Bold Goals for U.S. Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing

Transforming the U.S. economy to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 will necessitate major advances across many economic sectors. To meet this transformational goal, action is needed now to spur focused research and development (R&D) that translates innovations in bioscience and biotechnology to broad scale implementation to mitigate the effects of climate change.

This report on climate change solutions provides an overview of ten bold goals and associated R&D needs to safely harness rapid developments in biotechnology and biomanufacturing to dramatically decrease GHG emissions, increase carbon sequestration, and develop innovative products. Achieving these goals in partnership with the …

World Energy Transitions Outlook 2023: 1.5°C Pathway; Preview

The World Energy Transitions Outlook outlines a vision for the transition of the energy landscape to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, presenting a pathway for limiting global temperature rise to within 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels and bringing CO2 emissions to net zero by mid-century.

This Preview presents high-level insights from the forthcoming 2023 report, which builds on two of IRENA’s key scenarios to capture global progress toward meeting the 1.5°C climate goal: the Planned Energy Scenario (PES) and the 1.5°C Scenario (1.5-S).…

Digital Energy Report 2023

Digital technologies, and the software behind them, are key to delivering the intelligence and the flexibility that low-carbon energy systems of both today and tomorrow will require. To highlight the criticality of digitalization, we partnered with GE to poll over 600 industry professionals on the importance of digital technologies in the energy transition.

Our flagship Digital Energy Report 2023 harnesses the insights of global transition stakeholders from businesses large and small to aid your digital adoption decision-making and inform your software integration roadmap. Get access to the report today to bolster your digital strategy through:

– Critical market analysis from

Can Advanced Nuclear Repower Coal Country?

With nearly a quarter of the U.S. coal-fired fleet scheduled to retire by 2029, replacing retiring coal power plants with advanced nuclear, specifically small modular reactors (SMR), has been put forth as a strategy to maintain local employment and economic opportunities for existing energy workers and communities, while simultaneously pursuing national climate goals. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) recent and groundbreaking certification of the country’s first SMR design pushes the technology closer to maturity. As SMRs shift toward commercial deployment, identifying the existing opportunities and hurdles is vital to create a pathway for future coal-to-nuclear transition projects. This report analyzes …

Transmission Congestion Costs in the U.S. RTOs

Yearly internal market congestion costs doubled from 2020 to 2021 across the Regional Transmission Organizations/ Independent System Operators (RTOs/ISOs) that serve around 58% of U.S. electricity load. Costs in RTO regions, apart from CAISO, were about $7.7 billion. Extrapolated to the rest of the U.S., including CAISO, congestion costs totalled around $13.4 billion. Of the seven operators of wholesale electricity markets in the country, all except California Independent System Operator (CAISO) publicly post congestion data.

Total reported congestion costs increased year-over-year by approximately 5% from 2019 to 2020, and by about 100% from 2020 to 2021. Reduced electricity demand …

An Economist’s Case for Restrictive Supply Side Policies

Focusing on demand leaves out the flipside of the coin: supply-side action. Heretofore, policymakers have been hesitant to employ restrictive supply-side policies— in other words, explicitly phasing out the supply of fossil fuels—on the theory that increasing the demand for clean energy will crowd fossil fuels out of the marketplace. Implicit in this strategy is the assumption that fossil fuel firms will voluntarily close their doors as they get pushed out and exit the market in an orderly fashion. They will
not. Without discrete restrictive supply-side planning and policy, the end of fossil fuels will be a chaotic collapse where …

Renewable Capacity Statistics 2023

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) produces comprehensive statistics on a range of topics related to renewable energy. This publication presents renewable power generation capacity statistics for the past decade (2013-2022) in trilingual tables.

Renewable power generation capacity is measured as the maximum net generating capacity of power plants and other installations that use renewable energy sources to produce electricity. For most countries and technologies, the data reflects the capacity installed and connected at the end of the calendar year. Data has been obtained from a variety of sources, including an IRENA questionnaire, official national statistics, industry association reports, other …

Sustainable, Affordable Cooling Can Save Tens of Thousands of Lives Each Year

Energy demand for space cooling has increased more than twice as fast as the overall energy demand in buildings over the last decade. Higher temperatures caused by climate change, coupled with increasing incomes and growing populations, are driving rapid growth in residential air conditioning (AC) ownership.

Access to effective cooling has saved tens of thousands of lives; over the same period, the average annual number of heat-related deaths averted by AC increased 3-fold, reaching an estimated 190 000 lives saved per year during 2019-2021. However, the rapid growth of AC is putting stress on the power grid, whilst exacerbating the …

Unlocking the First Wave of Breakthrough Steel Investments in the United States

Despite the United States having some of the lowest average carbon-intensity steel globally, its steel industry still makes up approximately 7 percent of the nation’s industrial emissions each year. New technology and operational changes to reduce steel emissions will be required this decade to align US steel production with the 1.5°C emissions budget. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provide energy- and climate-related financial support, which will accelerate public and private investment in new, clean infrastructure throughout the United States.

In this insight report analysis, multiple near-zero emissions brownfield and greenfield …

Energy Efficiency in the Southeast

Energy efficiency is a proven low-cost clean energy resource, but Southeastern utilities and regulators continue to underinvest and deprioritize it. As a result, households in many Southeastern states have some of the highest electricity usage and monthly energy bills in the nation. The fifth annual “Energy Efficiency in the Southeast” report examines the connection between energy efficiency and utility integrated resource planning, and the impacts that new federal investments will have on energy efficiency deployment in the region.

This year’s “Energy Efficiency in the Southeast” report documents recent policy developments and trends in electric utility efficiency data from 2021. Utility …