Coal-to-Clean Success Stories

Even as there are promising shifts toward cleaner sources of electricity production in much of the world, 73 percent of the global power sector’s pollution still came from coal-fired power in 2021. There are several hurdles to shifting these sources to cleaner options. However, we have seen instances of relatively rapid, managed, and just coal-to-clean asset transitions in diverse geographies. RMI identified three such examples in the case studies below.

– In Chile, a strong mandate from the government attracted international capital that enabled the early retirement of Tocopilla coal units 14 and 15, avoiding hundreds of thousands of tons …

Transportation Electrification Building Blocks: Practical Guidance to Plan for Rapid EV Load Growth

As electric vehicle (EV) adoption continues to grow, so do concerns about the electric grid’s ability to handle these vehicles’ charging needs, from not only passenger EVs, but also electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Transportation electrification will not happen at the speed needed if cities’ and states’ electric grids can’t handle the charging load.

Many stakeholders are worried that there’s not enough time to prepare the electric grid for new power demand without interrupting the pace of EV adoption, given that installation of new equipment and upgrades to existing infrastructure can take years — much longer than the time required …

Trading Tensions: Navigating Policy Tools for a Diverse Critical Minerals Supply Chain

The United States faces a strategic challenge in securing reliable access to critical minerals that are the backbone of its economic prosperity and national defense. From the smartphones in our pockets to the advanced weapon systems protecting our nation, critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, rare earths, and aluminum are integral to the technologies powering modern society. These minerals are also crucial components in clean energy technologies, such as wind turbines and solar panels, and are essential for the batteries that drive the growing fleet of electric vehicles transforming the transportation sector. This report addresses the question: “How can the …

Sodium Ion Batteries Forecast

This comprehensive report is designed for battery, cathode and anode market participants, OEMs, and investors, providing essential guidance through the complexities of the sodium ion battery sector. Subscribers will gain insights into the forecast market growth and the role that this emerging technology is set to play across the market and especially in the energy storage sector.

The report offers detailed forecasting of supply and demand for sodium ion battery cells, cathodes and anodes. Analysis is broken down by material type, providing the forecast supply-demand balance for layered oxide, polyanionic and Prussian Blue analogue cathodes.…

Why Wind and Solar Need Natural Gas: A Realistic Approach to Variability

Wind and solar power will replace consistently dispatchable electricity from fossil fuels with variable and more unpredictable clean energy. Seasonal shifts and annual variations cannot be handled with batteries or other proposed storage solutions like hydrogen. Natural gas will have to bridge the gap for many decades.…

Unlocking New Opportunities for Carbon Neutrality in China’s Building Sector

Achieving a net-zero building sector is critical to China’s carbon neutrality. In 2022, the building sector was responsible for 32 percent of the country’s CO2 emissions. While emissions have plateaued since 2014, the continued growth of the sector underscores the need for immediate action to decouple emissions from expansion. As major consumers of energy and significant users of industrial materials, buildings play a key role in the transition to net zero, not only supporting the goal of carbon neutrality, but also improving quality of life, promoting social equity, and contributing to a green economy.

This report provides sector-level analyses of …

Accelerating Country-led Air Quality Reporting to Achieve Clean Air

There is no single, authoritative, comprehensive, regularly updated, database that provides recent national air pollution levels around the world — not even for fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, the deadliest and one of the most commonly tracked air pollutants. Access to basic, timely, recurring global air quality data is essential to identify hotspots for action, provide supporting resources, and track progress on pollution reduction across space and time. The invisibility in data, in turn, makes it harder to convince stakeholders to act, and to hold decision-makers accountable for policies, practices, regulations, laws and investments that impact air quality and …

2023 Corporate Citizenship Report

ICF was born out of the belief that companies should do more than make a profit, and that corporate citizenship isn’t separate from their work. Corporate citizenship is at the core of what they do and why they do it. Through our purpose-driven culture, ICF shares one important thing in common—a passion for creating a better tomorrow.

In their latest corporate citizenship report, they share:

– How ICF’s employees are supported—both inside and outside of the office—to ensure their work is meaningful and fulfilling.
– What they’ve accomplished toward minimizing their environmental footprint, including how they continue to achieve their …

Power Shift: How Virtual Power Plants Unlock Cleaner, More Affordable Electricity Systems

Virtual power plants (VPPs) are flexible and quickly deployable resources that are poised to address some of the most pressing, interconnected challenges of our electricity grid: growing loads, a retiring conventional generation fleet, and the need for rapid deployment of new, utility-scale renewable generation. Power Shift: How Virtual Power Plants Unlock Cleaner, More Affordable Electricity Systems shows how distributed technologies, aggregated into virtual power plants, can reduce emissions and costs for ratepayers by managing peak demand, reducing the need for expensive, emissions-intensive gas generation, and unlocking renewable portfolios.

Power Shift provides a vision for what’s possible for VPPs in grid …

Federal Incentive for Alternative Fuel Refueling Infrastructure, IRC § 30C

The Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 (PL 109–58, § 1342, 26 USC 30C) created an income tax credit equal to 30 percent of the cost of installing alternative fuel refueling equipment including equipment used to dispense natural gas and hydrogen. To qualify for the credit, the fueling equipment also must be used to refuel motor vehicles, which are defined as vehicles that have been manufactured primarily for “use on public streets, roads, and highways.” Over the years various improvements have been enacted by Congress.

Most recently, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 (PL 117–169, § 13404) amended section …