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.
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In the past few years, the United States has taken important initial steps toward creating a low-carbon energy system. Total carbon-dioxide emissions peaked in 2007 and had fallen by about 9 percent in 2014. Carbon intensity, the amount of carbon emissions per unit of energy consumption, has declined at an even faster rate.
Buoyed by this modest success, the United States helped shepherd the most recent round of global climate negotiations to a successful conclusion in Paris last year. The United States’ Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), as commitments in Paris are known, is to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions …
View Full ResourceDespite enormous market opportunity, strong interest in corporate responsibility, and improving economics, solar deployment in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector has been largely stagnant over the past 5 years.
The complexities of opening the C&I sector to broad solar deployment are based on a range of inter-related issues, including: the manner in which U.S. commercial real estate is often leased, which creates a “split incentive” among real estate owners and building tenants; unrated credit among small commercial entities; a lack of “tax appetite” or ability to monetize tax credits and depreciation benefits that are critical to solar project cost-effectiveness; …
View Full ResourceDespite enormous market opportunity, strong interest in corporate responsibility, and improving economics, solar deployment in the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector has been largely stagnant over the past 5 years.
The complexities of opening the C&I sector to broad solar deployment are based on a range of inter-related issues, including: the manner in which U.S. commercial real estate is often leased, which creates a “split incentive” among real estate owners and building tenants; unrated credit among small commercial entities; a lack of “tax appetite” or ability to monetize tax credits and depreciation benefits that are critical to solar project cost-effectiveness; …
View Full ResourceA research project in the state of Maryland investigated energy code-related aspects of residential single-family new construction. The study was initiated in January 2015 and continued through July 2015. During this period, research teams visited 207 homes during various stages of construction, resulting in a substantial data set based on observations made directly in the field. Analysis of the data has led to a better understanding of the energy features present in homes, and indicates over $1.5 million in potential savings to Maryland homeowners that could result from increased code compliance. Public and private entities within the state can use …
View Full ResourceOver the next 15 years (2015-2030) the world will need to build on the order of US $75-$86 trillion in infrastructure—approximately double the estimated $50 trillion stock of infrastructure. This increases to $116.55 trillion once investments in energy efficiency and primary energy are included. Around 70 percent of these infrastructure needs will be in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDCs).
Yet, approximately 70 percent of greenhouse gas GHG emissions come from infrastructure such as electricity generation, transportation, industry and buildings. Infrastructure is also central to how societies adapt to climate change. As a result, building the same infrastructure as before—high …
View Full ResourceEnergy policy in the United States has focused on three major goals: assuring a secure supply of energy, keeping energy costs low, and protecting the environment. In pursuit of those goals, government programs have been developed to improve the efficiency with which energy is utilized, to promote the domestic production of conventional energy sources, and to develop new energy sources, particularly renewable sources.
Implementing these programs has been controversial because of varying importance given to different aspects of energy policy. For some, dependence on imports of foreign energy, particularly from the Persian Gulf, is the primary concern; for others, the …
View Full ResourceCity skylines have long been a symbol of innovation and prosperity. What you can’t see is that these same buildings are some of the largest energy consumers in the United States and are therefore responsible for significant amounts of the state’s carbon pollution.
In August 2015, President Obama and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the final Clean Power Plan, regulating carbon pollution from existing power plants for the first time. Since then, many cities have released Climate Action Plans, setting targets for carbon emissions. The success of these two initiatives are mutually dependent. EPA’s Clean Power Plan requires strong …
View Full ResourceBuilt-environment wind turbine (BEWT) projects are wind energy projects that are constructed on, in, or near buildings. These projects present an opportunity for distributed, low-carbon generation combined with highly visible statements on sustainability, but the BEWT niche of the wind industry is still developing and is relatively less mature than the utility-scale wind or conventional ground-based distributed wind sectors. The findings from this report cannot be extended to wind energy deployments in general because of the large difference in application and technology maturity.
This paper investigates the current state of the BEWT industry by reviewing available literature on BEWT projects …
View Full ResourceThis report quantifies the technical potential of photovoltaic (PV) systems deployed on rooftops in the continental United States, estimating how much energy could be generated by installing PV on all suitable roof area. The results do not exclude systems based on their economic performance, and thus they provide an upper bound on potential deployment rather than a prediction of actual deployment.
Although methods have been developed to estimate rooftop PV technical potential at the individual building level, previous estimates at the regional and national levels have lacked a rigorous foundation in geospatial data and statistical analysis. This report helps fill …
Greater energy efficiency can benefit countries at all stages of development, but particularly fast-growing economies trying to achieve universal energy access with limited resources. In developed countries, while 2010 energy use was around 20% higher than in 1974, it would have almost doubled without the savings made by energy efficiency investments. By offering cost-effective opportunities to avoid new energy supply, energy efficiency is increasingly recognised as the first fuel”.
Globally, enhanced energy efficiency investments could boost cumulative economic output by US$18 trillion to 2035, increasing growth by 0.25–1.1% per year. Cooperation to raise energy efficiency standards for appliances, lighting, vehicles, …
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