Transforming Texas: How Heat Pumps Can Replace Electric Resistance Heat, Reducing Costs and Winter Power Peaks

Over 25% of Texas households are heated and cooled by central air-conditioning systems with electric resistance coils that distribute warm air via ducts and registers. These systems are a major contributor to winter peak electric demand. While power demand in Texas generally peaks on hot summer days, winter peaks during cold fronts can be just as large.

Heat pumps are a cost-effective alternative to electric resistance heat: they cut energy use, energy bills, and peak demand roughly in half. Homes and apartments can be upgraded with high-efficiency heat pumps when the existing central air-conditioning unit and heating coils need replacement.…

Modeling the DOE’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Program in Resource Planning

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 created a slate of federally funded tools to lower the cost of power sector investments. One of the most important of these tools is the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program, administered by the Loan Programs Office (LPO) of the US Department of Energy (DOE). The EIR can provide low-interest, guaranteed loans for qualified investments that “retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions.”

There are two key factors that influence how much savings an …

Household Energy Affordability in a Net-Zero Future

A new report from the Transition Accelerator’s Electrifying Canada initiative looks into what total household energy wallets—the total spent on heating and personal transportation—could look like in 2050, the year that Canada has committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Building on analysis provided for the Canada Electricity Advisory Council’s Final Report, Household Energy Affordability in a Net-Zero Future develops three scenarios for future electricity rates to examine how those rates will impact energy wallets across the country. The results show this transition could be good news for most Canadians, with most households seeing lower costs in all scenarios. However, …

Implications of Accelerated and Delayed Climate Action for Ireland’s Energy Transition Under Carbon Budgets

Limiting global warming requires the effective implementation of energy mitigation measures by individual countries. However, the consequences of the timing of these efforts on the technical feasibility of adhering to cumulative carbon budgets—which determines future global warming—are underexplored. Moreover, existing national studies on carbon budgets either overlook integrated sectoral interactions, path dependencies, or comprehensive demand-side strategies. To address this, we analyse Ireland’s mitigation pathways under equal per-capita carbon budgets using an energy systems optimisation model. Our findings reveal that delayed mitigation brings forward the need for a net-zero target by five years, risks carbon lock-in and stranded assets, increase reliance …

Maryland Clean Energy Center Annual Report 2024

Fifteen years ago, the Maryland General Assembly took a landmark step in supporting the transition to a clean energy economy by founding the Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC). Charged with the ambitious mandates of pursuing clean energy adoption through financing, technology acceleration, and information dissemination, MCEC has embraced these challenges with determination and success.…

“Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” Fifth Annual Report

The fifth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report, prepared by Atlas Public Policy in partnership with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), analyzes the data underlying the electric vehicle (EV) market in SACE’s six-state region from July 2023 to June 2024. The data reveals a continuation of growth trends across six indicators: manufacturing investments, anticipated jobs, EV sales, charging infrastructure deployment, utility investments, and public funding.…

Annual Report 2023-2024 Clean Energy: Growing Globally

Some believe we cannot solve the climate crisis without major trade offs in profitability, affordability, jobs, equity, or reliability. But you will find a different message in RMI’s annual report — one of hope, possibility, and opportunity, with the evidence to back it up.

Momentum cannot slow down when the stakes are this high. RMI is grateful to their donors for the critical support to make possible RMI’s work to transform the global energy system. …

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.…

The New Pragmatism: Scenarios to Understand a Volatile Energy Transition

Discover the insights from “The New Pragmatism: Scenarios to Understand a Volatile Energy Transition.” This comprehensive report from S&P Global Commodity Insights delves into the intricate dynamics shaping the global energy landscape. As we navigate a slow energy transition marked by rebounding fossil fuel demand post-COVID-19, the report highlights crucial geopolitical impacts, like the Russia-Ukraine conflict, that are influencing energy markets.

Explore three distinct scenarios: Inflections, a base-case outlook predicting gradual change; Green Rules, which envisions an accelerated transition driven by robust policy changes; and Discord, where geopolitical tensions hinder progress. With projections indicating that most countries will struggle to …

Building Up Buyer Demand for Novel Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies

Large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR)—that is, the drawdown of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—is a critical component of U.S. plans to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by midcentury. Novel CDR technologies have the potential to provide durable carbon removal at the scale needed, but the industry is nascent, and the associated costs are high. Existing federal policy for novel CDR focuses on increasing the supply of carbon removal by supporting the development and deployment of novel technologies. But given that CDR is a public good and lacks a built-in market, support is needed to ensure sufficient demand as the …