Press Releases, News & Technical Documents
August 26, 2020
COVID Five Months in: A Sustained Increase in Residential Electricity
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street – Pecan Street has been monitoring electricity use and generation from hundreds of homes in our research network for nearly a decade. Many of these homes have rooftop solar and electric vehicles, and we’ve been measuring each home’s total energy use as well as use from individual circuits, like heating/cooling, EV charging, refrigerator, etc. With all this data at our fingertips, we decided to take a look at how our participants’ energy profiles have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
July 22, 2020
Your Data in Action
Over the past several weeks, our work has been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and the momentum behind the racial justice and equity movement. As always, our home energy database has been central to the work we’ve accomplished.
July 22, 2020
Pecan Street Launches First-of-its-Kind Soil Carbon Sequestration Research Project
Austin-based research organization, Pecan Street Inc. is drawing on its past success in advancing climate and conservation solutions to explore new methods to accelerate market development of carbon sequestration on farms.
July 17, 2020
Pecan Street Featured on CNN’s “The Global Energy Challenge”
Pecan Street’s Chief Technology Officer, Scott Hinson, was interviewed for CNN’s “The Global Energy Challenge” about shifting energy usage due to COVID-19.
July 15, 2020
Pecan Street CTO Speaks with The Weather Channel About Summer Peak Energy Use and COVID Pandemic
Pecan Street’s Chief Technology Officer, Scott Hinson, was interviewed by the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore today about the coincidence of summer peak energy usage and the COVID-19 pandemic.
June 11, 2020
Pecan Street Deepens COVID-19 Home Energy Analysis with Survey of Volunteer Network
We surveyed participants to learn what behavioral changes might be affecting their energy profile under shelter-in-place. Learn more here.
May 29, 2020
Austin Energy Leads Nation in Municipal Solar Capacity
Congratulations to Austin Energy for being named first in the nation for per capita municipal utility solar capacity. On Wednesday, Environment Texas released their Shining Cities 2020 report that names the top U.S. cities for solar energy.
May 15, 2020
COVID-19 is Changing Residential Electricity Demand
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street – As the patterns of our lives shift in response to COVID-19, we decided to take a look at how our research participants’ energy profiles have changed. Not surprisingly, they’re using more energy. But how much, and for what?
April 17, 2020
Concern Over High Residential Utility Bills Due to COVID Sparks Action from Utilities
By Clayton Johnson, Communications Coordinator – The overall decline in energy demand due to COVID-19 shelter in place (SIP) orders has been widely reported in recent weeks. However, Pecan Street’s recent analysis shows that in contrast with the overall trend in declining energy demand, residential demand is up.