The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
Resource Library
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In Deloitte’s “math series,” published from 2012-2014, we analyzed the trends prompting US electric power companies to increase capital spending and examined the “dilemma” they could face as the costs to produce electricity rise, while demand remains fairly stagnant. Since then, as these trends have played out, spending has predictably climbed to unprecedented levels. US electric and gas utility capital expenditures soared from $69 billion in 2008, to an all-time high estimated for 2016—about $115 billion. Drivers behind the spending vary and include:
• The need to upgrade and reinforce electric and gas infrastructure due to age, increasingly severe weather, …
View Full ResourceDistributed energy resources allow electricity to be generated closer to where it is used, protecting businesses and institutions from unexpected outages caused by natural disasters and other disruptions. The U.S. national laboratories as well as public-private partnerships provide financial resources and access to research facilities to foster innovations to modernize the power sector from a 100-year-old centralized system to one that incorporates disparate clean technologies such as microgrids, batteries, and energy smart tools. These investments and the resulting new products and capabilities decrease costs, improve grid reliability, reduce emissions, and offer consumers more options.
Energy storage technologies encourage adoption of …
View Full ResourceThis report is designed to challenge the conventional thinking and linear models which dominate the current scenarios for energy futures. The greatest risks and opportunities will arise from more dramatic shifts rather than business as usual or incremental change. There is increasing investor interest in what analysis is useful to test business strategies and demonstrate resilience in a low carbon future.…
View Full ResourceAbout US$90 trillion in infrastructure investment is needed globally by 2030 to achieve global growth expectations, particularly in developing countries. To achieve this, infrastructure investment needs to be both scaled up, and, due to climate risk, integrate climate objectives.
Infrastructure investment has become a core focus of international economic cooperation through the G20 and also for established and new development finance institutions. Integrating climate objectives into infrastructure decisions will increase resilience to climate change impacts1, avoid locking in carbon-intensive and polluting investments, and bring multiple additional benefits, such as cleaner air and lower traffic congestion. Shifting to low-carbon infrastructure could …
View Full ResourceDisruptive forces predicted by electric industry pundits have arrived and are redrawing the power supply and consumption chains in the United States and abroad. New technologies affecting both sides of the meter clash with a regulatory construct struggling to keep pace with rapid innovation. Utilities must maintain generation capacity and transmission networks to safely deliver reliable electricity, even as residential consumers avail themselves of cost protections and new methods of generating, conserving and, in some cases, selling power back to the grid.
For the past two years, the Black & Veatch Strategic Directions: U.S. Electric Industry report has eyed the …
View Full ResourceTechnology and security professionals in North America and Europe profess a great deal of confidence in their cyberdefenses, despite the current spate of high-profile breaches worldwide, according to a new survey made possible by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program and Intel Security in advance of the 2015 Aspen Security Forum.
According to McAfee® Labs reports, critical infrastructure organizations are under constant cyberattack, yet no publicly apparent, massive outage has occurred so far. Energy producers, financial services, transportation companies, telecommunications companies, and governments are all potential targets. This report looks at the challenges facing these critical infrastructure organizations in France, …
View Full ResourceThe Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) is a trade group representing companies and trade associations in the energy efficiency, natural gas and renewable energy sectors. The Council’s comments offer perspectives and recommendations in several areas that will provide for the long-term strength, flexibility and resilience of the US electric transmission, distribution and storage systems.…
View Full ResourceA grand transformation is underway. A wave of decentralization is sweeping across the globe and changing the way we live, work and play. The organization of resources and people is moving away from centralized systems toward integrated networks that include both distributed and centralized elements. The trend is pervasive across society and the global economy. Telecommunications, computing, retail, and enter- tainment have all moved toward decentralization. Today, we are at the beginning stages of decentralization in higher education, healthcare and energy. The decentralization movement has the potential to enable
unprecedented productivity gains and improve living standards for all.…
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As national power grids have evolved, there has been a steady trend toward ever greater sensitivity to the full range of electromagnetic threats1. This historic and ongoing situation has resulted in growing concerns in nations all over the world, and evaluation efforts and grid protection measures have been taken, or are in progress, worldwide.
This report reviews international efforts relevant to grid vulnerability and protection, both in regard to electromagnetic threats and for other hazards which can benefit from synergistic resilience investments.…
View Full ResourceOptimizing high-value energy efficiency and renewable energy in multi-scale systems that include buildings provides energy savings, energy reliability, indoor health and power quality, among other benefits. These benefits are not easily accounted for in traditional energy budget analysis, and their monetization is not included in typical cost-benefit calculations. Popular belief is that higher use of energy efficiency reduces return on investment (ROI) and that inclusion of renewable energy further reduces ROI. In fact, optimization of higher degrees of energy efficiency with on-site renewable has significantly greater positive economics. This is due to several factors including the aging electric grid—statistically having …
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