Are You Philanthropy-Ready? How to Work with Foundations on Mission-Aligned Community Solar

Community solar is emerging as a popular way to deliver a range of economic and social benefits that go beyond clean energy. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has set a goal for America to deploy enough community solar projects to power the equivalent of five million households by 2025 and create $1 billion in energy bill savings. To reach the goal, DOE has created the Community Power Accelerator, as part of the National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP). The Accelerator is an online ecosystem bringing together developers, lenders, foundations, community organizations, and other stakeholders to support the deployment of mission-aligned …

Risks and Opportunities in Post-Transition Supply Chains

The energy transition is upending the way global business is done, and evolving market conditions are resulting in new cross-industrial and cross-sectoral relationships. The shape of our global energy systems is changing.

This paper was produced in conjunction with Reuters Events: Global Energy Transition 2023. In 2023, the global energy transition faces existential risks. From geopolitical strife to soaring energy costs and upended supply chains, many stakeholders seek guidance on navigating this complex political, financial, and regulatory environment: the gap between transition expectations and reality is widening. 750+ decision-makers from across the full value-chain will unite to bridge the knowledge …

Peak Fossil Fuel Demand for Electricity

The latest installment of The Peaking Series shows demand for fossil fuels has peaked in the electricity sector. It will plateau for a few years and be in clear decline by the second half of the decade. The key driver of change is the rapid growth of solar and wind electricity generation on typical S-curves, driven by low costs, a shift of global capital, and the rising ceiling of what is possible. In 2022, solar and wind will produce 600–700 TWh of new electricity. Added to the 100–200 TWh from other clean sources makes it enough to meet projected global …

Streamlining Planning and Permitting to Accelerate Wind and Solar Deployment

This Insights Briefing focuses on one of the most pressing execution challenges to the rapid scale-up of clean electrification – slow planning, permitting, and land acquisition. While this set of challenges affects multiple clean energy technologies, the focus in this report will be on utility-scale solar photovoltaics (PV) (e.g., ~1 MW or above in size) and onshore and offshore wind, as the critical “backbone” zero-carbon generation technologies. After providing context on renewables deployment trends and current challenges, this Insights Briefing will develop an in-depth assessment of major planning and permitting barriers across project stages. It will then provide an overview …

Distributed Renewables for Arctic Energy: A Case Study

Alaska is a vast state that stretches into the Arctic Circle. Roughly 140,000 people in the state depend on isolated electric grids, traditionally burning expensive fossil fuels. These fuel sources have negative impacts on air quality and climate. As the climate warms, fuel supply chains and traditional ways of life are threatened. Renewable energy systems offer a clean, resilient alternative with less volatile costs to remote Arctic communities, but developing them raises a variety of technical, social, economic, and political challenges. Examples include harsh operating conditions, lack of local technical and managerial capacity, complex funding mechanisms, and lengthy permitting processes.…

Minimizing Habitat Conflicts in Meeting Net-Zero Energy Targets in the Western United States

The scale and pace of energy infrastructure development required to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are unprecedented, yet our understanding of how to minimize its potential impacts on land and ocean use and natural resources is inadequate. Using high-resolution energy and land-use modeling, we developed spatially explicit scenarios for reaching an economy-wide net-zero GHG target in the western United States by 2050. We found that among net-zero policy cases that vary the rate of transportation and building electrification and use of fossil fuels, nuclear generation, and biomass, the “High Electrification” case, which utilizes electricity generation the most efficiently, had …

OurEnergyPolicy Event Summary – Jobs and the Energy Economy

This event summary highlights key comments made by Dr. Ernest J. Moniz (13th U.S. Secretary of Energy; CEO and Founder of the Energy Futures Initiative) and David Foster (EFI Distinguished Associate) in conversation with Paula Glover (President, Alliance to Save Energy) at an OEP live event in Washington, D.C. in January 2023. The event featured a realistic discussion on energy-related jobs and the impact of the Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Acts across the sector.…

U.S. LNG: Remapping Energy Security

Energy security in Europe—and globally—now rests on U.S. natural gas exports. Europe’s shift from Russian gas to other supplies has dramatically and permanently changed global gas trade and energy markets.

With storage full for this winter, policymakers must now prepare for years of energy restructuring. Cooperation between the United States and Europe is and will remain critical for European energy security, hastening the energy transition, and maintaining strong transatlantic trade.…

Jobs, Emissions, and Economic Growth — What the Inflation Reduction Act Means for Working Families

Jobs, Emissions, and Economic Growth—What the Inflation Reduction Act Means for Working Families (January 2023) examines the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes the most significant investment in energy, energy infrastructure, and climate policy in U.S. history. But how will it impact working families in America? And will the jobs that are created be as good as the jobs that are lost? These are some of the many questions that policymakers debated before the IRA was passed and that specific language was crafted to address.

This paper explores these questions and several others, using trusted policy modeling …

Achieving 24/7 Renewable Energy by 2025

Our MATCH (Matching Around-The-Clock Hourly energy) modeling shows that 24/7 renewable energy can be achieved at cost competitive rates, while achieving the expected benefits of reducing emissions, and providing wider benefits to the grid. That includes reductions in long run emissions by building new supplies and storage that will displace methane gas generation.

The cost of 24/7 renewable energy varies depending on how perfectly supply and demand are matched. We find that a “sweet spot” goal of providing 100% renewable energy on a 99% time-coincident basis results in only a 2% cost increase relative to our baseline, while achieving critical …