As low-cost renewables provide a growing share of the electricity, grid operations—and thus power markets, financial structures, and policies—must evolve. This article draws lessons from power contracts and markets about the evolving role of renewables from two different organized markets.
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Our new video charts the plunging price of wind and solar
We’ve created a short video that illustrates the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for both conventional and alternative sources. The video highlights the plummeting costs of renewable energy technologies like wind and solar.
Energy Innovation Responds to California Building Codes Study
Energy Innovation sent the following response to Dr. Arik Levinson, detailing our feedback on his analysis of California’s energy savings from building codes. The take-away is that Dr. Levinson’s analysis is incomplete and therefore inconclusive.
Energy Innovation partners with China-California collaboration on cities and climate
Energy Innovation is excited to be part of the California-China Urban Climate Collaborative (CCUCC), a new initiative that lies at the intersection of two of our priorities: strengthening California’s climate policies and helping Chinese cities reduce their carbon footprint.
Trending Topics – Efficiency: Can we accept less stringent oversight if it means better outcomes?
Energy efficiency is a big business. However, some are beginning to question whether money could be spent more wisely to achieve greater levels of efficiency. Now is the time for policymakers to take a hard look at how to scale-up energy efficiency cost-effectively.
Comparing the costs of renewable and conventional energy sources
How do renewable sources, such as solar and wind, stack up against fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas? To illustrate how various energy technologies compare, we’ve created a set of interactive dashboards that summarize how much it costs to generate power.
Repost: Bloomberg Philanthropies and Partners Launch New Clean Energy Initiative
The initiative will provide $48 million in grant funding to a broad range of stakeholders that will accelerate the transition of the U.S. power fleet, aiming to limit carbon pollution from power plants as well as spur investment in clean energy technologies.
Trending Topics in Electricity Today: Getting Ready for Distributed Energy Resources
Ask a distribution grid engineer in Germany or Hawaii how work is going these days, and you’re in for an earful. And policymakers would be smart to listen—while discussions of voltage regulation or “transient stability” can sound overly technical, the truth is that voltage stability in the distribution network is essential to taking advantage of distributed energy resources.
Building Codes and Pollution Control
In an article for China Daily, Hal Harvey explains the importance of building codes for winning both the air quality and pollution battles in China. Building codes can help combat climate change. International experience suggests that carefully designed standards and pollution control strategies, if properly enforced, can make an enormous difference to air pollution and help with climate change.
Trending Topics – Will EPA’s Clean Power Plan Really Break the Grid?
Well-established power groups are drawing different conclusions regarding the feasibility of maintaining grid reliability as states act in order to abide by the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. What’s causing these reliability authorities to reach such different conclusions, and is more analysis needed?