Nasty Bytes: Managing Digital Risk in Energy Transition Business

Getting clean energy leaders to engage more deeply with cybersecurity is key as renewables become the mainstay of global power systems.

Reuters Events’ latest whitepaper, Nasty Bytes: Managing Digital Risk in Energy Transition Business, produced in collaboration with AXA XL, gives critical insight into how energy decision makers can keep cybersecurity top of mind whilst building transition infrastructure.…

Power Surge: Navigating US Electricity Demand Growth

For the past two decades, U.S. electricity demand growth rates remained relatively flat. Utilities have traditionally helped manage electricity demand and peak electricity demand through forward planning and demand side management (DSM) programs that proactively manage customer energy use. However, the U.S. now faces a sudden surge in electricity demand that requires new management strategies amid utilities’ efforts to lead a clean energy transition.

This report leverages ICF’s cloud-based renewable energy analytics platform, EnergyInsite, to measure and map electricity demand growth across the U.S. and the constraints to addressing demand. ICF finds that by 2028, U.S. electricity demand could increase …

Assessing a Louisiana-Japan Green Shipping Corridor

This feasibility study explores the viability of establishing a green shipping corridor for dry bulk trade between the US Gulf Coast and Japan, focusing on technical, economic, and operational components. The initiative, driven by both public and private sector interest, aims to decarbonize shipping by utilizing zero or near-zero emission fuels. The study aligns with the goals of the US and Japanese governments and private stakeholders to reduce emissions, promote alternative fuel production, and build infrastructure for low-carbon fuels.

This analysis was supported by the Green Hydrogen Catapult and led by RMI in collaboration with the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center …

Show the Way: The Field Guide to Decarbonization Planning

What’s Inside:

– Climate Action in the Built Environment: Understand the critical role buildings play in global emissions and discover strategies to decarbonize your infrastructure.
– Setting Achievable Net Zero Goals & Emission Reduction Levers: Explore various building systems and technologies that can be retrofitted or upgraded to reduce emissions over time.
– Gaining Efficiency through Reduced Consumption: Discover solutions for core building systems to enhance energy efficiency, lower operating costs, and move the needle.
– Shifts in Thermal Energy & Renewable Electricity: Options when transitioning facilities to low-carbon thermal energy sources and integrating on-site resources to address scope 1 …

The State of Critical Minerals Report 2024

This year’s State of Critical Minerals report considers the state of the U.S. response to our country’s need to secure access to critical minerals. We examine what has been proposed legislatively and what more can be done, focusing on key activities to responsibly spur supply growth.

Several recent high profile efforts by academics, industry, and advocacy organizations have outlined the contours of greater U.S. self-reliance in mining and processing. There is broad understanding that creating such greater self-reliance and growth is a multi-pronged effort, encompassing government support, workforce development, community engagement, and technology innovation to enhance efficiency and reduce the …

The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges

To address the climate crisis, utilities must transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. Sierra Club published the first Dirty Truth Report in 2021, evaluating utility plans to transition to clean energy based on their commitments to retire coal, build clean energy, and not build new gas through 2030. In 2021, these utilities failed to plan for the clean energy transition, scoring an aggregate of 17 out of 100. Unfortunately, instead of correcting course, many
utilities continue to fail to appropriately prepare for a clean energy future, wasting time as the clean energy transition becomes more urgent. This failure has …

Turning Data Centers into Grid and Regional Assets: Considerations and Recommendations for the Federal Government, State Policymakers, and Utility Regulators

Over the last two years, America’s demand for electric power has surged thanks to the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing and the emergence of—and demand for—generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), which relies on power-hungry data centers. The emergence of these two substantial new electric loads is unprecedented, and policymakers must address this dual challenge rather than viewing industrial growth and data center growth as competing priorities that require choosing one over the other.

A promising solution is to transform data centers into grid and regional assets that offer flexible demand powered by carbon-free electricity. These centers can reduce energy consumption during grid …

Heliostat Consortium Annual Report 2024

Heliostat-based concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) systems offer immense potential to provide low-cost, dispatchable renewable thermal and electrical energy to help achieve 100% decarbonized energy infrastructure in the United States. CSP with low-cost thermal energy storage can be used either to produce dispatchable electricity or provide high-temperature heat to difficult-to-decarbonize industries, such as cement, steel, and chemical production.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) is working to improve the techno-economic performance of heliostat-based CSP systems, with a target of $0.05 per kilowatt-hour electricity (kWhe) or $0.02 per kilowatt-hour thermal (kWhth) for heat generation for next-generation CSP …

Women’s Employment in the Pacific Power Sector

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) face economic challenges due to their remoteness, limited resources, and gender inequality. The remoteness, size, and limited resources of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) contribute to several economic challenges, including limited economies of scale, high transportation costs, and vulnerability to external shocks. While economies vary across the region, most countries rank relatively low on human development and gender equality indices. To address these challenges, PICs are increasingly focused on sustainable development and economic diversification to build resilience and improve living standards.

The energy sector plays a crucial role in addressing these challenges by providing reliable and climate …

Transportation Electrification Building Blocks: Practical Guidance to Plan for Rapid EV Load Growth

As electric vehicle (EV) adoption continues to grow, so do concerns about the electric grid’s ability to handle these vehicles’ charging needs, from not only passenger EVs, but also electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. Transportation electrification will not happen at the speed needed if cities’ and states’ electric grids can’t handle the charging load.

Many stakeholders are worried that there’s not enough time to prepare the electric grid for new power demand without interrupting the pace of EV adoption, given that installation of new equipment and upgrades to existing infrastructure can take years — much longer than the time required …