EBI News for June 11, 2021- American Clean Power Industry Big Quarter
EBI News for June 11, 2021- The following news section contains the latest stories for the environmental industry. Including, news in the American clean power industry, acquisitions, and more!
Trihydro acquires Jacobson James and Associates
Trihydro Corporation (Laramie, Wyo.), a national environmental and engineering firm, has acquired Jacobson James & Associates (JJ&A, Roseville, Calif.). In addition to enhancing Trihydro’s core service areas of complex environmental cleanup, stormwater, hazardous materials management, and natural resource permitting, JJ&A strengthens Trihydro’s regulatory planning and strategy services and adds new areas of expertise such as forest resiliency planning, biomass management, and post-fire stabilization and restoration. With this acquisition, Trihydro’s network of offices grows to 22 nationwide, including new office locations in Roseville and Arcata, Calif. The expanded business is now comprised of over 500 professionals.
GWI announces 2021 Global Water Awards
Global Water Intelligence (GWI, Oxford, UK) has announced the winners of its 2021 Global Water Awards recognizing companies in the water, wastewater and desalination sectors. Among the winners: SKion Water was named Water Company of the Year, and Saline Water Conversion Corporation was awarded Desalination Company of the Year. BlueGreen Water Technologies won Breakthrough Technology Company of the Year, and Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant, Singapore won Desalination Plant of the Year. New in 2021 is a category for Resilient Water Agency of the Year, awarded to PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency as the governmental agency or water utility that offered the most robust or innovative response to the unique challenges of 2020. “The water industry was essential in helping protect people around the world despite the lack of resources, extreme lockdown curfews and financial difficulties,” GWI Publisher Christopher Gasson said. “Now more than ever, it is essential that we recognize these achievements.”
Verdantix benchmarks ESG and sustainability software
Independent research firm Verdantix (London, UK) has released its benchmark study of 44 software applications that support ESG, climate change, and sustainability. Technologies featured in the study include “reputation sentiment monitoring” from Alva and Nasdaq, new ESG platforms such as EMEX and Novisto, and GRC apps from Diligent and Navex Global. “The sustainability software market was in the doldrums between 2010 and 2018,” commented Verdantix Principal Analyst Yaowen Ma. “Vendors struggled to scale up as they were limited to pitching for small budgets owned by the VP Sustainability. Since 2019, ESG issues have rapidly risen up the financial market’s agenda. This has lifted interest in digital solutions that operationalize ESG strategies and improve sustainability disclosures.”
Platinum Equity to acquire global waste management company
Platinum Equity is acquiring Urbaser (Madrid, Spain), a provider of environmental services, from China Tianying Inc. (Nantong, China) for an enterprise value of approximately $4.2 billion. Founded in 1990, Urbaser’s core business is comprised of three segments – Urban Services (waste collection, street cleaning and water management), Municipal Waste Treatment, and Industrial Waste Treatment – concentrated primarily in Spain, Chile, Argentina, France, and the Nordic region. The company generated approximately $2.8 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2020.
The Kaizen Company joins Tetra Tech
Tetra Tech Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.) announced that The Kaizen Company (Washington, D.C.) has joined its international development practice. Kaizen provides development advisory and management consulting services and has more than 150 staff globally. Tetra Tech has served clients in the international development sector for more than 40 years. “The addition of Kaizen enables us to expand our management consulting capabilities and Tetra Tech Delta technologies to further enhance economic growth and prosperity in developing countries worldwide,” said Dan Batrack, Tetra Tech chairman and CEO. Kaizen has joined Tetra Tech’s Government Services Group.
Sanexen Environmental acquires American Process Group
Sanexen Environmental Services Inc. (Montreal, Quebec), a subsidiary of Logistec Corporation, announced the acquisition of American Process Group (APG, Edmonton, Alb.), an environmental company specializing in dredging, dewatering and residuals management, for CA$50 million. In 2020 APG generated revenue of CA$40.6 million. The acquisition is in line with Sanexen’s strategic plan to expand geographically and operationally, bringing a collaborative approach to water mains renewal, lead solutions, PFAS solutions and site remediation to new markets in Canada and the United States. American Process is a family-based company known for environmental and residuals management in Western Canada and the United States. Since 2004 it has served industrial clients, including pulp and paper manufacturers and municipal and governmental agencies.
Benchmarking GHG emissions intensity in oil and gas sector
Analysis by Ceres and Clean Air Task Force compares the total reported methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions, as well as the relative emissions intensity, of nearly 300 U.S. oil and gas producers. Data is designed to support decision-making by operators, natural gas purchasers, investors, policymakers and regulators. Sponsored by Bank of America and with technical analysis by MJ Bradley & Associates (Concord, Mass.), an ERM Group company, the analysis uses data that companies have submitted to the U.S. EPA in compliance with the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. “By analyzing data reported to EPA under a consistent methodology, this report allows for direct comparisons of producer performance,” said Robert LaCount, ERM’s Climate Advisory lead for North America.
B&V analysis supports SMUD’s 2030 Zero Carbon Plan
Recent analysis by Black & Veatch (Overland Park, Kansas) concludes that zero-carbon technologies, including carbon capture, energy storage, hydrogen, solar and wind, will allow the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) to achieve its goal of zero-carbon emissions in electricity supply by 2030. The B&V study analyzed a full range of zero-carbon technologies to determine the metrics for potential procurement, evaluating the cost-effectiveness and performance characteristics for each technology, technical and economic feasibility, levelized cost of energy, project development challenges, and input required for production cost models and scenario analysis.
EIC and Intel explore carbon-neutral computing
Energy Internet Corporation (EIC, San Jose, Calif.) is working with Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) to accelerate the adoption of sustainable carbon neutral computing in data centers. The companies will explore developing a reference design architecture based on long-duration energy storage to provide more resilient and available carbon-free renewable power to data centers at lower cost. “Achieving carbon-free has proven to be an elusive goal for the industry, mostly due to lack of energy storage technologies that last over 24 hours and that are able to the overcome intermittency of green energy sources and the associated curtailment issues,” said Mohan J. Kumar, Intel Fellow. “Our exploration with EIC will tap Intel’s broad portfolio of sustainability technologies to explore new energy storage solutions using compressed air energy storage.”
Big first quarter for American clean power industry
U.S. project developers installed nearly 40 percent more wind power in the first three months of 2021 than in the first three months of 2020, the strongest year ever for clean power, according to the Clean Power Quarterly Market Report released by the American Clean Power Assn. (ACP). This also represents nearly three times the amount of wind added to the U.S. grid in the first quarter of 2019. Utility-scale solar and energy storage also had strong first quarters, keeping pace with or exceeding historic levels. Thirteen new wind projects, 15 utility-scale solar projects, and two energy storage projects became operational during the first quarter, enough to power nearly 1 million American homes. America’s first wind project in federal waters, Dominion Energy’s 12 MW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, also became operational during the first quarter 2021.
San Diego gets $388M WIFIA loan for water reuse
San Diego’s East County Advanced Water Purification Program (AWP) has been awarded a $388 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan from the U.S. EPA. Scheduled for completion in 2025, the East County AWP will generate up to 11.5 million gallons per day of new drinking water—approximately 30% of current drinking water demands for East San Diego County residents. The Program will use four advanced water purification steps to produce water that is near distilled in quality then blended with water in Lake Jennings and treated again before being distributed as drinking water. The Program was one of only 38 projects selected nationwide in 2019 to receive loans totaling approximately $6 billion in water infrastructure investments.
Refinitiv reports on sustainable infrastructure ‘green rush’
A record $272 billion in sustainable infrastructure projects including wind, solar, and waste were announced in 2020, according to projects tracked by Refinitiv (New York, N.Y.) in its Infrastructure 360 app. The total amount of all announced infrastructure projects was $776.7 billion, with sustainable infrastructure projects accounting for roughly 35%. In the first quarter 2021 alone, 267 new sustainable infrastructure projects were announced with a combined total cost of $80.6 billion. “Sustainable Infrastructure: the Green Rush” describes the two biggest catalysts for projects as global sustainability commitments (Paris Agreement, UN Sustainable Development Goals, etc.) and global economies introducing large-scale projects. Further impetus is coming from Covid-related government stimulus spending; rapid growth of the electric vehicle market; mainstream investor interest in ESG investing; and a backdrop of natural disasters and extreme weather events. The report concludes: “The stage is set for sustainable infrastructure to become the most fertile area of investment speculation since the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840).” Refinitiv is a London Stock Exchange Group business.
Dewberry acquires Edmonds Engineering
Dewberry (Fairfax, Va.) announced the acquisition of Edmonds Engineering (Birmingham, Ala.), a 75-person firm with five locations in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Edmonds Engineering has a large footprint in the southeast and a strong reputation as an MEP firm in several market segments, including healthcare, education, laboratories, municipal, industrial, commercial, and federal. Dewberry’s existing MEP service group numbers more than 200 staff.
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