Between the Poles: US States with Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS)

Geoff Zeiss

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Open Source Geospatial Foundation OSGEO
OSGeo was created to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software and promote its widespread use
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Sharing information about the location of underground utilities
The U.S. devotes an estimated $10 billion annually to locating underground infrastructure. Every construction project requiring excavation involves significant efforts in locating underground utilities prior to and during construction to reduce the risk of injuries and unexpected project delays. But this information is rarely shared and the location of underground infrastructure is recaptured over and over again. There are successful examples around the world where municipal and regional governments have helped enable a shared underground utility network database.
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Building information modeling (BIM) has been applied to design-build construction projects for many years. A growing number of countries are mandating BIM for public projects. While the UK government has said that "...we know that the largest prize for BIM lies in the operational stages of the project life-cycle", until recently there has not been hard data to support this conjecture. Similarly there has been only anecdotal support for an integrated BIM and geospatial approach for design, build, operate and maintain projects. Now we are beginning to see data from real world projects that offer evidence for the benefits of an integrated BIM+geospatial full lifecycle approach for construction projects.
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The BIM and geospatial interoperability challenge is the latest symptom of the broader problem of integrating AEC and geospatial workflows, that has contributed to low productivity in the construction sector. After the announcement about a year ago by Jack Dangermond and Andrew Anagnost of a new relationship to build a bridge between Autodesk and ESRI technologies, I thought it a good time to review progress toward interoperability between the AEC and geospatial worlds.
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I thought it would be worth while to include here a talk I gave at GEOGRAPHY 2050 Powering Our Future Planet at Columbia University in New York about the importance of accurate location information about underground infrastructure for the future development of the energy grid. With some notable exceptions accurately recording the location of subsurface infrastructure including oil, gas, electric power and other energy infrastructure is ignored - perhaps this is a case of out-of-sight is indeed out-of-mind. The reality is that knowing the location of underground energy infrastructure is critical for national security, for disaster planning and management, for public safety and for economic efficiency. Everyone is aware of at least one disaster resulting from or exacerbated by not knowing where our energy infrastructure is - the explosions in San Bruno in California (2010) and Belgium (2004) immediately come to mind.
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BIM + geospatial interoperability would avoid another CAD + GIS quagmire
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March 22, 2010

US States with Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS)

The American Clean Energy and Security (Waxman-Markey) bill, which aimed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions 17% by 2020 and over 80% by 2050 compared to 2005 levels, was passed by the US House of Representatives, but did not make it through the Senate. So unlike the EU the US does not have a national renewable energy objective. However, 36 States have enacted various forms of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) which sets objectives for renewable electrical energy sources at the state level.

Some of the states with the most aggressive RPS are

California 33% by 2020
New York 24% by 2013
Colorado 30% by 2020
Texas 5,880 MW by 2015
Connecticut 23% by 2020
West Virginia 25% by 2025
Minnesota 25% by 2025
Illinois 25% by 2025
Oregon 25% by 2025

Posted at 02:55 PM in Electric Power, Global Climate Change, Sustainability | Permalink

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Between the Poles

Geoff Zeiss

October 2022

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March 22, 2010

US States with Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS)

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