Risk Assessment of Transmission Lines Against Grid-Ignited Wildfires

Wildfires ignited by the power lines have become increasingly common over the past decade. Enhancing the operational and financial resilience of power grids against wildfires involves a multifaceted approach. Key proactive measures include meticulous vegetation management, strategic grid hardening such as infrastructure undergrounding, preemptive de-energization, and disaster risk financing, among others. Each measure should be tailored to prioritize efforts in mitigating the consequences of wildfires. This paper proposes a transmission line risk assessment method for grid-ignited wildfires, identifying the transmission lines that could potentially lead to damage to the natural and built environment and to other transmission lines if igniting …

Clean Air as a Bonus for Achieving Energy-Related State Goals: A Review of Policies and Programs in 15 States

This report explores connections between six common areas for state action on energy-related issues — resilience, economic development, energy affordability, electrifying transportation, grid modernization, and using local resources — and reducing air emissions. Although clean air often is not a driver for such state actions, they nonetheless reduce a variety of emissions, including particulates, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. The study spans 15 geographically diverse states: Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. While these states have not adopted mandatory climate goals, they conduct a …

Powering the Future: Overcoming Battery Supply-Chain Challenges with Circularity

Electric vehicle battery supply chains are marked by geographic concentration in mining and manufacturing, combined with a globalized distribution of materials. This model increases emissions, weakens resilience, and risks harming developing economies through unregulated cross-border transfers of used batteries. Meanwhile, first-life battery design focuses heavily on performance metrics like cost, range and safety, often neglecting end-of-life considerations such as repairability, recyclability and reuse potential. The lack of effective tracking systems for battery materials hinders responsible sourcing and informed decision-making across the life cycle.

This paper, written in partnership with the Global Battery Alliance and RMI, examines these challenges, highlighting the …

Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Roadmap

The Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Interconnection Roadmap (PDF) identifies solutions to address challenges in the interconnection of clean energy resources to the distribution and sub-transmission grids. The roadmap was produced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X)—led by the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO)—and published in January 2025. It provides the diverse group of interconnection stakeholders with strategies to improve interconnection processes to meet the growing demand for distributed energy resources.

The U.S. electricity system is changing rapidly. An important driver of this change is the growing deployment of …

Manufacturing and Energy: Advancing Productivity, Prosperity, and the Environment

A resurgence in U.S. manufacturing is in the offing, propelled by private investment and reinforced through public policies and incentives. Manufacturing makes large contributions to incomes, employment, and tax bases at national, state, and local community levels. Domestic manufacturing is crucial to economic competitiveness and to the resilience and security of supply chains for critical products and materials. However, manufacturing also consumes large amounts of energy and can contribute to adverse environmental impacts, including pollution and climate-altering emissions.

There are significant opportunities, many readily available, to improve manufacturing energy and environmental performance while enhancing productivity and competitiveness. State and Territory …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Geothermal Heating and Cooling

Geothermal heating and cooling technologies are important and underutilized solutions for. supporting a more resilient and efficient national energy system, as well as reducing emissions from buildings.

Geothermal heating and cooling technologies can reduce peak electricity demand, increase resilience, and lower ratepayer energy bills. By 2050, the technical potential for geothermal heating and cooling systems equates to up to ~80 million homes (~200 million refrigeration tonsii) across residential and commercial buildings in the United States; however, actual adoption will likely be lower. At full deployment, summer and winter peak demand could be hundreds of gigawatts (GW) lower than for a …

Grid Flexibility Study

Resurgent electricity consumption growth challenges grid reliability according to NEMA-PA Consulting Grid Flexibility study:
– The electroindustry is at the forefront of a nationwide drive to improve the reliability and resilience of the power grid ahead of growing power demand from data centers, e-mobility, building electrification, and manufacturing reshoring
– After two decades of stagnant power demand growth and scant transmission and distribution additions, power gap risks are expected to rise during peak demand events

Reliability risks are rising:
– Demand growth is likely to increase twice as rapidly over the next 25 years compared to the last quarter century, …

Rooftop Coverage Alternatives: Assessing Benefits for Grove Hall

On behalf of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets (GGHMS), Assistant Researcher Elisabeth Seliga, Assistant Researcher Sumera Patel, and Senior Researcher Joshua R. Castigliego prepared an issue brief examining a set of rooftop coverage alternatives (i.e., solar photovoltaic (PV), green, white, blue, and brown roofs) aimed at addressing the unique energy and environmental challenges faced by Boston’s Grove Hall community, highlighting the potential for a systems approach encompassing each rooftop coverage alternative to enhance energy efficiency and alleviate energy burden in a region characterized by urban heat island effects and a high share of environmental justice (EJ) populations. The issue brief …

Key Negotiations & Related Outcomes of the UN Climate Change Conference in Baku

Dubbed the “finance COP” for the milestone adoption of a New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) held in Baku, Azerbaijan, achieved some success but left a number of important issues open. More specifically, COP29 delivered on its two main objectives. The first was agreement on a new climate finance goal: developed countries will take the lead in mobilizing at least U.S. $300 billion per year by 2035 for climate action in all developing countries. However, the new U.S. $300 billion goal fell short of …

2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment

In the 2024 LTRA, NERC finds that most of the North American BPS faces mounting resource adequacy challenges over the next 10 years as surging demand growth continues and thermal generators announce plans for retirement. New solar PV, battery, and hybrid resources continue to flood interconnection queues, but completion rates are lagging behind the need for new generation.

Furthermore, the performance of these replacement resources is more variable and weather dependent than the generators they are replacing. As a result, less overall capacity (dispatchable capacity in particular) is being added to the system than what was projected and needed to …