Decarbonized Resilience

Improved resilience has emerged as a top priority for the U.S. power grid. Efforts to mitigate wildfire risk in Northern California last year led to hundreds of thousands of electricity customers being disconnected from the grid. During hurricane season, customers in the Eastern and Southern U.S. often face the associated threat of multi-day power outages. In many other parts of the country, portions of the local power grid are susceptible to interruptions due to a variety of other factors. Improved resilience would reduce or avoid those outages, allowing industries, businesses, and households to maintain their uninterrupted supply of electricity.

Resilience …

Powering the Future: An Inclusive National Clean Energy Standard with Negative Emissions Technologies

Federal climate change policy in the United States has fallen woefully short of what is necessary to achieve the temperature goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement. In the absence of meaningful federal policy, many states have pursued clean energy policies ranging from Renewable Portfolio Standards to Zero Emission Credits. The limits of these state policies have become apparent due to court challenges and recent decisions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. This Note argues that a National Clean Energy Standard (NCES) is critical to harmonize state clean energy policies while also providing them with legal certainty.

Recent studies have shown …

Global Energy Outlook 2020: Energy Transition or Energy Addition?

Global energy consumption has grown rapidly over the past century, driven by an expanding population and increasing prosperity. Demand has risen for virtually all sources—coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, and renewables. These “additions” to the global energy system reflect broadly positive trends of higher living standards, decreasing global poverty, and longer livelihoods. At the same time, rising fossil fuel consumption is the leading cause of global climate change and creates other major environmental challenges. To address these challenges, the global energy system will need to undergo a clean energy transition, whereby sources of energy that emit greenhouse gases are …

Global Energy Outlook Comparison Methods: 2020 Update

We update a harmonization methodology previously developed in 2015 to facilitate comparisons of long-term global energy projections issued by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), BP, Equinor, ExxonMobil, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Institute for Energy and Economics (Japan), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Shell, and the US Energy Information Administration. Decisionmakers in the public and private sector rely on these projections to inform investments and policy, but comparing these outlooks on an apples-to-apples basis is not possible due to a variety of methodological differences. For example, the US EIA and BP’s exclude non-marketed traditional biomass, resulting in …

How Does Wind Project Performance Change with Age in the United States?

Wind-plant performance declines with age, and the rate of decline varies between regions. The rate of performance decline is important when determining wind-plant financial viability and expected lifetime generation. We determine the rate of age-related performance decline in the United States wind fleet by evaluating generation records from 917 plants. We find the rate of performance decline to be 0.53%/year for older vintages of plants and 0.17%/ year for newer vintages of plants on an energy basis for the first 10 years of operation, which is on the lower end of prior estimates in Europe. Unique to the United States, …

Cost of saving natural gas through efficiency programs funded by utility customers: 2012–2017

This study estimates the cost of saving a therm of natural gas from energy efficiency programs funded by utility customers during the period 2012 to 2017. Berkeley Lab researchers compiled and analyzed efficiency program data reported by investor-owned utilities and other program administrators in a dozen states representative of the four U.S. Census regions — Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Utah. Depending on the year, the dataset accounts for about 50 percent to 70 percent of annual national spending on natural gas efficiency programs.

The estimated cost of saving natural …

COVID-19 Impacts on the U.S. Solar Industry Factsheet

Like many American industries, the solar industry has been hit hard by COVID-19. Compounding issues, including supply chain delays, tightening of tax equity markets, homeowners’ financial concerns, shelter-in-place orders, and permitting challenges are all placing tremendous pressure on the industry. Without strategic government action, U.S. jobs and economic investment will suffer. With the right policies in place, the solar industry is poised to lead the U.S. out of this economic recession and create jobs for thousands of Americans.…

Temporary Reduction in Daily Global CO2 Emissions During the COVID-19 Forced Confinement

Government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic have drastically altered patterns of energy demand around the world. Many international borders were closed and populations were confined to their homes, which reduced transport and changed consumption patterns. Here we compile government policies and activity data to estimate the decrease in CO2 emissions during forced confinements. Daily global CO2 emissions decreased by –17% (–11 to –25% for ±1σ) by early April 2020 compared with the mean 2019 levels, just under half from changes in surface transport. At their peak, emissions in individual countries decreased by –26% on average. The impact on 2020 annual …

Electric Vehicle Charging for Retailers

The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) has partnered with the Retail Industry Leaders Association, Atlas Public Policy, and David Gardiner and Associates (DGA) to assess the market and current barriers for electric trucks and charging infrastructure within the retail sector. This joint initiative assesses the market landscape, challenges, and opportunities for electric truck and passenger charging infrastructure adoption among retailers and their transportation partners.

In this phase, the project team interviewed utilities, charging station service providers, and non-profits to investigate whom retailers should be engaging as they design, install, and operate fleet and passenger vehicle charging infrastructure at …

Downstream Oil Theft: Countermeasures and Good Practices

Downstream oil theft has become a global problem. Since most of the world’s energy systems still rely on oil, fuel smugglers are nearly always able to find markets for their goods. Moreover, since oil is not inherently illegal, it is generally an easy product to move, buy, and sell. Profits from oil theft are frequently used to fund terrorism and other illegal activities.

The new Atlantic Council Global Energy Report by Dr. David Soud, Downstream Oil Theft: Countermeasures and Good Practices, provides an in-depth look at how governments—from militaries to law enforcement officials—along with other stakeholders can anticipate and intercept …