Latest news with #Saft
Time Out
4 days ago
- Business
- Time Out
Foot traffic on NYC streets is finally back to pre-COVID rates, says new study
Dust off your MetroCard and sharpen those sidewalk elbows. New York City streets are officially back to their pre-pandemic hustle. For the first time since COVID brought the city to a standstill, Manhattan foot traffic has not just matched but edged past 2019 levels, according to new data from analytics firm The report shows that visits to office buildings in commercial districts were up 1.3-percent last month compared to July 2019, putting New York City ahead of other major U.S. cities in the race back to normal. And while 'normal' here still means dodging food carts and weaving around tourists, business leaders are celebrating the milestone. 'It feels GLORIOUS! My city is back!' gushed Midtown attorney and lifelong New Yorker Stuart Saft to Gothamist. Saft says the sidewalks around his Seventh Avenue office have gone from ghost town to gridlock since spring, crediting part of the bounce to return-to-office mandates—his own firm now requires employees to be in at least four days a week—plus a tourism surge and new tenants moving into Manhattan's office market. That tourism boom, however, comes with a few caveats. SoHo's Sloomoo Institute (yes, the slime museum) reports strong weekend numbers but softer weekday footfall, partly due to fewer international visitors. Neighborhood groups, like the SoHo Broadway Initiative, say they're still seeing big gains—up nearly 15-percent from 2023—and that formerly empty storefronts are filling up again, making the area feel safer and livelier. Midtown's Flatiron NoMad Partnership says it's still 5-percent shy of 2019 foot traffic, but is making up for it with packed events like its inaugural NoMad Jazz Festival, which drew 'record-breaking crowds' to Madison Square Park. The ripple effects are citywide: Subway ridership is up 7-percent, bus ridership is up 12-percent, and Long Island Rail Road traffic is up 8-percent year-over-year, according to the Partnership for New York City. Retail sales are also expected to top last year's haul by nearly $1 billion. Still, some worry about how long the good vibes will last. Rising tariffs and uncertainty around federal funding could stall momentum, and leaders caution that NYC will need to stay competitive to keep attracting both tourists and talent.
Time Business News
23-06-2025
- Business
- Time Business News
Electricity Mechanism and Adverse Components in Hybrid Power Systems Market
An increasing electricity generating mechanism called a hybrid power system combines many energy systems, particularly renewables, to provide the best potential output configuration. Systems that produce electricity from two or more sources typically renewable ones are identified as hybrid power systems. By combining components to existing energy infrastructure, hybrid energy systems might help reduce expenses, environmental effects, and system disruptions. In the hybrid power systems market multiple factors, such as the growing demand for electrification, the need for more sustainable electricity, and the growth of renewable energy technologies, are fuelling the market for hybrid power systems. Hybrid power systems have the ability to combine wind and solar renewable sources for conventional backup systems that reduces the fuel dependency. Key Growth Drivers and Opportunities Expansion in Electrification: For dependable, economical, and ecologically friendly power generation, the hybrid power systems are becoming an increasingly significant alternative as the markets are witnessing the rise in global electrification. Certain contributing factors such as profitable rules, technological advancement and renewable energy resource utilization are factors that drive the hybrid power systems. Off-Grid Growth in Hybrid Systems Power: In the remote and off-grid regions there is growing demand for sustainable and off-grid locations due to the great push for hybrid power systems. The systems offer an impactful measure providing a consistent supply of electricity by integrating the conventional power with renewable energy sources, leading to lower the cost of operation and dependency on fuel. Challenges The high initial investment costs of hybrid power systems are due to costs of sophisticated technology, grid integration, energy storage, and infrastructure. It cost a fortune of funding for renewable energy sources setting up such as wind turbines and solar panels as well as effective battery storage. Innovation and Expansion Gulf States Tap Chinese Batteries for Power Renewable Ambitions In June 2025, a large-scale battery energy storage is being rapidly deploying by Saudi Arabia and UAE for integration of intermittent solar and wind into their power grids, aiming for reliable 24/7 clean energy. India Proposes Virtual Power Agreements Driving Renewable Energy Trading In June 2025, the draft regulations were introduced by India's CERC to enable virtual PPAs that promote the investment in renewable and hybrid power projects without physical delivery TotalEnergies' Saft Building 1 GWh Battery Hub On June 6, 2025, Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, has been selected by leading Asian renewable energy developer Gurīn Energy to supply a battery energy storage system (BESS) for the latter's major energy storage project being developed in Fukushima, Japan. This will help Japan progress towards national renewable energy targets of 40-50 percent of the generation mix by 2040, up from 27 percent today, as well as the country's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Saft will deliver a fully integrated lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery system with a total of over 1 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of storage, together with power conversion and power management systems from its partners, as well as Saft's I-Sight cloud supervision and data management systems featuring AI-based functionalities. The BESS will also be installed, commissioned and serviced by Saft. India's SECI Envision Renewable Expansion till 2030 In June 2025, 2 GW of solar power tender were launched by India's SECI with co-located battery storage systems enhancing grid flexibility and supports the country's targeted renewable expansion through 2030 Innovation drives, Expanding Markets DANI GROUP, Siemens Energy, General Electric Company, and other companies are recognized for their significant contributions to the hybrid power system market. Major strategies for hybrid power system companies consist of strong emphasis on integrating diverse renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, advanced energy storage solutions innovation, contributing to the hybrid power system market diversification. About Author: Prophecy is a specialized market research, analytics, marketing and business strategy, and solutions company that offer strategic and tactical support to clients for making well-informed business decisions and to identify and achieve high value opportunities in the target business area. Also, we help our client to address business challenges and provide best possible solutions to overcome them and transform their business. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This Pro Stager Knows How to Make Any Space Feel Like It Was Made for You
As Jason Saft, founder of home staging service Staged To Sell Home, gazes around his 24,000-square-foot studio and storage space in Industry City, Brooklyn, he reminisces on how he's grown from his first 8-by-10-foot space. Almost every inch of Saft's studio is covered with some object he's collected over the years, and every story makes up his winding history that's led him to where he is now. But if I had to guess, Saft wouldn't linger too long with memories of the past; he'd be poring over the details of one of the 15 staging projects he has going on at the moment. 'This is essentially my third career that took me a really long time to organically grow into,' Saft says. He founded his staging business, which was awarded #1 Luxury Home Stager in the United States in 2024 from Real Estate Services Alliance (RESA), in 2020, after 20 years in the real estate business (he was one of Compass's founding agents in 2013) and working in PR and marketing before that. But Saft's love for good design goes back to when he was a kid in the 80s: He'd eagerly read his mom's interior design magazines (and hide them under his bed for safekeeping). Cut to a few decades later, and Saft is living out his childhood dreams. 'For me, it's this ability to design, to do the thing that at my core I've always wanted to do,' he says. 'And it doesn't feel like a job. It doesn't even feel like, I mean, it is a career, but it's just a part of me.' Saft treats every staging project with an impressive level of devotion and thoughtfulness. 'It's not like there's a template, and we just cut and paste everything into it,' he shares. 'We're often [considering] the cross-section of neighborhoods, property type, architecture, history — it's so across the board,' he says. Saft explains how he and his team immerse themselves in each project: 'I try [to] teach my team, it's like you are getting into character; you are understanding that this dwelling is very different from this other one for this list of reasons.' 'Getting into character' stands out as one of the defining factors of Saft's approach. 'We are getting into the space [and] the stories that we're creating,' he says. 'It's so thought out and detailed, and there are discussions on it.' Saft welcomes a 'back-and-forth' about an approach to a home — he likes to dig into the nuances. He likens it to how your algorithm just knows what you want: 'That's my goal … creating something that someone thinks was created just for them.' Before he started Staged To Sell Home, Saft staged homes as a hobby while working as a realtor. 'That is sort of how I got my foot in the door with the business,' he explains. 'I looked for projects that had not sold, couldn't sell, and they were always rooted in issues with design.' In 2005, when Saft was 10 years into his real estate career, he created a marketing deck that outlined a 30-point action plan for fixing up and selling a home, which is still the core of his approach today. One of the points is the 'moment of entry,' which refers to helping potential buyers instantly feel good about a home when they open the door. This includes even the simplest things, like having a clean space and emptying the garbage cans. Next, they tackle all of the visible issues in a home to capitalize on a space's 'magical moments,' as Saft refers to them. 'Any time you don't fix your [home's] flaw, you're just handing leverage to someone to use it against you,' he explains. When a home's special features are on full display, Saft and his team will capture visuals of the space to give a full picture of what it feels like to live there. They'll photograph it at different times of day and show the 'nuances and subtleties' as opposed to an overall room shot. As Saft's portfolio expanded beyond a side hobby in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he took on Staged To Sell Home full-time. 'I've never had the time to think about what I wanted to do, what made me happy, what fulfilled me,' Saft says. 'And I always kept going back to design.' He appreciates all parts of redesigning homes, whether decluttering, reorganizing furniture, or painting. Mostly, he enjoys the entire transformation process: taking a home from what it was to what it could be — and attracting buyers who could envision living in it. Using his deep knowledge of the real estate industry, Saft can anticipate what a potential buyer will look for in a specific neighborhood, like Manhattan's West Village, for example. 'That's where the brokerage experience for me comes in handy. We sort of turned the house upside down, repainted it, and just approached it in a way that [reflects] a very specific buyer in the West Village,' he says. He gets very granular, considering buyers' budgets, how people will use the home, where they hang out, where they go out to dinner, where they go on vacation. You won't see 'simple, minimalist, all-white or beige environments with very little variation' or 'generic, big, white furniture' in Saft's portfolio. In breaking away from a one-size-fits-all approach, Saft had to take sourcing materials and finding inspiration seriously (as any pioneering Changemaker would). He visits museums, rummages through flea markets, and wanders into clothing stores to appreciate a design element. Of course, Saft's friends also serve as creative fonts — offering him things like vintage shoeboxes. 'I love combining different eras, time periods, and aesthetics into this one thing that feels fully thought out and realized,' Saft explains. Saft's attention to detail, keen understanding of the real estate industry, and ability to use his imagination have paid off. Since launching the brand full-time, Saft's sold more than $3 billion in properties. If Saft and his team enter an apartment that's been unable to sell, it's highly likely that once they've reimagined the space, it'll be sold — and sold quickly. Just take a project he completed in Manhattan's Upper East Side neighborhood. After remaking the space, it was on the market for 32 days and sold for $1.7 million above the original listing price. The success is great, but for Saft, it all comes back to design — he feels a responsibility as a professional interior decorator and stylist to show people how they can live in a space. 'I am constantly investing in things that are a bit more expensive and sort of break out of the traditional mold because I love design,' Saft says. 'I want to bring real design into the home from the very beginning.' We Tested (and Rated!) Every Sofa at West Elm — Here Are the Best for Every Type of Need Everything You've Ever Wanted To Know About Article's DTC Furniture We Asked 8 Pro Travelers What They Never Pack in Their Carry-On, and Here's What They Said
CNA
12-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
TotalEnergies' Saft to build Fukushima battery storage site
PARIS -French oil major TotalEnergies' subsidiary Saft has been selected to build a 1 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system in Japan's Fukushima, the company said on Thursday. Part of a larger project by Asian renewable developer Gurin Energy, the system will be able to provide over 240 megawatts of power for four hours. Construction is expected to begin next year, Total said in a statement. Battery storage systems are designed to stabilize electricity grids that receive volatile power swings from intermittent sources such as solar and wind farms. Japan plans to install 10 gigawatts worth of energy storage capacity as it seeks to increase the share of renewables in its electricity mix to nearly 40 per cent by the end of the decade, up from around 27 per cent currently. "Asia is a critical region for the sustained, long-term growth of Saft's Energy Storage System (ESS) business," Vincent Le Quintrec, Saft's ESS sales and marketing director said in a statement.
Reuters
12-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
TotalEnergies' Saft to build Fukushima battery storage site
PARIS, June 12 - French oil major TotalEnergies' ( opens new tab subsidiary Saft has been selected to build a 1 gigawatt-hour battery energy storage system in Japan's Fukushima, the company said on Thursday. Part of a larger project by Asian renewable developer Gurin Energy, the system will be able to provide over 240 megawatts of power for four hours. Construction is expected to begin next year, Total said in a statement. Battery storage systems are designed to stabilize electricity grids that receive volatile power swings from intermittent sources such as solar and wind farms. Japan plans to install 10 gigawatts worth of energy storage capacity as it seeks to increase the share of renewables in its electricity mix to nearly 40% by the end of the decade, up from around 27% currently. "Asia is a critical region for the sustained, long-term growth of Saft's Energy Storage System (ESS) business," Vincent Le Quintrec, Saft's ESS sales and marketing director said in a statement. TotalEnergies itself operates four solar parks in Japan and has bid for tenders in the country's nascent offshore wind market, as part of its strategy to develop an integrated electricity business alongside oil and gas.
