The October 2019 Seoul Mayors Forum on Climate Change, hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG), brought together representatives of 37 cities from 25 nations in Seoul, Korea to discuss the important position of local governments to address climate change. Mr. Park Won-Soon, mayor of Seoul, emphasized the need for cities around the world to adopt climate emergency declarations and mobilize additional resources to advance projects and policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In his keynote speech to the Forum, Dr. Byrne, President of FREE, underscored how cities can utilize their in-city assets to accelerate the sustainable energy transition. Bottom-up, locally designed approaches that accommodate the diverse economic, political, and social structures of cities’ communities can benefit from local experience and multi-faceted knowledge to engender new ideas and help identify solutions to the climate change issue.

Video Caption: Mayor Park Won Soon and Dr. Byrne are featured in the Arirang clip.

On July 3, 2019, the Third Asian Energy Conference on “Diversity in Urban Energy Transitions in Asia: Trajectories, Governance, and Policy Innovations” took place at the Asian Energy Studies Center at Hong Kong Baptist University. In his keynote speech at the conference, Dr. Byrne, President of FREE, discussed several challenges and solutions to building sustainable cities in his presentation called “New Energy for New Cities”. Central to the presentation was the question whether society, including its cities, can move at a pace and scale necessary to address the challenges produced through our modern success. Examples provided by Dr. Byrne underscore the possibility of rapid urban action and energy transition – including strategically positioning cities’ in-boundary assets like their rooftops and buildings. The conference included a series of panel presentations and discussions.

Dr. Taminiau, Research Principal at FREE, presented research findings and ideas from the FREE research team.  A central thrust of the panel presentation by Dr. Taminiau was that cities could identify infrastructure-scale portfolios of in-city assets that can be deployed to the market. A detailed overview of the conference, including powerpoints and videos of the presentations, is available at: http://aesc.hkbu.edu.hk/the-third-asian-energy-conference_details-of-conference.

On June 7, 2018, FREE presented an assessment on the status and trends of green finance in the United States to the U.S. Congressional Bipartisan Climate Solutions. This bipartisan group of U.S. house of Representatives explores policies that address our changing climate, focusing particularly on economically attractive options. Our presentation informed the Caucus about the U.S. green finance market as a whole and about several innovative green finance applications in particular. To support the presentation and discussion, FREE drafted a memo for the Caucus members (see Policy Brief on Green Finance).

As part of the presentation, Dr. John Byrne showcased the performance of the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) in Delaware and our recent $15 million round of financing under the Pennsylvania Sustainable Energy Finance Program (PennSEF). Our research revealed that the 2012-2017 green finance market supported the investment of $54.8 billion in green infrastructure and other sustainable energy programs. In addition, the data shows a rapid acceleration with increasingly critical positions being awarded to infrastructure-scale finance vehicles like the SEU and PennSEF. Market projections show a continued acceleration in the green finance market which represents a promising trend for the future implementation of FREE programs.

The presentation also emphasized the interesting role street lighting (a main focus of the first round of investments under the PennSEF program) could play to accelerate the implementation of “smart cities” and the “internet of things”. As a public asset, street lights are ubiquitous throughout the urban fabric and are already connected to the electric grid and each other. Adding additional services to existing infrastructure when performing comprehensive energy saving measures could help improve resilience and active (energy) management. Smart public lighting, in this vein, could become a “backbone” that enables a wide range of other “smart city” applications such as hosting sensor networks and wireless communication for smart parking, incident detection, emergency response, etc. This is an opportunity that FREE will explore in more detail moving forward.

We would like to extend our appreciation to U.S. Representative Ryan Costello for being part of the innovative bipartisan caucus and listening to our ideas. In addition, we thank Evan Endres from The Nature Conservancy for organizing our attendance at the event and Alex Kragie (Coalition for Green Capital) and Charlene Heydinger (Texas PACE) for their presentations on innovative green finance vehicles.

FREE, Daejeon Metropolitan City Government, and the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) have signed an MOU to initiate a collective effort to develop smart city strategies for Daejeon in South Korea. The MOU signing ceremony was held on October 22^nd, 2018 simultaneously with the Smart Zero Energy City Global Conference hosted by Daejeon Metropolitan Government.

FREE’s Dr. Byrne gave a keynote speech at the conference, emphasizing the importance of continued city-level innovations in fighting climate challenges and accelerating sustainable and just energy transitions. In his presentation, Dr. Byrne highlighted Daejeon’s potential to contribute to this movement and offered a policy agenda that can help jump-start the City’s smart solar city development.

Daejeon holds a unique position in South Korea. Known for being the ‘city of science and technology’ in the country, Daejeon has been home to a number of national research institutes and research-oriented universities. KIER is one of the leading research institutes in the energy field with primary focus on energy technology R&D and commercialization. With these think tanks and research opportunities around, Daejeon City Government has been eager to lead the 4th industrial revolution technologies and innovations including smart city development.

Under the MOU signed by the three parties, FREE will enthusiastically cooperate with Daejeon and KIER to develop Daejeon city’s sustainable energy policies and smart zero energy city planning. Such efforts will include advisement, knowledge sharing, and joint research. FREE is thrilled to be partnered with the ‘science and technology city’ of Korea and the country’s leading institute of energy research. FREE looks forward to meaningful collaborations in the shared vision of sustainable and smart energy cities.

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FREE and the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) has agreed to make mutually beneficial research cooperation on sustainable and renewable energy technology assessment. The two parties signed an MOU on October 19^th, 2018.

KIER was founded in 1977 under the mission of promoting energy technology R&D to enhance citizen’s quality of life and national energy security. As a government-funded research institute, KIER’s main research areas include energy efficiency and materials, new and renewable energy, and climate change technologies. Currently, the institute houses more than 300 doctorate-level researchers. Its 2018 budget was over $160M.

FREE is excited about the opportunity to collaborate with KIER’s research team of new and renewable energy in areas of economic, technical, and policy assessment of sustainable energy technologies. Based on KIER’s excellence in energy research and the Foundation’s research experience in renewable energy policy analysis, FREE is confident that the partnership will produce meaningful outcomes that can benefit both the institutions.

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