Clean Energy Finance Forum

This explainer is the third part of a series by Sara Harari and Nate Grady on how microgrids are being used to transform the electrical grid. As climate change becomes the new reality, policymakers must decide how to invest limited resources in advanced technology and infrastructure. At the heart of this challenge is the debate over adaptation versus mitigation: should we focus our efforts on avoiding the worst effects of climate change (i.e. reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses we release going forward), or should we divide our resources and invest simultaneously on adapting to the most likely effects of...

Vastly higher clean energy targets are essential to empower the international community to make the leap to a sustainable future, according to Richard Heinberg, coauthor of “Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy.” In this interview, he delves into the practical challenges involved in the global transition to renewable power sources.

Across the nation, new elected officials have been sworn in this January. They can alter the trajectory of clean energy projects in the years to come. Incoming governors may preside over expanding clean energy markets.

“There are no jobs on a dead planet,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. Burrow is vice-chair of The B Team, a coalition of business and civil society leaders that was founded by Richard Branson and Jochen Zeitz. In an attempt to address the dual dangers of economic injustice and environmental disaster that Burrow’s remark references, The B Team launched the Pledge for a Just Transition to Decent Jobs in August 2018.

Community microgrids can be initiated by a wide range of individuals or organizations. They include mayors and utilities. They also may include “anchor” off-takers like hospital management, development companies, or community organizations. But to succeed, they require that at least one person really take the lead and energize the project.

At Storage East 2018, policymakers, businesses and utilities – the entire storage value chain – convened in Washington, D.C. to discuss the next steps for the Eastern Interconnection in the United States. On Oct. 16, utility companies, power services, and energy developers engaged in a panel discussion on how to best incentivize the rollout of energy storage under current regulatory conditions.

Because energy storage can help the power industry with many problems ranging from intermittency issues hamstringing renewables to energy crises threatening entire population centers, it is being acclaimed by many as the linchpin of tomorrow’s clean energy future.

In this explainer, we’ll take a close look at the infrastructure of microgrids – more specifically, community microgrids. We will show how they can play an essential role in local resiliency while delivering system-wide benefits.

With so much happening at a state level in solar power and energy efficiency, it is difficult to keep up with the variety of approaches and perspectives. So the Yale Center for Business and the Environment is here to help by launching “States of Clean Energy Innovation,” an online news hub with customized clean energy data and stories about the United States and Puerto Rico. Each state is different. Each state has thoughtful leaders working on our transition to clean energy. And each state deserves its own dashboard.

Since Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has been a productive location for entrepreneurs who are eager to get involved in installing solar power and energy storage. One of them is Alejandro Uriarte, CEO of New Energy Consultants & Contractors. In this interview, he describes the rocky road that the island territory has encountered as it seeks to build out clean energy.