OurEnergyPolicy Event Summary – Critical Minerals: Domestic Mining, Supply Chains and U.S. Policy

This event summary highlights key comments made by industry experts at an OEP webinar on critical minerals in April 2023. Featuring panelists from the Energy Futures Initiative, New Energy Nexus, and World Resources Institute in a discussion on the challenges posed by the energy transition’s powerful need for raw materials.…

Global Electricity Review 2023

Ember’s fourth annual Global Electricity Review aims to provide the most transparent and up-to-date overview of changes in global electricity generation in 2022 and a realistic summary of how “on track” the electricity transition is for limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees. The report analyses electricity data from 78 countries representing 93% of global electricity demand and includes estimated changes in the remaining generation. It also dives deeper into the top ten CO2 emitting countries and regions, accounting for over 80% of global CO2 emissions.

As soon as 2023, wind and solar could push the world into a new era …

Modeling the Benefits of Energy Storage in Maryland

For decades, Maryland has relied heavily on fossil fuels to meet its electricity demands. Now, Maryland has passed legislation to encourage the state to rapidly decarbonize and transition to renewable energy. In 2022, Maryland adopted one of the nation’s most ambitious climate change laws to date, requiring a 60 percent GHG reduction by 2031 and net-zero emissions by 2045. In addition, Maryland has a Renewable Portfolio Standard that requires 50 percent clean electricity sales by 2030. Meeting these ambitious goals will likely require the construction of energy storage facilities that will help to ensure clean wind and solar generation is …

Interactions Between Hybrid Power Plant Development and Local Transmission in Congested Regions

Hybrid power plants, namely those consisting of variable renewable energy (VRE) generators and energy storage in the same location, are growing in popularity and interact differently with the electrical grid than either component would individually. We investigate plant-grid dynamics in highly congested regions to determine whether stand-alone VRE, stand-alone storage, and hybrid VRE-plus-storage plants will reduce or increase the need for nearby transmission. The focus on congested regions offers empirical insight into future grid conditions, as VRE penetration continues to grow. Near congested load centers, we find that hybrid, stand-alone VRE and stand-alone storage plants each reduce transmission value, defined …

Smart Design Of 45V Hydrogen Production Tax Credit Will Reduce Emissions And Grow The Industry

The United States cannot achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions without carbon-free hydrogen. Today, this molecule serves the chemicals and refining industries, and fossil fuel-derived hydrogen production contributes about 1.5 percent of total U.S. climate pollution. Shifting to cleaner hydrogen production can replace these dirty sources while cutting GHG emissions in industries that are hard or impossible to electrify. Congress included a production tax credit (PTC) for clean hydrogen in Section 45V of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to help scale the nascent industry. The tax credit’s value is tied to the lifecycle GHG emissions of hydrogen production—including upstream emissions—with …

Electric Vehicle Dynamic Charging Performance Characteristics during Bulk Power System Disturbances

The purpose of this document is to highlight the need for collaboration between electric utilities and the electric vehicle (EV)/electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) manufacturing industry to develop strategies that will help ensure bulk power system (BPS) reliability, resilience, and security.

This document focuses on an area that is relatively unexplored: EV charging behavior during infrequent grid disturbances that originate from the BPS. These events last no more than a few seconds but may have catastrophic consequences for grid reliability if left unchecked (i.e., cascading blackouts and widespread power interruptions). This document outlines the need for early engagement and information …

Virtual Power Plants: Use Cases, Operational Models and the Evolving Market

The technology behind Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) is not new to utilities. However, they’re maturing to an inflection point where technology, regulations, and market conditions will drive rapid growth over the next five to 10 years. In fact, VPPs can potentially offset or provide 14% of U.S. peak electric power demand in 2050, according to a recent report. However, the report also states that barriers related to wholesale market value, retail offerings and consumer awareness “must be addressed to unlock the full potential of VPPs.”

This playbook examines use cases and operating models for VPPs, highlighting industry and market changes …

Photovoltaic Deployment Scenarios toward Global Decarbonization: Role of Disruptive Technologies

To totally decarbonize global electrical systems using photovoltaics (PVs) in the 2050–2060 decade, the world would need to install 63.4 TW of PV. This article models and explores how a PV manufacturing ramp-up trajectory toward this goal can be achieved while assuming that investors continue to make financially rational decisions avoiding stranded production assets and therefore protecting their return on investment. The model effectively exploits experience curve benefits in both the scaling of the manufacturing process and continued progress in product design technologies. The scale-up challenge is amplified because trajectories that achieve this goal require an unprecedented ramp-up of production …

Queued Up: Characteristics of Power Plants Seeking Transmission Interconnection

Electric transmission system operators (ISOs, RTOs, or utilities) require projects seeking to connect to the grid to undergo a series of impact studies before they can be built. This process establishes what new transmission equipment or upgrades may be needed before a project can connect to the system and assigns the costs of that equipment. The lists of projects in this process are known as “interconnection queues”. The amount of new electric capacity in these queues is growing dramatically, with over 2,000 gigawatts (GW) of total generation and storage capacity now seeking connection to the grid (over 95% of which …

Gaslighting: Financing Fossil Gas Power is Leading Europe’s Energy Transition Astray

Decarbonising electricity production by 2035 in Europe is a crucial lever for limiting global warming to 1.5°C. While half of Europe’s coal plants have been retired or are scheduled to be dismantled by 2030, there is still a long way to go in terms of fossil fuel phase-out in the power sector. Not counting the projects currently under development, 217 GW of gas plants must be phased out within that time frame. But over the past four years, financial institutions have acted against this transition, pouring hundreds of billions into companies responsible for Europe’s operational gas fleet and its expansion.…