The OurEnergyLibrary aggregates and indexes publicly available fact sheets, journal articles, reports, studies, and other publications on U.S. energy topics. It is updated every week to include the most recent energy resources from academia, government, industry, non-profits, think tanks, and trade associations. Suggest a resource by emailing us at info@ourenergypolicy.org.
Resource Library
51 to 60 of 680 item(s) were returned.
The Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC) develops first-principles-based knowledge and tools to understand, quantify, and mitigate the effects of feedstock and process variability across the bioenergy value chain, from the field and forest through downstream conversion. The FCIC is a collaborative and coordinated effort involving researchers in many different disciplines. It is led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and includes researchers from nine national laboratories: Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Energy Technology Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and …
View Full ResourceIn order to meet decarbonization goals, a large number of utility customers must enroll in clean energy programs and invest in clean energy products. Luckily, customers are eager to play a role in the push for clean energy. 2022 saw record residential solar installations, creating six gigawatts of additional capacity for American homes.
For utilities, this is a unique opportunity to rapidly meet decarbonization goals while keeping customers satisfied. To succeed, utility companies must invest in smart digital infrastructure that makes it easy for customers to adapt to the energy transition and embrace programs like solar, EVs and more. In …
View Full ResourceIn 2021, the US Department of Energy (DOE) launched its Energy Earthshots Initiative, a novel and innovative approach to catalyze decarbonization across some of the hardest to abate sectors of our economy. These ‘Earthshots’ are meant to tackle the toughest remaining scientific and technical barriers to deploying the technologies we need to rapidly reduce emissions. Modeled after the wildly successful 2011 SunShot Initiative, the current Earthshots set aggressive cost targets for seven critical areas: hydrogen, carbon removal, long duration energy storage, enhanced geothermal, floating offshore wind, low-carbon industrial heat, and clean fuels and products. These goals are ambitious, well-thought-out, and …
View Full ResourceAbandoned (i.e. temporarily or permanently inactive or idle) oil and gas wells that are unplugged can contribute to air and water quality degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions (primarily in the form of methane), posing risks to ecosystem and human health. One approach to reduce climate and environmental risks is to plug, or more broadly to seal, remediate, and reclaim, unplugged wells. Due to the 160 year history of oil and gas development, the high costs of plugging and the underfunding of state programs responsible for ensuring remediation of this legacy infrastructure, many abandoned wells in the United States (U.S.) remain …
View Full ResourceEV fleets are expanding at a fast pace in several of the world’s largest markets. This is being driven by governments and automakers who are promoting electricity powered vehicles as a key technology to curb oil use, fight climate change and air pollution.
As more renewable energy sources are used, power systems must become more flexible and adjustable to balance supply with demand. To achieve this, services have required that span from fractions of a second to seasonal time scales. Solar and wind power will become increasingly critical, but their intermittent nature will result in nearly twice the annual variability …
View Full ResourceThe inaugural 2023 Outlook sets out a realistic roadmap to enable hydropower and other renewables to deliver against net zero targets.
Inside you will find key highlights:
At 34 GW, 2022 marks the first time since 2016 that more than 30 GW of hydropower came online, including 10 GW of pumped storage (PSH).
Hydropower currently provides over 15% of the world’s electricity.
Current pipeline shows 590 GW of hydropower projects at various stages of development, including 214 GW of PSH.
To continue momentum and reduce the 700 GW gap between pipeline and net zero pathways, governments must work collaboratively to …
View Full ResourceThe U.S. energy system is rapidly transforming, driven by policies that expand production, foster innovation, support domestic manufacturing,
and create high wage jobs across America, while substantially reducing emissions. Landmark investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provide critical funding to drive more rapid adoption of zero emissions products, incentivize expanded domestic manufacturing capacity, and facilitate the development of next-generation technologies through programs that emphasize equity and a just transition.
The pace of change in the energy sector makes tracking energy employment more important than ever, but it also increases its complexity. The diversity and …
View Full ResourceThis paper examine the potential to use the US rail system as a nationwide backup transmission grid over which containerized batteries, or rail-based mobile energy storage (RMES), are shared among regions to meet demand peaks, relieve transmission congestion and increase resilience. We find that RMES is a feasible reliability solution for low-frequency, high-impact events and quantify its cost effectiveness relative to reliability-driven investments in transmission infrastructure and stationary capacity. Compared to new transmission lines and stationary battery capacity, deploying RMES for such events could save the power sector upwards of US$300 per kW-year and US$85 per kW-year, respectively. While no …
View Full Resource“This paper identifies and evaluates issues in traditional resource adequacy (RA) assessment practices, and how adjusting these practices may affect and depend on existing institutional arrangements for planning and procurement. The paper proposes a technical-institutional roadmap that would allow regulators in vertically-integrated jurisdictions and system planners and operators in restructured jurisdictions to revise RA practices across a range of components.First, we compile a critical review of current RA assessment practices based on (1) interviews with RA practitioners and (2) a review of recent technical literature. We find that (i) RA may need to expand beyond capacity adequacy to ensure energy …
View Full ResourceProducing hydrogen in a carbon-neutral manner is challenging (and potentially
expensive), but the many colorful means of producing hydrogen provide exciting
opportunities. Once available, it can be used in almost every vertical in the energy
space — ranging from power generation to energy storage to e-fuels production for
aviation and heavy road and rail transport, to cement and steel production, as well
as in applications in other carbon-intensive industries.
The regulatory framework for the production and use of hydrogen has taken
a number of favorable turns over the past year, which has resulted in projects
that were interesting in concept …