A Review of Examples and Opportunities to Quantify the Grid Reliability and Resilience Impacts of Energy Efficiency

Grid reliability and resilience are foundational to meeting electricity needs and have significant economic and societal impacts. Energy efficiency can help meet grid reliability objectives and improve resilience, but metrics and methods used today may not fully recognize these benefits. This paper explains how existing planning processes for bulk power and distribution systems capture the impact of energy efficiency on power system reliability and resilience, with illustrative examples. We identify limitations in using existing reliability and resilience metrics to quantify efficiency and other distributed energy resource (DER) benefits. The paper concludes with opportunities for regulators and utilities to enhance planning …

The Value of Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency

This report underscores the vital role of energy efficiency and energy saving in meeting today’s crises by immediately addressing the crippling impacts of the spike in energy prices, strengthening energy security and tackling climate change.…

On-Bill Financing: Expanding Access to Energy Efficiency, Clean Energy Adoption, and Electrification for Everyone

On-bill financing programs provide an opportunity for rural communities to finance whole-house energy efficiency retrofits and clean energy upgrades with no upfront payments. Rural Americans pay on average 40 percent more for energy than their urban counterparts. But the upfront costs of many energy efficiency projects put long-term, cost-effective savings out of reach of those with lower incomes in rural, disadvantaged communities. When designed appropriately, on-bill financing programs provide financing to everyone regardless of income, or credit. On-bill financing programs require no credit checks—as program eligibility is based on utility bill payment history—and tie the on-bill obligation to the utility …

Reduce: Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is at the forefront of the effort to transform global energy systems; it reduces energy costs, drives economic development, improves health and well-being, and reduces carbon emissions. Within the circular carbon economy framework, the “reduction” of energy demand, compared to what it otherwise would be, through energy efficiency will be critical to ensuring the effectiveness of the “reuse, recycle and remove” stages that follow.

Energy efficiency policies can help economies grow and allow greater access to affordable energy services, while reducing negative impacts of energy consumption. Implementing the full range of currently available, economically viable efficiency solutions alone …

Estimating employment from energy-efficiency investments

This paper develops a methodology for estimating the number and types of jobs that would result from energy-efficiency investments in homes, businesses, and industry. The methodology involves the development of input-output (I-O) bills of goods that characterize how energy-efficiency funds would be spent across sectors of the economy. The methodology builds on and adds greater articulation to the research conducted in prior studies of U.S. energy-efficiency policies.…

Jobs in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Resilience Fact Sheet

This fact sheet focuses on employment in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in the United States and around the world. According to the 2019 U.S. Energy Employment Report (USEER), 611,000 people worked in zero-emission technology industries, including renewables and nuclear in the United States. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) recorded even higher renewable energy employment in the United States at 855,000 direct and indirect jobs in 2018. Jobs in energy efficiency experienced significant growth—the sector now employs more than 3 million people in the United States. IRENA reports that, globally, the renewable energy sector employed 11 million …

Energy Storage: The New Efficiency

Massachusetts, a national leader in energy efficiency, has incorporated energy storage as an active demand reduction measure in its 2019-2021 energy efficiency plan. Clean Energy Group has prepared a report describing the process of enabling use of state energy efficiency funds to support the deployment of energy storage with performance incentives offered for demand reduction. This groundbreaking action was supported with original economic analysis by the Applied Economics Clinic, under contract to Clean Energy Group.

The report, “Energy Storage: The New Efficiency ― How States Can Use Efficiency Funds to Support Battery Storage and Flatten Costly Demand Peaks,” explains the …

Carbon pricing and energy efficiency: pathways to deep decarbonization of the US electric sector

This paper examines carbon pricing and energy efficiency as pathways for deep carbonization of the US electric sector.

Despite the commitment of the Paris agreement to pursue efforts to limit end-of-century global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, few have studied mitigation pathways consistent with such a demanding goal. This paper uses a fully integrated engineering- economic model of the U.S. energy system, to explore the ability of the U.S. electricity sector to operate within a budget of 44 gigatons of CO2 (GtCO2) between 2016 and 2040 – almost 20 percent less than projected. Our modeling results suggest that carbon …

Energy efficiency, green technology and the pain of paying

It is well-known from the mental accounting literature that consumers would rather pay up-front for a luxury good like a vacation, but pay later for a durable good like a dishwasher. This occurs because the hedonic benefits and monetary costs enter differently in the mental accounts. But how does the mental accounting process change if the durable good saves money over time, as with an energy efficiency upgrade, or signals wealth and “green status”, like a rooftop solar panel or an electric car? In this paper, we derive a mental accounting model of energy efficient and green durable investment that …

A Top-Down Economic Efficiency Analysis of U.S. Household Energy Consumption

Energy efficiency and related demand management policies help mitigate the impacts of climate
change by reducing the use of fossil fuels and reducing the energy sector’s vulnerabilities to
climate change impacts. Over the past forty years, federal and state-level energy efficiency
policies (or standards) have been applied to household appliances, the corporate average fuel
economy, electric demand-side management programs, weatherization assistance, and building
codes. The U.S. residential housing sector accounts for approximately 21% of total primary
energy consumption and 20% of domestic carbon dioxide emissions. Building construction codes
and standards regulate the energy efficiency of newly constructed homes or commercial …