Unlocking Community Resilience: Innovative Strategies to Access Climate Adaptation Funding

Community efforts to adapt to the physical impacts of climate change are lagging despite unprecedented financing available for resilience in the United States. Local and state governments and organizations are pioneering approaches to address key challenges and improve community access to resilience funding. These innovative strategies include:
– boosting local capacity to plan projects and access funding, featuring Colorado’s Regional Grant Navigators
– stacking public and private funding to implement and scale projects, featuring Downtown Denver Partnership’s Urban Forest Initiative
– streamlining access to multiple financial resources for end users, featuring Impact Development Fund’s Disaster Recovery Program

Case studies from …

Unlocking Community Resilience: Innovative Strategies to Access Climate Adaptation Funding

Community efforts to adapt to the physical impacts of climate change are lagging despite unprecedented financing available for resilience in the United States. Local and state governments and organizations are pioneering approaches to address key challenges and improve community access to resilience funding. These innovative strategies include:

– Boosting local capacity to plan projects and access funding, featuring Colorado’s Regional Grant Navigators.

– Stacking public and private funding to implement and scale projects, featuring Downtown Denver Partnership’s Urban Forest Initiative.

– Streamlining access to multiple financial resources for end users, featuring Impact Development Fund’s Disaster Recovery Program.

Case studies from …

Building Climate Resilience Through Energy Access? An Empirical Study on Grid Connectivity in the Indian Sundarbans

Scholarly debates on energy and climate change have successfully foregrounded mitigation measures, but often overlook the role of energy in climate adaptation. Adaptation is of key importance to building resilience to climate change impacts, but its link with energy access has not been studied in detail. This study aims to address this research gap by examining the relation between electricity access and climate resilience in the context of Bally Island in the Indian Sundarbans. The authors deploy a qualitative research approach to investigate whether and how the electricity grid, installed to Bally in 2019, aids residents to build resilience against …

Climate Resilience Pathways: Catalyzing Private Sector Action

Businesses’ ability to adapt to climate change is a strategic imperative. Yet, despite the growing need to manage and respond to climate risks, a staggering 80% of companies lack a comprehensive plan for climate adaptation. This gap is a call to action— businesses must mobilize their considerable influence, resources, and partnerships to forge a resilient future.

The drive for decarbonization has demonstrated the private sector’s power to coalesce around best practices, attract investment, and shape policy. There is an urgent need for similar dynamism to accelerate climate resilience. The lack of a unifying language and framework for corporate climate action …

A Framework for Valuing Energy Resilience

Resiliency, particularly in the context of disaster and crisis management, has gained increasing recognition as a vital component of societal well-being. This paper explores the multifaceted concept of valuing resiliency, delving into its significance, factors influencing its assessment, and various measurement approaches. By comprehensively analyzing this topic, this report aims to provide a clear understanding of the importance of valuing energy resilience in diverse settings and the complex considerations involved in its evaluation.…

Marriott Infrastructure Resilience & Adaptation (MIRA) Program

In 2019, Marriott International (Marriott) launched the Marriott Infrastructure Resilience and Adaptation (MIRA) program to evaluate climate-related risks across its global portfolio of nearly 8,600 properties spanning 139 countries and territories. Through this comprehensive program, Marriott identified current and future climate risks to its portfolio and has a strategy in place to manage potential impacts, improve resiliency and mitigate losses to stakeholders.…

Abbreviated Final Technical Report for the Energy Resilience Cost and Performance Tool: The Value of Solar Energy

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems’ ability to provide behind-the-meter resilient backup power is not recognized or correctly valued. The diurnal and intermittent nature of solar power has led facility owners, policy makers, and developers to incorrectly discount the ability of solar PV to provide backup power for critical loads. To begin to address this, this project developed a software tool to assist stakeholders in quantifying the resilience benefits of solar energy when included in backup power systems. This tool was integrated into NREL’s existing REopt energy systems technoeconomic screening tool, a free, online web tool. The project team developed requirements, developed …

Exploring Non-Traditional Resilience Investments in the Utility Business Model: A Case Study with Baltimore Gas & Electric and Pepco

In 2021-2022, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI) collaborated with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) on a project focused on enhancing grid investment decisions with an emphasis on resilience and equity. The project aimed to identify grant opportunities and explore unconventional distribution upgrades. BGE and PHI were also engaged in efforts to strengthen grid infrastructure and implement innovative clean energy solutions to meet sustainability and resilience objectives at the state and utility levels in Maryland.…

Exploring Non-Traditional Resilience Investments in the Utility Business Model: A Case Study with Baltimore Gas & Electric and Pepco

In 2021-2022, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) and Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI) collaborated with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) on a project focused on enhancing grid investment decisions with an emphasis on resilience and equity. The project aimed to identify grant opportunities and explore unconventional distribution upgrades. BGE and PHI were also engaged in efforts to strengthen grid infrastructure and implement innovative clean energy solutions to meet sustainability and resilience objectives at the state and utility levels in Maryland.…

A Review of Examples and Opportunities to Quantify the Grid Reliability and Resilience Impacts of Energy Efficiency

Grid reliability and resilience are foundational to meeting electricity needs and have significant economic and societal impacts. Energy efficiency can help meet grid reliability objectives and improve resilience, but metrics and methods used today may not fully recognize these benefits. This paper explains how existing planning processes for bulk power and distribution systems capture the impact of energy efficiency on power system reliability and resilience, with illustrative examples. We identify limitations in using existing reliability and resilience metrics to quantify efficiency and other distributed energy resource (DER) benefits. The paper concludes with opportunities for regulators and utilities to enhance planning …