RESIDENTIAL: One of the key actions in Montgomery County's Climate Action Plan (CAP) is to require newly constructed buildings to be all-electric and to electrify all new and existing buildings by 2035. As a resident of Montgomery County, one of the ways you can reduce your home's environmental footprint and contributing towards the county's climate goals is by switching to induction cooking in your kitchen. Find out how induction cooking offers many environmental advantages compared to a traditional natural gas range and efficiency advantages compared to an electric cooktop in our blog post.

RESIDENTIAL: Matthew Stovall and Cheng Guo, Montgomery County Climate Planning Team Interns did an analysis on heat pumps for residential homes. If you are considering making energy efficiency upgrades to your home's heating and cooling systems, an electric heat pump can offer significant energy and cost savings, in addition to environmental benefits. There are several heat pumps to choose from, and your individual priorities will help you choose the system that is best for your family and budget. Make sure to check for updates to local, state, and federal incentives that can help reduce the costs of installing your new heating and cooling system. 

RESIDENTIAL: Rachel Watson, the Senior Content Editor of Precision Air & Plumbing, a full-service HVAC, plumbing and home performance contractor operating in Chandler, Arizona filled us in on the top tips for preventing costly repairs to your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Find out what you should be doing every year here.

RESIDENTIAL: The Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC) and the Montgomery County Green Bank (MCGB) have received approval from the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) to develop and implement the Clean Energy Advantage (CEA) Pilot Program. CEA will facilitate access to lending capital provided by a third-party CEA Participating Lender so residential property owners anywhere in Maryland can conveniently and affordably complete energy improvements. The CEA program will be sponsored by seven utility partners who have been authorized by the PSC to fund the program using ratepayer surcharge funds of EmPOWER Maryland. MCEC and MCGB are the CEA Program Administrators and are planning to launch the pilot program before the end of the year.

SCHOOLS: The Energizing Student Potential Program is “STEM project-based,” combining classroom activities with a school energy audit by students, a student-run energy fair and an energy-focused STEM challenge. Pepco and the Exelon Foundation, in partnership with the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project and Montgomery County Public Schools bring together standards-based curriculum for use by educators and media specialists in the library, classroom, and afterschool setting. Applications are due on October 1, 2021 and you can find more here.

COUNTY: Emma Hubbard attends the Early College Program at Montgomery College Takoma Park (majoring in Biological Sciences) and is a senior at Clarksburg High School. She got into solar energy electronics out of experimenting with Arduino and various YouTube projects. Her solar charging initiative, Electra Sun, provides services to those in need and serving the community. From parks to electric scooter charging, and serving emergency shelters, Electra Sun aims to bring the power of the sun to everyone.

COUNTY: Montgomery County Recreation's workforce development program, TeenWorks, is looking for Montgomery County High School students who want to gain experience working with youth in recreational settings after school. These Youth Development programs include: Excel Beyond the Bell Elementary, Excel Beyond the Bell Middle, and RecZone for High Schools. There is also a Special Events & Outreach Team for various weeknight and weekend opportunities.

The Montgomery County Energy Team receives tons of newsletters and articles every day, and these are a few articles that we wanted to share this month. These articles range from county, state, national and international stories, we hope you find them interesting and informative.

Carbon Capture: Strategic Biofuels claims to have successfully completed a carbon capture and storage test at its diesel fuel plant in Louisiana, www.renewableenergyworld.com

Electric Vehicles: A new initiative from a diverse array of groups from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to the Edison Electric Institute and major automaker trade organizations is launching a private capital and forge public-private partnerships to rapidly accelerate the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations and related infrastructure nationwide, www.axios.com

Farming Robots: Farmhand Automation is developing low-cost electric farming robots to help farmers transition to a carbon-free future, www.mainebiz.biz

Grid: The U.S. could add 10,000 MW of large-scale battery power capacity from 2021-23 – 10 times the total in 2019 – according to a new report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, www.renewableenergyworld.com

Hog Manure: Monarch Bioenergy, a joint venture between Smithfield Foods Inc. and Roeslein Alternative Energy, finished installing manure-to-energy technology on almost all of Smithfield’s northern Missouri hog-finishing farms, www.nationalhogfarmer.com

Jet Fuel: Eliminating food waste as a source of methane, then, can be a highly effective way at driving down landfill emissions. It can also be effective at producing fuel. Previous research showed how to interrupt methane generation with fermenters that transform the carbon energy of food waste and other organic “wet waste” into volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which can be upgraded into jet fuel, www.nrel.gov

Laundry: By simply greening your laundry habits, there's huge potential to reduce your personal energy and water use, and therefore your environmental footprint,  www.treehugger.com

Mini Golf: There's a mini-golf course on the Brooklyn waterfront that isn't typical course. Each hole at Putting Green is designed around a climate change emergency affecting New Yorkers, www.npr.org

Onshore Wind: Construction costs for U.S. onshore wind generators declined by 27% from 2013-2019, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, www.renewableenergyworld.com

Solar: The Biden administration released a blueprint showing how the nation could move toward producing almost half of its electricity from the sun by 2050 — a potentially big step toward fighting climate change but one that would require vast upgrades to the electric grid, www.nytimes.com

Waste: Biogas generators like the one used in Ashok Meadows are now installed in more than 75 locations across India. Each day, waste pickers paid by the Ashok Meadows residents put between 550 kg and 600 kg (1,300 pounds) of food waste into the biogas plant, www.livemint.com

October is the Last Month to Win Prizes! 
As another Energy Action Month is upon us, we gear up for more fun activities which means this is your last chance to win prizes by visiting various locations throughout the County. There is still time to win a $25 gift certificate from a participating Montgomery Energy Connection Partners, all you need to do is be the first person to complete any of the 5 Scavenger Hunt Circuits. What are you waiting for? Get out there and find those scavenger hunt signs!