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
191 to 200 of 1134 item(s) were returned.
On Friday, August 12, 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376, the “IRA”) passed the U.S. House of Representatives, the final stop in the legislative process before it arrives at President Biden’s desk for his signature. With over $396 billion in direct federal investments in advanced energy, transportation, and manufacturing, the IRA represents the largest climate and clean energy bill in US history – as well as one of the latest pieces of industrial policy. The legislation covers the waterfront of advanced energy technologies, providing support in the form of tax credits, loan guarantees, and grants to bolster the production …
View Full ResourceAs governments and private sector leaders consider solutions to decarbonize the global energy matrix in order to address climate change, hydrogen has increasingly emerged as one promising pathway to net-zero emissions. The world’s most abundant element is an energy carrier that can be used not only to store energy, but also to decarbonize hard-to-abate energy sectors, such as transportation, power, industry, and buildings.
The unique characteristics of nuclear energy allow it to pair with low-cost, high efficiency hydrogen production processes which facilitates nuclear hydrogen production’s economic competitiveness. In this way, nuclear energy can be a catalyst for a clean hydrogen …
View Full ResourceToday, a fleet of digital devices is necessary to balance the power grid and supply electric power to the nation. Energy production and distribution will only increase its reliance on these digital technologies as energy systems continue to shift toward low-emissions and high-efficiency technologies. To deliver reliable, abundant, low-cost, high-efficiency, low-emissions energy, the energy sector must be defended against disruption by cyber threats that range from criminal to geopolitical.
The recommendations offered by this Task Force would strengthen American cybersecurity readiness in the energy sector. Aligning federal agencies with the needed authorities for current and future energy markets, would close …
View Full ResourceResearch on 100% renewable energy systems is a relatively recent phenomenon. It was initiated in the mid-1970s, catalyzed by skyrocketing oil prices. Since the mid-2000s, it has quickly evolved into a prominent research field encompassing an expansive and growing number of research groups and organizations across the world. The main conclusion of most of these studies is that 100% renewables is feasible worldwide at low cost. Advanced concepts and methods now enable the field to chart realistic as well as cost- or resource-optimized and efficient transition pathways to a future without the use of fossil fuels. Such proposed pathways in …
View Full ResourceCritics have opposed clean energy public investment by claiming that governments must not pick winners, green subsidies enable rent-seeking behaviour, and failed companies means failed policy. These arguments are problematic and should not determine the direction of energy investment policies.
A slew of recent studies has made clear that the pathways to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 demand significant re-gearing of the global economy — which will require major governmental funding across the world. These public investments need to go beyond research and development — and support technology demonstration, manufacturing, and deployment as well as energy efficiency and …
View Full ResourceWith the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) plans to close its remaining coal plants by 2035, this is a moment of potentially enormous change in the Valley’s energy system. The goal of this study is to understand how investments in energy efficiency — a key resource that has been undervalued by TVA — can bolster jobs growth across the TVA footprint while reducing energy demand. Energy efficiency is often the lowest-cost resource available to utilities and in addition to creating jobs, it improves grid reliability, reduces utility operation costs, improves comfort, and often lowers cost for building users, putting money back …
View Full ResourceThis year’s edition of the World Energy Investment report provides a full update on the investment picture in 2021 and full-year estimates of the outlook for 2022. It examines how investors are assessing risks and opportunities across all areas of fuel and electricity supply, critical minerals, efficiency and research and development, against a backdrop of uncertainties over how events will play out in 2022, namely the ongoing war in Ukraine, the outlook for the global economy, and in some countries the continuing public health risks from the pandemic.
The report focuses on some important features of the new investment landscape …
View Full ResourceCombined Heat and Power (CHP), also known as cogeneration, is the concurrent production of electricity or mechanical power and useful thermal energy (heating and/or cooling) from a single source of energy.
CHP is unique among electricity-producing technologies and methods because it generates more than one output. For most industrial applications, the thermal energy produced by the systems is the most valued output; clean electricity is an ancillary benefit that helps to control energy costs and reduce grid power demand. CHP may not be widely recognized outside industrial, commercial, institutional, and utility circles, but it has been providing highly-efficient electricity and …
View Full ResourceThe United States Energy and Employment Report (USEER) captures employment, workforce, industry, occupation, unionization, demographic, and hiring information by energy industry technology groups. These groups represent the fields of electric power generation; transmission, distribution, and storage; fuels; energy efficiency; and motor vehicles and component parts. In addition to this national report, a companion report, available at energy.gov/useer, provides state-level snapshots that are useful for understanding and comparison.
In 2021, U.S. energy sector jobs grew 4.0% over 2020, outpacing overall U.S. employment, which climbed 2.8% in the same time period. The energy sector added more than 300,000 jobs, increasing from 7.5 …
View Full ResourceEnergy insecurity—the inability to maintain energy services like heating and cooling—is one of the most pressing issues in the Southeast, where more than one out of every four households face access or affordability challenges. This is more than an energy problem. Paying high energy bills and worrying about utilities being shut off can drain long-term savings, limit economic opportunities, and lead to difficult—and potentially dangerous—decisions to make tradeoffs between energy and other vital services and household items.
Energy insecurity stems from many factors, including income, energy costs, the quality and affordability of housing, historical practices and policies, access to efficient …
View Full Resource