed without eaves, which prevents flying embers from blowing up into the attic and starting a fire. The roofs also have a specific rating to be effective against severe fire exposure.
Plus, the builder also sources non-combustible exterior sheathing and finishes for the most dangerous areas. Connect Homes selects dual-pane glass exterior doors and windows to reduce the chance of breakage that typically occurs due to the extreme heat of a wildfire.
Gordon Stott, co-founder of the home building company, underlines the value of creating defensible space with limited landscaping.
“For me, it’s that balance of knowing that lovely landscaping could turn into a liability,” he said. “Another feature of our prefab system is the extensive use of floor-to-ceiling glass. I’ve been impressed with how floor-to-ceiling glass can sometimes overcome limitations of more limited landscaping. Standing in a modern house, feeling connected to the outdoors often still feels pretty great, even with limited landscaping and if the plant action is far away.”
Bottom line is that building and rebuilding isn’t the answer. Neither can any solution live on an island. There has to be industry-wide collaboration for the right regulations, the most innovative designs and products, along with ways to reduce the costs to bring these solutions to reality.
NEW YORK, June 25, 2021 (Newswire.com)
– Today, Student Energy, New Energy Nexus, and the Government of Denmark announced the launch of the Student Energy Solutions Movement to world leaders and governments at the United Nations High-level dialogue on Energy, Ministerial Thematic Forums. This new, youth-led, global Energy Compact bridges the gap between motivation and action by directly funding and actively supporting the deployment of 10,000 youth-led clean energy projects by 2030.
As one of the first governments to champion the initiative, the Government of Denmark announced their commitment as the first confirmed funder of the Student Energy Solutions Movement:
“Tackling climate change is the biggest challenge of our time and it will not be easy, but seeing the motivation, innovation, creativity, and drive that young people around the world today are showing gives me hope that we will achieve our goals. The kind of ambition demonstrated by Student Energy to support 10,000 youth-led clean energy projects by 2030 is precisely what we need in order to accelerate the energy transition and achieve SDG7. Denmark is proud to be a funding partner of this initiative,” says Asser Rasmussen Berling, Head of Department at the Centre for Global Climate Action at The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, Denmark.
Announcing the Solutions Movement Energy Compact
Student Energy’s Solutions Movement Energy Compact aims to resource and deploy 10,000 youth-led clean energy projects by 2030, creating structural change by putting real financial resources in the hands of the world’s most passionate youth. Funding required to meet this objective is $10 million by December 2021, and $150 million by 2030. The Compact will scale tangible action by young people 18-30 years old through a unique combination of project funding and education, training, and mentorship within Student Energy’s programs ecosystem.
Ambitions by 2030:
Launch 10,000 youth-led sustainable energy projects or businesses
Train 50,000 agile and employable youth workers, with a particular focus on reducing the energy skills gap in developing nations, and for women
Deploy $150 million toward upskilling, mentoring, and directly financing early- and mid-stage youth-led clean energy initiatives
Quotes:
Meredith Adler, Executive Director, Student Energy — “For decades, youth ambition and motivation have existed to transition our world to a more sustainable and equitable energy system, there just simply hadn’t been the resourcing to bridge that motivation into action. In launching the solutions movement, we’re shifting gears into taking action and deploying the energy and technology solutions we already have at our fingertips. I want to commend the High-level Dialogue on Energy for putting youth front and center, and for moving so quickly to get our global network engaged. It’s refreshing to see other organizations move with the same hustle and pace as the world’s young people!”
Danny Kennedy, CEO of New Energy Nexus — “This is the decade to deploy the solutions we have at hand to address the climate crisis, and many of these solutions need to be youth-led. If these businesses are going to last decades, they are going to need the motivation and energy of young people to really disrupt the markets and overcome the incumbents that they’re going to challenge. We at New Energy Nexus are really excited to partner with Student Energy to develop this movement of guided entrepreneurship.”
Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) — “Every stakeholder has a key role to play as we aim to meet the SDG7 and Paris Agreement targets, including youth, and I am pleased to see the leadership being demonstrated by Student Energy with this Energy Compact commitment. SEforALL’s first ever Youth Summit, held in February 2020, demonstrated our renewed commitment to bringing youth to the fore in this critical year, and it is great to see one of our organizing partners for the Summit come full circle by setting the pace for other young people to follow. This shows that beyond bringing their voices to the table, young people can design and fund the innovations required to achieve our energy and climate goals.”
Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator — “I warmly welcome the launch of the Student Energy Compact. It is a strong symbol of the profound shifts taking place in the development sphere where young people are no longer waiting for others to act. They are taking up the baton, driving forward transformation in critical areas, including when it comes to how our world is powered. With more and more groups joining by the day, the United Nations is building a broad coalition of action to spark a clean energy revolution that will improve the lives of millions of people.”
About the UNHigh Level Dialogue on Energy:
The UN Secretary-General will convene a High-level Dialogue on Energy during the 76th UN General Assembly on September 20, 2021 in New York, to accelerate progress towards achieving SDG7 by 2030. It presents a historic opportunity to provide transformational action in the first years of the Decade of Action. Ministerial-level Thematic Forums are bringing together key stakeholders virtually over five days to mobilize actions on the road to the High-level Dialogue on Energy. Ministers from national governments and leaders from business, civil society, and youth organizations showcased solutions on each priority theme and presented their Energy Compacts, outlining voluntary commitments and actions.
About Student Energy:
Student Energy is the world’s largest youth-led organization empowering young people to accelerate the sustainable energy transition. Since founding in 2009, Student Energy has worked with thousands of youth from over 120 countries, to build the knowledge, skills, and networks they need to take action on energy. Student Energy operates on a unique youth empowerment model, which means that initiatives are co-created with youth, for youth.
Student Energy also works with governments, the UN, and other decision makers to facilitate meaningful youth engagement and mobilize resources, coaching, and mentorship to support youth-led work. Student Energy has built coalitions with over 100 diverse partners, such as Indigenous Clean Energy, Sustainable Energy for All, HSBC Global, the Stockholm Environment Institute, DNV, WSP, and national governments like Canada, Denmark, and Sweden. Student Energy has stewarded CAD$10 million+ in funding to date, supported the development of over 280 youth energy projects, held 6 international Student Energy Summits, and attracted over 12.5 million people to its digital energy education platforms.
Media Contacts:
Shakti Ramkumar, Director of Communications and Policy shakti@studentenergy.org +1 (604) 445 4306
Innovative energy-efficiency financing program provides up-front rebate check to Tampa, Florida, district, benefitting over 215,000 students
Press Release –
updated: Dec 6, 2018
TAMPA, Fla., December 6, 2018 (Newswire.com)
– Minimise USA (a provider of innovative financial energy solutions for the education, government and chain retail sectors) and Generate Capital Inc. (a leading financier, owner and operator of distributed infrastructure) announced today the delivery of a check in excess $1.7 million to Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) in Tampa, Florida. The amount represents an up-front rebate of the comprehensive energy-management solution that Generate Capital and Minimise USA have provided at no cost to the school district. In addition, the companies have also donated $37,500 to the district’s Edison Elementary for the purchase of 250 Amazon Fire tablets for low-income students.
“Financing isn’t generally viewed as exciting to the general public, but this is absolutely a case where innovative financial programs can provide direct, real-world results that positively impact communities and the environment,” said Jigar Shah, Generate Capital’s president and co-founder. “This program is a blueprint for school districts, universities, hospitals and other government and commercial facilities that have overwhelming utility bills and could see tremendous savings from the implementation of an energy-efficiency solution.”
It’s been an incredible partnership to date. To get to walk the walk with that check, knowing those savings can help the district, its students and faculty is exhilarating and humbling. The vision is becoming a reality.
Daniel Badran, CEO, Minimise USA
This innovative program will bring down energy costs (typically one of the largest aspects of a school district’s annual budget) by completely revamping how each individual campus uses energy, including energy-management solutions; new interior and exterior LED lighting systems district-wide; new high-efficiency HVAC solutions; and the eventual incorporation of rooftop solar PV. It is the first phase of a 25-year contract that is expected to invest more than $200 million into the district and provide $850 million total energy-cost reductions to the district over its lifetime based on projections by the measurement and verification energy-efficiency experts at Minimise.
“We are overwhelmed with the work being completed in our school buildings, the lighting updates and the positive partnership with Minimise and Generate,” said Gretchen Saunders, chief business officer, Hillsborough County School District.
Minimise USA CEO Daniel Badran stated, “It’s been an incredible partnership to date. To get to walk the walk with that check, knowing those savings can help the district, its students and faculty is exhilarating and humbling. The vision is becoming a reality.”
Minimise USA and Generate Capital intend on making this the first of many partnerships with Florida school districts and municipalities. Minimise USA has developed and procured an amazing suite of technologies and methodologies worldwide to help provide impactful local solutions. Generate Capital is consistently at the frontier of energy-infrastructure financing. Both companies are committed to making an immediate impact for their clients.
About Generate Capital
Generate Capital, based in San Francisco, California, is a leading financier, owner and operator of distributed energy and resource infrastructure. With a permanent capital base, flexibility to meet a range of needs and deep domain expertise in technology, energy and resource sectors, Generate Capital partners with the innovative companies and project developers who are leading the Resource Revolution — building infrastructure that does more with less of our critical natural resources such as energy, water, food and materials. For more information on Generate Capital, please visit http://www.generatecapital.com.
About Minimise USA
Minimise USA provides innovative financial energy solutions designed to convert large public and private enterprises Profit/Loss expense outgoings to energy assets which, in turn, transfer to the Balance Sheet. Minimise USA owns a range of cutting-edge energy-management technologies that provide deep energy savings exclusive for the education, government and chain retail sectors. These technologies, along with a range of energy-efficiency products, are combined to provide an integrated, multi-technology solution at never a cost to the client.
