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.
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The energy transition is very real, and this reality is accelerating. The convergence of climate and environmental concerns, legislation, and advances in technology are creating a new energy environment that is building towards a sustainable, reliable, safe, and affordable energy future.
Recent energy transition developments include the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 with over $360 billion for energy investment and an additional US federal government commitment of $US 900 million to build out an EV charging station network as new energy storage technologies coming online. From these developments at the federal government level, we see the …
View Full ResourceThis event summary highlights key comments made by industry experts at an OEP webinar on critical minerals in April 2023. Featuring panelists from the Energy Futures Initiative, New Energy Nexus, and World Resources Institute in a discussion on the challenges posed by the energy transition’s powerful need for raw materials.…
View Full ResourceFor decades, Maryland has relied heavily on fossil fuels to meet its electricity demands. Now, Maryland has passed legislation to encourage the state to rapidly decarbonize and transition to renewable energy. In 2022, Maryland adopted one of the nation’s most ambitious climate change laws to date, requiring a 60 percent GHG reduction by 2031 and net-zero emissions by 2045. In addition, Maryland has a Renewable Portfolio Standard that requires 50 percent clean electricity sales by 2030. Meeting these ambitious goals will likely require the construction of energy storage facilities that will help to ensure clean wind and solar generation is …
View Full ResourceHybrid power plants, namely those consisting of variable renewable energy (VRE) generators and energy storage in the same location, are growing in popularity and interact differently with the electrical grid than either component would individually. We investigate plant-grid dynamics in highly congested regions to determine whether stand-alone VRE, stand-alone storage, and hybrid VRE-plus-storage plants will reduce or increase the need for nearby transmission. The focus on congested regions offers empirical insight into future grid conditions, as VRE penetration continues to grow. Near congested load centers, we find that hybrid, stand-alone VRE and stand-alone storage plants each reduce transmission value, defined …
View Full ResourceThis report explores how philanthropic foundations have supported the deployment of solar and solar plus battery storage (solar+storage) at community-serving institutions, including multifamily affordable housing, community centers, senior care facilities, educational facilities, and health centers in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities in the United States. It provides a menu of strategies that foundations can use to bring clean energy benefits to LMI households and communities.
Although solar and solar+storage have the potential to provide significant financial, environmental, and resilience benefits, historically there have been daunting obstacles for under-resourced communities to access these technologies. The report focuses on strategies for foundations …
View Full ResourceThe United States is rapidly approaching a milestone in the electricity sector’s energy transition: By the end of 2026, it will have closed half of its coal generation capacity, which peaked in 2011. This is now the earliest date for this milestone since IEEFA began closely tracking coal-plant retirements, and it has moved up despite pandemic-induced supply disruptions that have led to delays in the completion of new generation resources and significant price volatility for gas, both of which contributed to some shifting dates for plant closures. By another measure—actual electricity generation—the U.S. has cut coal use even faster, producing …
View Full ResourceUnder the direction of California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Decision 13-10-040, the CPUC Energy Storage Procurement Study learns from historical stationary energy storage procurements and operations to assess the evolution of California’s energy storage industry both historically and looking forward. The study’s key observations and guiding recommendations are meant to highlight policy levers that will support development of a cost-effective energy storage portfolio that effectively contributes to meeting the state’s goals of electricity grid optimization, renewables integration, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions.…
View Full ResourceThe U.S. electricity grid connects more than 11,000 power plants with around 158 million residential, commercial, and other consumers. Energy storage technologies have the potential to enable several improvements to the grid, such as reducing costs and improving reliability. They could also enable the growth of solar and wind energy generation.
GAO conducted a technology assessment on (1) technologies that could be used to capture energy for later use within the electricity grid, (2) challenges that could impact energy storage technologies and their use on the grid, and (3) policy options that could help address energy storage challenges.
To address …
View Full ResourceThe Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) unequivocally warns that exceeding 1.5°C warming (overshoot) has dangerous and irreversible consequences, even if temperatures might eventually be brought back below that level. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report clearly sets out the near-term actions and fossil fuel phaseout required to keep temperature rise below 1.5°C, with minimal to no overshoot.
Most IPCC scenarios rely on large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to bring temperatures back below a certain threshold in the second half of the century. At the same time, AR6 provides clear warnings about the technological infeasibility, …
View Full ResourceThe transition to a clean energy economy is not just critical for addressing climate change, but it is also an opportunity to spur American economic growth, create millions of jobs, and cement America’s position as a global leader in the clean energy marketplace.
In the second installment of a report commissioned by Third Way and Breakthrough Energy, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) examines four additional emerging clean technologies, for a total of ten, that are set to play a major role in the energy transition: geothermal, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), offshore wind, and solar. Analysts studied the value chain …
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