Green Energy Solutions Start at Factory Gates

Green Energy Solutions Start at Factory Gates

The effort to reduce harmful global greenhouse-gas emissions involves the tricky challenge of addressing the environmental dangers embedded in the status quo without adding undue costs and burdens that could stifle economic growth. This provides strong incentive for investors and policy makers who care about the environment and the economy to prioritize innovative solutions.

In the US, the industrial sector accounted for almost a quarter of all emissions in 2019, according to Environmental Protection Agency data, so solving these companies’ emissions issues would go a long way toward addressing larger concerns. One fresh way to tackle the problem is to encourage manufacturers to invest in localized, carbon-neutral power generation. This isn’t a completely new idea, but it holds promise - particularly now as President Joe Biden wrangles with Congress over his sweeping infrastructure plan, which includes the goals of revitalizing manufacturing and transforming power generation to eliminate harmful emissions.

In the industrialized world, the simplest way to power a factory or server farm is to rely on the local electricity grid. However, this can be harmful when it comes to emissions. International Energy Agency data show that some two-thirds of global electricity was generated by burning fossil fuels in 2018. In China,