Developing a Comprehensive Benefit-Cost Analysis Framework: the Rhode Island Experience

Rhode Island, like many other states, is facing the new realities of quickly changing customer demands, advancing technologies and new public policy priorities that are challenging existing regulatory processes. The Rhode Island PUC took steps to meet this challenge by developing a new regulatory tool. Building on the cost-effectiveness approach used for energy efficiency, Rhode Island developed a comprehensive framework to enable comparison of the benefits and costs across different types of utility expenditures and investments on behalf of customers. Download this report to find out how the framework can be adopted and implemented in your state.

In this report:…

Impact Report 2019

Tesla has released its second ‘Impact Report’ and in this new version, the automaker has significantly expanded the range of the report to include some fascinating data, including deep dives into efficiency, lifetime footprint, and more.

The automaker released the first edition of its impact report last year with the goal of “measuring the impact their products and operations have on the environment and our communities.”

For its 2019 report, Tesla greatly expanded it with a lot more data and interesting information about its operations and the lifetime footprint of its products.…

Rewiring The U.S. For Economic Recovery

New research shows that plummeting renewable energy and storage prices mean the United States can reliably reach 90 percent clean electricity by 2035 at no extra cost to consumers, supporting 530,000 new jobs per year and cutting economy-wide emissions 27%. This companion report outlines technology-neutral policy recommendations for Congress, federal departments and agencies, national laboratories, governors and state legislators, public utility commissions, and wholesale electricity markets to reach 90 percent clean electricity by 2035 in the United States.…

2035 REPORT: Plummeting Solar, Wind, and Battery Costs Can Accelerate our Clean Electricity Future

Global carbon emissions must be halved by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5°C and avoid catastrophic climate impacts. Most existing studies, however, examine 2050 as the year that deep decarbonization of electric power systems can be achieved—a timeline that would also hinder decarbonization of the buildings, industrial, and transportation sectors.

In light of recent trends, these studies present overly conservative estimates of decarbonization potential. Plummeting costs for wind and solar energy have dramatically changed the prospects for rapid, cost-effective expansion of renewable energy. At the same time, battery energy storage has become a viable option for costeffectively integrating high levels …

Building Back Better: A Sustainable, Resilient Recovery after COVID-19

For the economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis to be durableand resilient, a return to ‘business as usual’ and environmentally destructiveinvestment patterns and activities must be avoided. Unchecked, global environmental emergencies such as climate change and biodiversity loss could causesocial and economic damagesfar larger than those caused by COVID-19.To avoid this, economic recovery packagesshouldbe designed to “build back better”. This meansdoing more thangettingeconomies and livelihoods quickly back on their feet. Recovery policiesalso need to trigger investment and behavioural changes that will reduce the likelihood of future shocks and increase society’s resilience to them when they do occur. Central to this …

RENEWABLE POWER GENERATION COSTS IN 2019

Newly installed renewable power capacity increasingly costs less than the cheapest power generation options based on fossil fuels. The cost data presented in this comprehensive study from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) confirms how decisively the tables have turned.

More than half of the renewable capacity added in 2019 achieved lower electricity costs than new coal. New solar and wind projects are undercutting the cheapest of existing coal-fired plants, the report finds. Auction results show these favourable cost trends for renewables accelerating.

Solar and wind power costs have continued to fall, complementing the more mature bioenergy, geothermal and hydropower …

Investigating City Commitments to 100% Renewable Energy: Local Transitions and Energy Democracy

Greenhouse gas emissions are rising at an unprecedented rate and posing an immediate threat to human and ecosystem health. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions is from human activities that include the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation. Renewable energy serves as a viable solution to replace fossil fuel generation to create a healthier environment. Increasing awareness of both the necessity and opportunity surrounding renewable energy development is resulting in climate action at the municipal-level. Cities are physically formed around energy infrastructure, and therefore they have the ability to be powerful change agents in transformative energy …

2019 New Hampshire Clean Energy & Employment Report

The 2019 New Hampshire Clean Energy and Employment Report (NHCEER) analyzes the following five sectors of the New Hampshire economy:
x Clean Fuels;
x Clean Electric Power Generation;
x Clean Transmission, Distribution, and Storage;
x Energy Efficiency; and
x Alternative Transportation.

Based on a comprehensive analysis of employer data collected in the fourth quarter of 2018, the 2019 NHCEER finds that Clean Fuels, Clean Electric Power Generation, Clean Transmission, Distribution, and Storage, Energy Efficiency, and Alternative Transportation sectors in 2018 employed approximately 17,000 New Hampshirites or 2.9 percent of a workforce of nearly 671 thousand. Employment in these sectors increased …

State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2020

It is hard to focus on anything other than the current global health crisis. COVID-19 has upended our societies and the loss of normalcy, human connection and the economic toll is not to be underestimated. Unfortunately, even after countries embark on the path to recovery after this crisis, the threat of climate change remains. Bush fires raged across California and Australia at the beginning of this year, the coral reef suffered a third mass bleaching in five years and Antarctica experienced the first known heatwave. In the last year, growing public and investor pressure has moved climate change further up …

Shining Cities 2020

Solar power is expanding rapidly. More solar capacity was added to the grid in 2019 than any other energy source. The United States now has more than 77 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed — enough to power more than one in every 10 homes in America. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have invested in solar energy and millions more are ready to join them.

America’s major cities have played a key role in the clean energy revolution and stand to reap tremendous benefits from solar energy. As population centers, they are major sources of electricity demand and, …