Consumer Benefits of Clean Energy: Policy Brief

Clean energy offers many benefits to consumers, including reducing consumers’ electricity bills, lowering total electricity system costs, and providing health and resilience benefits. States can accelerate consumers’ access to these benefits with policies that support energy efficiency, demand flexibility, renewable energy and storage. Berkeley Lab developed a series of briefs that explore the consumer benefits of clean energy, and identify actions states can take to promote them.

– Contribute to a least-cost electricity system by using low-cost resources such as end-use efficiency, demand flexibility, behind-the-meter solar PV and storage, and utility-scale renewable energy.
– Greenhouse gas emissions reductions and improved …

The U.S. National Blueprint for Energy and Emissions Innovation in Transportation

In 2023, the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization (Blueprint). The Blueprint provides the roadmap for innovative transportation fueling and vehicle technologies across every mode of transportation, expanding affordable and accessible transportation options. The Blueprint takes a systems approach to address overall efficiency and convenience across the sector and focuses on realistic, cost-effective approaches while working closely with industry.

Building on the Blueprint, DOE, DOT, EPA, and …

Evaluating the Interplay of Community Behaviour and Microgrid Design Through Optimisation Modelling in Local Energy Markets

This paper introduces an innovative method for integrating social dynamics into the design of community microgrids using Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP). Traditional microgrid optimisations frequently overlook the intricate interactions between socio-economic factors and technical performance. Their proposed methodology addresses this gap by incorporating a Social Capital Index (SCI) to guide the selection of Business Model Archetypes (BMAs), ensuring that microgrid designs not only meet technical specifications but also resonate with community values and behaviours.

The authors introduce and apply socially focused Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the impact of microgrid operations on community engagement, equity, and governance. The effectiveness …

The Energy Code Safe Harbor Toolkit: Plug-and-Play Energy Code Proposals that Promote Heat Pumps in New Buildings

A growing number of cities and states are eager to make meaningful progress on decarbonizing buildings to achieve climate targets, enhance quality of life for all residents and businesses, and improve energy efficiency. New construction poses an irreplaceable opportunity to build smart from the start: it is the most cost-effective time to improve efficiency and helps prepare the workforce to decarbonize existing homes and businesses. To do this, leaders need policies that make zero-emission new construction the norm and comply with the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA).

In 2023 a federal court decision introduced a new interpretation of …

The Impact of China-US Technological Innovation, Transportation, and Power Generation on Energy, Environment, and Economic Growth Sustainability

China and the United States have the highest demand for fossil fuel energy for transportation and power generation, which promotes growth while also damaging the environment. Policymakers, and environmental scientists, are increasingly interested in understanding key strategies to improve energy efficiency to mitigate fossil fuel energy demand and sustain the environment and growth. In this context, this study uses augmented mean groups (AMG) and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) estimators to reveal the impact of China-US technological innovation, transportation infrastructure, and power generation on fossil fuel energy demand and fossil fuel energy intensity from 1995 to 2020. Besides, the …

World Energy Transitions Outlook 2024

The success achieved this decade in reducing greenhouse gas emissions will determine whether global temperature rise can be limited to 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels this century. IRENA’s 1.5°C Scenario, set out in the World Energy Transitions Outlook, presents a pathway to achieve the 1.5°C target by 2050, positioning electrification and efficiency as key transition drivers, enabled by renewable energy, clean hydrogen and sustainable biomass.

The 2024 Outlook provides an overview of progress by tracking implementation and gaps across all energy sectors, and identifies priority areas and actions based on available technologies that must be realised by 2030 to achieve net …

Annual Report 2023-2024 Clean Energy: Growing Globally

Some believe we cannot solve the climate crisis without major trade offs in profitability, affordability, jobs, equity, or reliability. But you will find a different message in RMI’s annual report — one of hope, possibility, and opportunity, with the evidence to back it up.

Momentum cannot slow down when the stakes are this high. RMI is grateful to their donors for the critical support to make possible RMI’s work to transform the global energy system. …

AHP VIKOR Framework for Selecting Wind Turbine Materials with a Focus on Corrosion and Efficiency

The research objective in the context of the study relates to the major concern of corrosion affecting the wind turbines in operation to find materials with high durability in relation to environmental conditions of operation, strength, and cost. A method is an integration of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and VIKOR Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques that will assess seven different material options on sixteen criteria that comprise corrosion resistance, mechanical properties, cost, and a negative environmental impact. From this result, the AHP method calculated the weights for the indicators and chose potential materials, and finally, the VIKOR method used …

Valuing Energy Flexibility From Water Systems

Water systems represent an untapped source of electric power load flexibility, but determining the value of this flexibility requires quantitative comparisons to other grid-scale energy storage technologies and a compelling economic case for water system operators. Here the authors present a unified framework for representing water asset flexibility using grid-scale energy storage metrics (round-trip efficiency, energy capacity and power capacity) and assessing the technoeconomic benefits of energy flexibility at the water facility scale (levelized cost of water and levelized value of flexibility). They apply this framework to case studies of an advanced water treatment (desalination) plant, a water distribution network …

Possibilities to Improve the Economic Efficiency of Interconnection Processes

• DOE i2X Program + Roadmap Overview
• Panel Presentations: Improving Economic Efficiency of
Interconnection
• Fritz Kahrl (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
• Tyler Norris (Duke University)
• Mario Hayden (Enel)
• Jeff Billinton (CAISO)
• Open facilitated discussion
• Future i2x Activities & Upcoming Events…