Dirty Steel, Dangerous Air: The Health Harms of Coal-Based Steelmaking

From centuries of use for tools and machinery to today’s buildings, appliances, cars, and ships, steel has long been prized for its strength, durability, and versatility. Steel also has a starring role to play in the transition to clean energy and transportation: it makes up 80% of wind turbines, is a key component of solar installations and electric vehicles, and can be continually recycled and re-formed to create new products. In the last 25 years, global production of steel has more than doubled. By 2050, global demand for steel could increase by more than a third compared to consumption in …

Can Your Wastewater Plant Do More?

We need all hands on deck to mitigate climate change. Every country, every industry, every subsector – we all have a proactive role to play in cutting greenhouse gas emissions quickly. Methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, is the top near-term target. Cutting methane emissions soon – at least 30% by 2030, as envisioned by the Global Methane Pledge – is the most effective way of slowing global warming in the coming decades.

Water Resource Recovery Facilities (“wastewater plants”) can play an important role here. More and more, the most economic option is to upgrade this biogas into renewable natural …

NDCs, NCQG, and Financing the Transition: Unlocking Flows for a Net-Zero Future

“Climate finance” will be a key subject at COP29, with particular attention to the proposed “New Collective Quantified Goal“ (NCQG) for financial flows from high-income to low-income countries. But the term “climate finance“ is often used vaguely and broadly, covering several different challenges and priorities.

In its latest publication “NDCs, NCQG, and Financing the Transition” the ETC clarifies the nature and scale of different types of finance required, and proposes four principles to ensure a useful conclusion of the NCQG debate. It also explains the vital role that updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) can and must play in unleashing financial …

Advancing Geothermal Research Fiscal Year 2024 Accomplishments Report

Geothermal resources have delivered renewable electricity for more than 100 years, and renewable heat for far longer, but recent research and advancements have shown that geothermal is more than a 24/7 clean energy source. With the ability to also provide cooling and storage—plus the potential to access critical minerals, capture and sequester carbon, produce green hydrogen, and more—geothermal technologies and resources are emerging as key solutions to the climate crisis.

In fiscal year 2024 (FY24), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) broadened its research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) portfolio and partnerships with exciting innovations such as next-generation geothermal technologies …

Near-Term Reserves Tight in Revamped PJM Market

While the record-high clearing price in PJM Interconnection LLC’s 2025/2026 Base Residual Auction this past June signals the need for more reliable capacity, it may also trigger a wave of efficient and low-cost generation that pushes down wholesale electricity prices in PJM. The elevated clearing prices followed market changes PJM made to enhance market efficiency and reliability, aiming to promote competition as existing generators retire and recent extreme weather events have revealed resource adequacy deficiencies. Consequently, PJM’s near-term reserve margins are forecast at 6.8% in 2025.

Gain strategic insights into PJM supply and demand forecast, projections on generation mix and …

Coal-to-Clean Success Stories

Even as there are promising shifts toward cleaner sources of electricity production in much of the world, 73 percent of the global power sector’s pollution still came from coal-fired power in 2021. There are several hurdles to shifting these sources to cleaner options. However, we have seen instances of relatively rapid, managed, and just coal-to-clean asset transitions in diverse geographies. RMI identified three such examples in the case studies below.

– In Chile, a strong mandate from the government attracted international capital that enabled the early retirement of Tocopilla coal units 14 and 15, avoiding hundreds of thousands of tons …

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 …

Trading Tensions: Navigating Policy Tools for a Diverse Critical Minerals Supply Chain

The United States faces a strategic challenge in securing reliable access to critical minerals that are the backbone of its economic prosperity and national defense. From the smartphones in our pockets to the advanced weapon systems protecting our nation, critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, rare earths, and aluminum are integral to the technologies powering modern society. These minerals are also crucial components in clean energy technologies, such as wind turbines and solar panels, and are essential for the batteries that drive the growing fleet of electric vehicles transforming the transportation sector. This report addresses the question: “How can the …

Sodium Ion Batteries Forecast

This comprehensive report is designed for battery, cathode and anode market participants, OEMs, and investors, providing essential guidance through the complexities of the sodium ion battery sector. Subscribers will gain insights into the forecast market growth and the role that this emerging technology is set to play across the market and especially in the energy storage sector.

The report offers detailed forecasting of supply and demand for sodium ion battery cells, cathodes and anodes. Analysis is broken down by material type, providing the forecast supply-demand balance for layered oxide, polyanionic and Prussian Blue analogue cathodes.…

Why Wind and Solar Need Natural Gas: A Realistic Approach to Variability

Wind and solar power will replace consistently dispatchable electricity from fossil fuels with variable and more unpredictable clean energy. Seasonal shifts and annual variations cannot be handled with batteries or other proposed storage solutions like hydrogen. Natural gas will have to bridge the gap for many decades.…