Green Hydrogen Technology Assessment

Green hydrogen, produced using electrolysis and renewable electricity, can play a unique and critical role in decarbonizing high-heat industrial processes, such as manufacturing steel, chemicals, and cement. According to the Renewable Thermal Vision Report published by the Renewable Thermal Collaborative, blue and green hydrogen can supply approximately 13% of U.S. industrial process heat by 2050. In the United States, recent federal legislation, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, has put meaningful policy and billions of dollars of funding behind the push for clean hydrogen, including investment in research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) and tax …

City Climate Intelligence: Addressing the Urban Emissions Information Gap

More than ever, local governments are committing to bold and ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Although setting targets is an important first step in the fight against climate change, cities find it hard to mitigate what they cannot estimate. To support these local efforts, Carbon Monitor, Hestia, IG³IS, NEXQT, and RMI collaborated to develop City Climate Intelligence (CCI). CCI is the world’s first near-real-time, high-resolution urban greenhouse gas monitoring methodology that combines local data sets and advanced analytics to deliver better emissions data awareness and insights.

The CCI methodology analyzes emissions information at three spatial scales: Tier …

Building Modernization Legislative Toolkit

New technologies are rapidly changing the way we use energy in our homes and businesses. But in many U.S. states, the legal and regulatory status quo includes barriers to adopting these technologies. This toolkit is a free resource for legislators and policymakers who want to address these barriers and clear the way for building modernization in their states. Clicking on each of the seven topic areas below, you’ll find policy background, resources and, most importantly, detailed exploration of legislative options your state could pursue, drawing on examples from across the country. Proactive policy action can ensure that buildings are modernized …

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Carbon Management

These Commercial Liftoff reports aim to establish a common fact base and ongoing dialogue with the private sector around the path to commercial lift-off for critical clean energy technologies. Their goal is to catalyze more rapid and coordinated action across the full technology value chain.

Modeling studies suggest reaching U.S. energy transition goals will require capturing and storing 400 to 1,800 million tonnes (MT) of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually by 2050, through both point-source carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Today, the U.S. has over 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of carbon capture capacity, …

The Imperative of the Versatile Test Reactor for Nuclear Innovation

In 2018, Congress passed legislation with bipartisan support to investigate the need for a domestic fast neutron irradiation testing capability, based on the argument that the existing test reactors in the United States would be insufficient to meet new demand for materials and fuels testing from the next generation of advanced reactors. However, in 2021, Congress zeroed out the budget for the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), leaving the United States without plans to build a domestic advanced test reactor.

In this report, authors Jackie Toth and Khalil Ryan argue that the United States will lose its competitive edge against adversaries …

Selecting the Right Clean Energy Project Sites Can Maximize IRA Benefits

The Inflation Reduction Act is poised to transform the U.S. energy landscape by lowering the cost of solar, wind, storage, and other zero-emissions technologies. However, only a fraction of land across the U.S. is suitable for developing these renewable projects. Siting power projects presents a host of challenges that could limit how much clean energy is brought to market and how fast the transition happens. In this paper, ICF experts leverage data and technology to identify the best locations for clean energy projects.

Download this paper to learn best practices for evaluating grid access and available capacity, key …

A Snapshot of EV-Specific Rate Designs Among U.S. Investor-Owned Electric Utilities

EV-specific electric utility rates have a profound effect on the underlying economics motivating EV adoption. State utility regulators and electric utilities play a critical role in approving and designing rates, respectively. However, the nascence of the EV industry has resulted in regulators’ and utilities’ having very limited experience with EV-specific rate designs. This suggests there could be substantial benefit from efforts intended to provide a better understanding of how EV-specific rates are designed presently in the United States. To meet that need, Berkeley Lab researchers, with support from E9 Insight, developed a database of piloted, proposed, and offered rates among …

Embedding Equity in Utility Transformation

Utilities face an unprecedented customer engagement challenge as they modernize the grid to meet carbon-reduction goals and manage pressures on customer rates. Utilities should focus on energy equity to improve customer engagement and enable the accelerated transformation to clean energy. Timely action is crucial to allow current and future generations to reap the benefits of utility transformation and to address ongoing disparities throughout all parts of the energy system.

Addressing equity is a complex and continual process. This industry brief looks through the lens of three equity components: structural, procedural, and distributional alongside peer examples and recommendations for utilities, regulators, …

The Clean Energy Boom in House Republican Districts

Since the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) became law in August 2022, the private sector has been racing forward with massive investments to build our clean energy future. New manufacturing in wind, solar, batteries, and electric vehicles — along with storage projects across the country — mean new, good-paying jobs for hard-working Americans. In the months since the landmark climate and clean energy investments became law, clean energy companies have announced or moved forward with projects accounting for more than 142,000 new clean energy jobs for electricians, mechanics, construction workers, technicians, support staff, and many others.

At the same time …

Managing Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Renewables

Renewables are growing rapidly in the electricity systems around the world as countries seek to improve their energy security, meet emission reduction targets and take advantage of cheaper electricity sources. Thanks to successful use of flexibility resources – from stronger grids and interconnections to demand-side measures, affordable storage and dispatchable power supply – many countries have already securely and efficiently integrated significant shares of variable renewables (VRE) in their electricity generation.

As wind and solar continue to grow as a proportion of generation, system level surpluses and periods of lower generation will eventually expand beyond hour-to-hour or daily variations to …