Cities are heating up fast. See how Thousand Oaks, Portland, Salt Lake City and Moab use green technology to tackle extreme heat, outages and flooding.
Most U.S. cities are warming faster than the planet as a whole, and the impacts are no longer theoretical. In 2025, heat is already the leading weather-related killer in the country, power outages are getting longer, and places that “never really got hot” now routinely cross 90°F.
Here’s the thing about this new urban reality: cities that treat climate change as a side project are scrambling. Cities that treat it as a design problem — and use green technology strategically — are saving lives, cutting emissions, and even lowering their utility bills.
This post looks at how four places — Thousand Oaks, Portland, Salt Lake City and Moab — are responding to extreme heat and climate risk, and what their choices tell us about the future of green technology in cities.
How Climate Change Is Rewriting the Rules for Cities
Climate change is forcing cities to redesign core systems: energy, transportation, buildings, water, and land use. The response is no longer just “be more sustainable”; it’s “keep the city livable.”
Urban leaders are facing a tight cluster of challenges:
- More frequent extreme heat days, especially in historically mild regions
- Longer, more damaging power outages as grids strain under heat, storms and wildfires
- Flash flooding in places that weren’t engineered for intense rainfall
- Air quality crises as heat traps pollution in basins and valleys
The climate stories from Thousand Oaks, Portland, Salt Lake City and Moab are different, but the pattern is the same: use green technology plus smart policy to reduce risk, cut emissions and protect residents.
For city leaders, utilities, and solution providers in the green technology space, this isn’t just a moral issue. It’s a massive design and implementation opportunity.
Thousand Oaks: From Wildfire Risk to Clean Power Strategy
Thousand Oaks, California, looks like a postcard: oak-covered hills, suburban neighborhoods, a lush ring of green. That beauty is now a liability. About 70% of the city is classified as a “very high” fire hazard severity zone.
Earlier this year, while fires hit the broader Los Angeles region, Thousand Oaks got a different kind of blow: record-breaking power outages that lasted more than 10 days in some areas, disrupting water systems and traffic signals.
Mayor David Newman’s response is blunt: “We really had to step up our resiliency game.”
Clean energy as a resilience tool
The simplest — and most powerful — move Thousand Oaks made was joining a regional community choice energy program at the 100% renewable level. Overnight, the city:
- Cut its greenhouse gas emissions from electricity by about 60% in a single day
- Gained more control over its energy mix and procurement strategy
- Signaled to residents and local businesses that clean power is now the default
This is a great example of how green technology and governance work together. The hardware (renewables, grid integration, storage) only matters if cities are willing to opt into cleaner power at scale.
For solution providers, it’s also a reminder: if you want impact fast, focus on systems-level switches like default green tariffs, not just one-off pilot projects.
Electrification and climate-smart landscaping
Thousand Oaks isn’t stopping at electricity supply:
- Electrifying the city fleet and installing EV chargers across the city
- Removing high-risk, non-native plants like palm trees that can throw burning embers long distances during wind events
This mix of green technology (EVs, chargers) and nature-based risk reduction (vegetation management) is what modern resilience really looks like.
If you’re advising a city today, these questions should be on the table:
- Can we switch to a higher-renewable power option this budget cycle?
- Where can we electrify fleets fastest to cut both emissions and fuel risk?
- Which landscaping choices quietly amplify our disaster risk, and how do we replace them?
Portland: Treating Cooling as a Human Right
When Councilor Candace Avalos moved to Portland a dozen years ago, people said the same thing locals say in a lot of northern cities: “It’s rainy, but it doesn’t really get hot.”
That’s now false. Oregon is logging far more 90°F+ days than in previous decades, and a city that wasn’t built for air conditioning is suddenly confronting fatal heat waves.
The harsh statistic behind Portland’s rethink: heat is already the leading weather-related cause of death in the United States.
The “right to cooling” era
Portland is exploring a legal right to cooling, which would require landlords to provide air conditioning to tenants.
That’s a big shift in how cities treat building comfort. Cooling is no longer a lifestyle perk; it’s an essential safety measure, just like heat in cold climates.
Green technology has a clear, practical role here:
- High-efficiency heat pumps that provide both heating and cooling, reducing emissions versus gas furnaces and old AC units
- Smart thermostats and building controls to avoid overloading the grid during peak heat
- AI-driven demand response systems that coordinate thousands of buildings to cut load when the grid is stressed
If you’re in the building or proptech space, this is where climate, equity and business opportunity intersect. Cities will increasingly favor solutions that:
- Protect vulnerable residents from extreme heat
- Reduce peak electricity demand
- Cut operational emissions year-round
Making polluters fund climate action
Portland also passed a clean energy surcharge on major corporations in 2018, and the fund has already generated almost $1 billion for local climate projects.
“If you’re going to bring all this air pollution into our community, then you better be planting a tree,” Avalos says.
For green tech companies, this kind of dedicated local funding changes the landscape. It creates steady demand for:
- Community solar and storage projects
- Building retrofits and electrification programs
- Urban greening and biodiversity initiatives
Most cities don’t have a billion-dollar fund yet, but the principle is spreading: make large emitters pay into local climate and resilience efforts, then invest that money into scalable green technology.
Salt Lake City: Solar Farms, E-Bikes and Transit Riders
Salt Lake City sits in a picturesque bowl, ringed by mountains. It’s stunning — and it’s also a natural pollution and heat trap.
As temperatures rise, the basin effect makes heat and air quality problems worse, amplifying health risks for residents.
Big bet: utility-scale solar that actually saves money
Salt Lake City’s answer has been to go big on clean energy. The city invested in a solar farm that, in its first year alone, saved about $1 million on utility bills.
That’s an important signal for other city leaders: renewable projects aren’t just about climate optics anymore; they’re about operational savings and budget stability.
Combine that with on-site solar plus storage at critical facilities — water treatment plants, emergency operations centers, shelters — and you start to see a resilient energy backbone that can ride out outages.
Small bets: everyday electrification
Alongside big infrastructure, Salt Lake City is focused on everyday choices that shift behavior:
- A coupon program to help residents move from gas to electric snowblowers
- Strong support for e-bikes as a default mobility option
- Free bus passes to “build transit riders” from day one
These micro-incentives matter. They:
- Normalize electric options in cold-weather cities
- Reduce local emissions and noise pollution
- Grow the user base for transit, which strengthens the case for more frequent service
Green technology adoption is often blocked less by cost and more by friction. Salt Lake City is chipping away at that friction with familiar tools: coupons, passes, and public endorsements.
Moab: Desert Town, Flash Floods, and Data-Driven Shade
Moab, Utah, is a town of about 5,000 people in a red rock desert famous for tourism, not flash floods. Yet the town is now dealing with lengthening summers and more intense flooding that overwhelms storm drains.
Despite its size, Moab has set a bold target: 100% renewable energy by 2030.
Heat mapping and tree canopies
Moab is using heat mapping to understand where extreme heat hits hardest. That data then guides investments in:
- Tree canopies in the hottest neighborhoods
- Shade structures at bus stops
- More public water fountains
The city also changed its landscape codes. If a tree is removed, up to four new trees must be planted, depending on the original tree’s size.
This is green technology plus green infrastructure in a very literal sense:
- Satellite and sensor data map urban heat islands
- Policy and urban forestry programs respond with more shade, evapotranspiration and cooling
For anyone building AI or data tools in the climate space, Moab’s approach is a template:
- Measure your risk with granular, geospatial data.
- Prioritize interventions where people are most exposed.
- Track results and iterate.
You don’t need to be a big city to do this. You need a clear goal, a couple of strong datasets, and the willingness to redesign codes and budgets.
Why Green Technology in Cities Has to Be Intersectional
Across these examples, one thing stands out: climate resilience isn’t a single department’s job. It cuts across transportation, housing, planning, utilities, and public health.
Portland’s Candace Avalos puts it plainly: fighting climate change is intersectional with transportation, housing and planning.
That’s not just a slogan. The most effective city strategies now share a few traits:
- Energy and equity are linked: “Right to cooling” policies, community solar, and building upgrades are framed as public health strategies, not just emissions projects.
- Mobility and emissions are linked: E-bikes, transit passes and EV charging expand access while shrinking carbon footprints.
- Land use and safety are linked: Tree planting, park design and vegetation management reduce heat, handle stormwater and cut wildfire risk.
For the broader green technology ecosystem — from AI-powered grid tools to smart building platforms — the message is clear:
If your solution doesn’t play well across departments and priorities, it won’t scale in cities.
Cities are looking for tools that can help them:
- Hit climate targets
- Protect residents (especially vulnerable communities)
- Reduce operational risk and long-term costs
If you’re building or buying climate tech, those should be your filters.
Where Cities — and Green Tech — Go Next
Urban climate stress will intensify over the next decade. More heat, more outages, more volatile storms. But the case studies above show a workable path:
- Thousand Oaks shows how a single policy move can slash emissions and improve resilience overnight.
- Portland reframes cooling as a right and backs it with real money.
- Salt Lake City proves that renewables and small-scale electrification can be financially smart.
- Moab demonstrates that even small towns can use data and green infrastructure to adapt.
The reality? Building climate-resilient, low-carbon cities is simpler than many people think — not easy, but straightforward. Cities need:
- Clear targets (carbon neutrality, 100% renewable energy, right to cooling)
- Practical green technologies (renewables, storage, electrification, sensors, AI)
- Policy and funding mechanisms that make those technologies the default choice
If you work in city government, utilities, or climate-focused tech, now is the moment to move from pilots to permanent systems.
Ask yourself:
- Where can we make a one-day impact by switching to cleaner energy or adopting a new standard?
- Which extreme-heat or outage risks can we directly cut with existing technology?
- How do we make sure the benefits reach the people at highest risk first?
Cities are already rewriting their playbooks. The question is which ones will move fast enough — and which partners in the green technology space will help them get there.