Amy Harder, a veteran journalist, now runs a new site out of Breakthrough Energy called Cipher. She looks at the transition's hard questions, hard slogs, and compelling stories in a casual Zoom with undergraduates.
The economics in converting buildings to electricity look logical - over the long run, for pension fund investors. For a building owner with cash flow to manage, it's trickier. This explainer runs through the costs and trajectory for turning building systems to potentially clean sources.
(Photo by overWHAMmed, from Flickr Creative Commons). This transmission line in Pelzer, SC, testifies to the market potential for investment in new high-voltage lines.
The main line is the main event. Transmission of clean electricity, combined with storage, means that every state and nearly every community can effectively live on fossil-free power. Financing and permitting involve economic, political, and engineering knots. This explainer takes in the breakthrough ideas and baseline for speedier deployment.
Activists in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood have explored whether Clean Peak Standards can address air quality and energy inequity. (Photo by Victoria Belanger via Flickr Creative Commons.)
One state has tried requiring power at peak demand periods to come from clean sources. This mandate can improve air quality in low-income communities. Critics question its effect on emissions, though, and its optimal design as clean-energy storage for utilities evolves.
This steel factory in Michigan, captured at sunset, reflects one industry where hydrogen may promise a sort of new dawn. (Photo by Billy Wilson via Flickr Creative Commons.)
Not every analysis concludes that the scale-up costs of hydrogen make it more bankable than wind, solar and hydropower. But since hydrogen production requires less land, and since it can reach hard-to-decarbonize sectors, many investors are giving it a long look. Now you can too.
(Courtesy Fairfax County, VA.) EV charging looks one way to flatlanders...
Utilities whose businesses span rural and urban terrain can gain when they support the rollout of electric vehicle charging networks. This memo sets a framework for Maine's utility to meet policy objectives and secure market position.
Swapping this home's systems for clean electric ones is a delicate proposition. (Photo of Peoria, IL by Patsy Wooters.)
Every building in any community tells its own story. To run each story first on electricity, and later on clean electricity, requires coordinated and flexible policies - and a range of financial techniques to meet a series of cost and timing challenges.
(Photo by Don and Suzan Weller, via Flickr Creative Commons.) As the sun sets over Waterford, CT, an expert proposes a price floor in wholesale electricity markets.
As New England states progress towards decarbonization goals, the electricity spot market will see offers from solar and wind generators that incur no marginal cost. That can harm reliability and put some operators hastily out of business. To retain existing resources and the stability they bring, we need to set...
(Photo by Neal Wellons via Flickr Creative Commons.) This power plant in Painesville, Ohio could come in for big changes if citizens there follow the author's advice.
Community choice aggregation is an enabling policy, currently available in at least nine states, that lets even the smallest cities cost-effectively transition to clean energy. It gives a municipality’s residents and businesses the chance to take advantage of cost-competitive (and, more and more, money-saving) clean energy by creating negotiating leverage.
Retrofitting buildings after Covid-19 emptied many commercial properties can boost efficiency and sustainability- but doing so will take coordination, patience and strategy.
Investments in efficient energy systems can save millions for every diligent manufacturer, tenant and landlord. They can also drive down carbon emissions, helping states reach clean-energy targets. They can help lower energy costs and with them energy bills, which can help resuscitate urban property markets. And they can coincide with...
