Renewable Energy Trends, Edition 2: Site Selection for Solar

Explore the latest trends in solar energy siting, analyzing challenges like shrinking site availability, reduced parcel sizes, and declining feeder capacities. This report highlights a nationwide 21.9% drop in suitable sites and state-level data revealing key opportunities, as well as predictive data for next year. Developers can learn strategies to overcome obstacles, pinpoint optimal sites, and adapt to a competitive market. Stay ahead in the clean energy transition with data-driven insights.

The race to scale renewable energy development continues to accelerate, with solar energy at the forefront of the transition to a cleaner future. This report is part of a …

The Role of Regional Grid Connectivity and Cooperation for Decarbonisation: A Case Study of South and South East Asia

As the share of renewable energy expands, cooperation at a wider level is required. In South Asia (SA) and Southeast Asia (SEA), cross-border power trade already exists. Both regions are moving toward high levels of integration. Sub-regional and interregional interconnections and regional cooperation can help reduce the use of fossil fuels and increase the absorption of renewable power in power systems. Using optimization models for the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) countries, the article demonstrates significant CO2 savings (403 million tonnes) resulting from the renewable Energy (RE) potential of Bhutan, India, and Nepal, meeting the required electricity demand for GDP growth. In South …

Hydrogen Shot: Water Electrolysis Technology Assessment

In June 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the first of a series of department wide Energy Earthshots™ designed to accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade. The Hydrogen Shot™ seeks to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen (H2) production to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade (“1 1 1”). As one in a series of Hydrogen Shot reports and assessments, this report, Hydrogen Shot: Water Electrolysis Technology Assessment, focuses primarily on current electrolyzer status and research, development, and demonstration needs to achieve $1/kg H2 based on current information and analysis. …

Residential Solar-Adopter Income and Demographic Trends: 2024 Update

The report describes income, demographic, and other socio-economic trends among U.S. residential rooftop solar adopters. The report is based on address-level data for roughly 4.1 million residential rooftop solar systems installed through 2023, representing 87% of all U.S. systems. With its unique size, geographic scope, and level of detail, this report is intended to serve as a foundational reference document for policy-makers, industry stakeholders, and researchers. …

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge Roadmap Implementation Framework

An interagency team led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge Roadmap Implementation Framework in November 2024. The Implementation Framework highlights current Federal agency capabilities and programs aligned with the actions called out in the SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap and identifies existing gaps where additional effort, public-private partnerships, and support will be needed to meet the goals set forth in the SAF Grand Challenge.

The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, launched in 2021, is a government-wide strategy, …

2024 Aspen-Columbia Global Energy Forum Report

The 2024 Aspen-Columbia Global Energy Forum, held June 5–7 in Rio de Janeiro, convened leaders from government, industry, civil society, and academia to address the urgent challenges of achieving a fair and affordable clean energy transition amid rising energy security and geopolitical pressures. Organized by the Aspen Institute and Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, the forum underscored the importance of North-South collaboration in tackling the climate crisis.

Against a backdrop of intensifying climate events and a shifting energy landscape, the forum explored critical topics, including financing the energy transition in emerging markets, the role of green industrial policy …

Economic Performance in US Fossil Fuel Communities

Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels to address the severe threats of climate change requires economic transformations that pose challenges for regions heavily dependent on coal, oil, natural gas, or other carbon-intensive industries. The United States is the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas and the fourth-largest producer of coal, and communities across the country depend heavily on fossil fuel industries for jobs, investments, and public revenues that fund schools and other critical services. These communities will need considerable support to successfully navigate a global transition away from fossil fuels, and a better understanding of their …

Electrification of U.S. Industry: Applying Lessons from Denmark

Electric technologies are essential for decarbonizing industrial process heat, which is a major source of emissions in the U.S. They are also critical for reducing energy costs, improving modularity of heating to meet specific temperature requirements, and boosting the competitiveness of domestic manufacturers.

This white paper looks toward electrification-enabling strategies that are in place or being pursued internationally, where there is more experience. It describes the political, economic, and energy landscapes that have allowed the uptake of electric technologies in the industrial sector, and the suite of policies and approaches that can be appropriated for the U.S. to the same …

Off-Grid Renewable Energy Statistics 2024

Off-grid electricity production from renewables, although largely unrecorded in most countries, is believed to be expanding rapidly. By combining information from surveys, administrative data and desk research, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has attempted to illuminate major trends in off-grid renewable energy deployment.

This publication presents statistics for the period 2014-2023 in trilingual tables, covering off-grid solar, hydro, bioenergy and wind power capacity, biogas production and numbers of people using off-grid power and biogas for cooking and lighting. Off-grid renewable power can come from various sources, ranging from large isolated power grids to solar lights and solar home systems. …

Recycling and Innovation

On October 23, 2024, OurEnergyPolicy hosted a discussion on developments in recycling and innovation in critical minerals as part of the Terranaut Minologues series on meeting critical mineral demand for our energy transition.…