The Future of California’s Water-Energy-Climate Nexus

Without urgent water efficiency measures, carbon emissions associated with water usage in California are likely to spike in coming years, as changing sources of water supply and population growth drive up energy-intensive urban and agricultural water needs. Climate change-fueled droughts are likely to further increase water-related energy use and carbon emissions. That’s the finding of Next 10’s latest report—The Future of California’s Water-Energy-Climate Nexus.

While California has experienced a dramatic decoupling between water use and population growth over the last 40 years, continued population growth and ongoing water challenges are prompting urban water planners to pursue new water-supply …

BloombergNEF New Energy Outlook 2021

The New Energy Outlook (NEO) is BloombergNEF’s annual long-term scenario analysis on the future of the energy economy.

In this edition, we present scenarios that reach net-zero emissions in 2050 and achieve the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement, reflecting growing interest in climate pathways. With much of the route to net-zero still uncertain, we have designed three climate scenarios that reflect dominant technology paradigms common in the public discourse. We investigate these energy futures and discuss what it means to get on track for net-zero by 2030. We hope this year’s analysis is a valuable input …

Energy Storage Policy Best Practices from New England: Ten Lessons from Six States

This report explores energy storage policy best practices and lessons learned from the New England states. It aims to inform state policymakers and regulators seeking to expand energy storage markets.

New England has taken a leadership position in energy storage policy development, with several states implementing first-in-the-nation programs. As a result, energy storage deployment in the region has leapt ahead of many areas of the country. About 20 MW of grid-scale battery storage projects have come online in the region since 2015, but this is only the precursor to a much larger expected level of growth. According to ISO New …

A Transformative Climate Action Framework: Putting People at the Center of Our Nation’s Clean Energy Transition

UCS and an expert advisory committee released a report that confirms that the US can and must meet its climate goals by sharply phasing down fossil fuels throughout the economy by ramping up clean energy solutions such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and widespread electrification. To secure that clean energy transition, the report says, it is critical that we confront the racial and economic inequities inherent in our present energy system. Chief among them: fossil fuel pollution that disproportionately harms marginalized communities, many of whom have also had limited access to the benefits of clean energy and have been excluded …

Empowering Cities for a Net Zero Future: Unlocking resilient, smart, sustainable urban energy systems

Climate action in cities is essential for achieving ambitious net-zero emissions goals. Cities account for more than 50% of the global population, 80% of global GDP, two-thirds of global energy consumption and more than 70% of annual global carbon emissions. These factors are expected to grow significantly in the coming decades: it is anticipated that by 2050 more than 70% of the world’s population will live in cities, resulting in massive growth in demand for urban energy infrastructure.

Smart cities represent an important opportunity to reduce energy consumption while meeting service demand, improving grid stability and improving the quality of …

Economic Impact of Stimulus Investment in Advanced Energy: An Economic Assessment of Applying Stimulus Funds to Advanced Energy Technologies, Products, and Services In Virginia

This report outlines how government stimulus dollars could be put to work in the Commonwealth of Virginia as an investment in advanced energy technologies.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, states will need to make decisions about where and how to invest potential stimulus funding from the federal government to get their economies moving again.

For the purpose of this analysis, we postulate a hypothetical level of stimulus spending invested across a range of advanced energy technologies and services: energy efficiency, renewable energy (solar and wind), electrification of buildings, electrification of transportation (electric vehicles and charging infrastructure), energy …

A Program for Economic Recovery and Clean Energy Transition in California

This study presents a robust climate stabilization project for California. It demonstrates that achieving the state’s official CO₂ emissions reduction targets—a 50 percent emissions cut by 2030 and reaching zero emissions by 2045—is a realistic prospect. This climate stabilization project can also serve as a major engine of economic recovery and expanding economic opportunities throughout the state. This includes an increase of over 1 million jobs in the state through investment programs in energy efficiency, clean renewable energy, public infrastructure, land restoration and agriculture. The study also develops a detailed just transition program for workers and communities in California …

Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report

This joint annual report from the custodian agencies of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 on energy, serves to guide international co-operation and policy-making to achieve universal, sustainable energy access by 2030.

The latest available data and selected energy scenarios reveal that at today’s rate of progress, the world is not on track to achieve any of the targets under SDG 7. This is particularly true of the most vulnerable countries and those that were already lagging.

Although the number of people without access to electricity fell from 1.2 billion globally in 2010 to 759 million in 2019, the unfortunate fact …

World Energy Investment 2021

This year’s edition of the World Energy Investment report presents the latest data and analysis of how energy investment flows are recovering from the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, including full-year estimates of the outlook for 2021. It examines how investors are assessing risks and opportunities across all areas of fuel and electricity supply, efficiency and research and development, against a backdrop of a recovery in global energy demand as well as strengthened pledges from governments and the private sector to address climate change.

The report focuses on two key questions: whether the growing momentum among governments and investors to …

Energy Conversion and Storage: The Value of Reversible Power-to-Gas Systems

Power-to-Gas technology has recently experienced lower acquisition costs and lower conversion efficiency losses. At the same time, wholesale power markets have seen increasing volatility with significant amounts of surplus electricity at select hours of the year. Here we examine the economic potential of reversible Power-to-Gas systems that can convert electricity to hydrogen or operate in the reverse direction to deliver electricity during times of high power prices. Our model framework is applied to the current market environment in both Germany and Texas. We find that the reversibility feature of solid oxide fuel cells makes such systems already competitive at current …