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
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California’s electricity infrastructure is entering a period of profound change. From a policy perspective, the state is moving toward goals of 60 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and 100 percent zero-carbon power by 2045, while state and local governments are striving to electrify more buildings and vehicles. At the same time, climate change is destabilizing these efforts, as extreme heat waves and record-setting wildfires are leading to electricity demand spikes, public safety power shutoffs, and questions about the reliability and resilience of an increasingly renewable-powered grid.
As the grid becomes more defined by flexible, distributed assets that generate, store, and …
View Full ResourceThe world is transforming its energy system from one dominated by fossil fuel combustion to one with net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary anthropogenic greenhouse gas. This energy transition is critical to mitigating climate change, protecting human health, and revitalizing the U.S. economy. To help policymakers, businesses, communities, and the public better understand what a net-zero transition would mean for the United States, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a committee of experts to investigate how the U.S. could best decarbonize its transportation, electricity, buildings, and industrial sectors.
This report, Accelerating Decarbonization of the United …
View Full ResourceCalifornia’s drive toward statewide carbon neutrality by 2045 relies on two related transitions: completely decarbonizing the state’s electrical grid; and shifting as many energy sources and fuels to electricity as possible. Transitioning buildings from natural gas to electricity–their heating and cooling systems, water heaters, and cooking equipment–is among the state’s highest priorities for the coming decade. But the transition also presents significant regulatory, economic, and infrastructure challenges, from high retrofit costs to utility regulations that may inhibit removal of gas service. These challenges could substantially hinder progress throughout the state, particularly in communities with limited capital to finance projects, high… View Full Resource
The Building Electrification Technology Roadmap (BETR) is a guide for utilities and other organizations developing, implementing, and supporting electrification technology programs as a way to advance high efficiency technologies, reduce GHG emissions, and improve public health. It’s the first study to characterize the industry status of a comprehensive set of electrification technologies that replace traditional combustion technologies, site barriers to adoption, and the road to accelerate adoption. Although developed and written to guide efficiency programs, the recommended actions can also inform manufacturers, the design community, owners, and policymakers.
The full BETR roadmap has layers of detailed information by technology in …
View Full ResourceThis outlook from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) highlights key attributes of thermal energy storage technologies and identifies priorities for ongoing research and development.…
View Full ResourceThe buildings sector emits 39 percent of global CO2 emissions, 28 percent of which come from the operation of buildings and 11 percent of which come from building materials and construction. While the building materials and construction process are important, this brief will focus on the operational emissions of buildings. Unlike many of the other sectors that have been covered in this brief series, some of the emissions from the buildings sector could be attributed to other sectors, so the sector’s percent of total CO2 emissions is not directly comparable to those of the other sectors. The emissions from purchased …
View Full ResourceBuilding operations are currently responsible for approximately one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in SVCE communities. Rapidly reducing emissions from energy usage in the built environment is critical to meet science-based reduction targets to address the climate crisis. SVCE and the thirteen Member Agencies developed this Building Decarbonization Joint Action Plan (‘the Plan’) that builds off of the 2018 Decarbonization Strategy & Programs Roadmap (‘the Roadmap’) that identified building sector decarbonization – here defined as removing greenhouse gas emissions from energy use in buildings – as a key priority in meeting the region’s climate goals, and the recent reach code effort …
View Full ResourceSupported by the USDN Innovation Fund, this guidebook is the result of the Enabling Tenant Access to EV Charging project, a USDN city-led initiative to provide cities with stakeholder-tested and context-grounded strategies that local governments can use to overcome common challenges and enable access to EV charging for renters in existing buildings within their cities. The project also produced an inventory of identified barriers and strategies for EV charging access for renters. Four core USDN cities from the U.S. were involved throughout the project, as well as seven U.S. and Canadian observer cities who participated in calls and project progress …
View Full ResourcePutting a price on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions can help governments reduce them rapidly and in a cost-effective manner. While 10 carbon tax bills have been proposed in the 116th US Congress, carbon prices alone are not enough to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury. Additional policies are needed to complement an economy-wide carbon tax and further cut CO2 from the US energy system.
This study aims to provide a better understanding of such policy combinations. It projects the energy CO2 emissions impacts of two carbon taxes, starting in 2021, that span the rates in the carbon tax bills in Congress. …
View Full ResourceIndustrialization has been and continues to be key to the growth of economies around the world. These industries, however, emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2017, heavy industry emitted more GHG emissions than agriculture, buildings, power and heat, and transportation. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, science dictates we must reach net-zero GHG emissions around 2050, which requires deep decarbonization from all sectors including industry.…
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