Host: Dr. Melissa Lott
Guest: Keith Kinch | General Manager & Co-Founder | BlocPower
Category: ☁️ Carbon Reduction | Net Zero Buildings
Podcast’s Essential Bites:
[0:25] KK: “We turn buildings into Teslas. We rip out old fossil fuel systems out of existing buildings across this great country. We electrify heating and cooling systems. And doing so we lower carbon emissions. We make the buildings healthier and make the air quality better. And then we also create jobs locally doing it.”
[0:53] ML: “Carbon pollution from buildings and I'm talking about heating, air conditioning, gas stoves, lighting electricity, accounts for about 30% of US greenhouse gas emissions.”
[3:41] KK: “If your building is working on oil or gas, you're in a bad place. That means you're not only emitting carbon emissions, you're putting your tenants […] in a bad place based on air quality. And then two, you're probably spending more money long term. That building is inefficient, the systems inefficient, long term, you want to be in a position where you're electrifying your building and you're using electric electricity for heating and cooling [is] gonna save you money.”
[4:11] KK: “Decarbonization, as simplistic as it is, is really around comfort and safety. […] So there's three things to decarbonization. First is weatherization. It doesn't make sense to put in a brand new heating and cooling system, and the windows are 25 years old, or your lighting is 25 years old. So we're looking at your building envelope. […] Two [is] electrifying the heating and cooling systems. And the third thing is the ability to do that from a software component.”
[5:26] ML: “Energy efficiency […] already led to a 17% decrease in emissions from residential buildings since 2005.”
[12:51] KK: “It's gonna take a team effort […] to scale this at the highest level. So you'll need private sector commitment, like BlocPower and public sector commitment. Two, I think with every project that's completed, we need to highlight it and showcase it. […] Building owners trust other building owners first. […] The second place people trust are like Lowe's and Home Depot. […] They both spend most of their time talking to homeowners and building owners. So we need to be able to build out that level of trust across this country from building owner to building owner and to key institutions on the ground.”
[19:08] ML: “If we want to decarbonize our buildings, we have to do four things. First, we have to make our buildings energy efficient, and manage how we use energy. Second, we have to electrify our buildings or move to other zero carbon fuels. And third, we have to decarbonize the electricity itself. Fourth, we need to bring together lots of people and the local government to make these projects happen at scale.”
Rating: ☁️☁️☁️
🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify | Google
🕰️ 21 min | 🗓️ 06/02/2022
✅ Time saved: 19 min
