RMI

Electro-industrial projects and supply chain components are forming clusters in certain parts of the United States. These clusters tend to develop as part of economies of location — firms and workers become geographically concentrated to enable greater knowledge-sharing, innovation, and productivity gains across industrial activity. Manufacturing and other electrified industries are being sited where they have access to electricity, making scalable, flexible, resilient, and clean electricity systems hugely important for cluster development. State industrial policy and regional coordination can help catalyze investment and job growth, expand grid capacity, and slash heat-trapping pollution, all at the same time. https://ow.ly/8fEU50ZWtCG

Fifty years ago, RMI co-founder Amory Lovins observed that it’s not energy that people really want, but rather what that energy does: “cold beer and hot showers.” This reframing reveals how optimal solutions can often deliver the services people and businesses need in ways that use less energy and cost less. To heat a building, for example, investing more for insulation up front can let you install a smaller furnace that uses less fuel to deliver the same comfort level. Over its lifespan, it’s a building that costs less to build and operate. Since 1976, technology has changed in ways that are making it easier for the world to grow via Amory’s “soft path” — pairing efficient, smart design with renewables — rather than defaulting to the “hard path” of reflexively adding new power plants. Wind, solar, batteries, and efficiency gains for buildings, vehicles, and industry are mature, affordable, and being deployed at a global scale. Paired with Lovins’s soft path approach, these new technologies form the foundation of an approach that has helped RMI deliver energy, save costs, and cut emissions for decades. Rather than imposing solutions, RMI brings deep insights to the table and works with those who understand the problem, control resources, and will implement change to define what’s possible together.

Nearly 50 years ago, RMI cofounder Amory Lovins challenged conventional thinking about how we produce and use energy. Today, he argues there is still an enormous opportunity hiding in plain sight: better design. Amory recently joined the Supercool podcast to discuss integrative design, an approach that looks at entire systems rather than trying to improve each component in isolation. He explains how rethinking something as basic as the layout of pipes, pumps, and motors can dramatically lower electricity use while also cutting costs for equipment and capital. The conversation covers why these opportunities are still often overlooked, what engineers and businesses can gain from whole-system design, and even how Amory’s home high up in the Colorado Rockies stays warm enough to grow bananas in the winter without a mechanical heating system. Listen to the full conversation with RMI’s cofounder and longtime champion of energy efficiency: https://ow.ly/urZh50ZWwaF

Carbon dioxide removal has changed dramatically in just 10 years. Across the field, new approaches have moved from ideas to pilots, first removals, and commercial deployments. Almost every CDR pathway assessed by RMI has advanced in technical and adoption readiness over the past decade. That progress has also brought lessons — from projects that scaled successfully and those that didn’t. RMI’s New Frontiers Report for CDR looks at that history and aims to answer the question of what comes next. Across 14 CDR approaches, we examine where the field stands today, what’s driving costs, and where technological and process innovation could unlock the next wave of progress. Because the next decade of carbon removal innovation doesn’t have to start from scratch. It can start from what we’ve already learned. 🔗https://ow.ly/6Ig150ZVx3W

Among the 100,000+ who descended on the Big Apple for Climate Week NYC in late September was a team of RMIers focused on bringing practical solutions to many of the biggest challenges facing the energy transition. The breadth of perspectives in the mix at events — over 1,500 this year — can be dizzying. On any given issue, perspectives from the worlds of finance, industry, policy, community, and communications converge, inspiring a mix of discovery, excitement, and sometimes re-evaluation. It’s a heady mix that matches the moment, as we’re seeing that achieving progress increasingly depends on many pieces moving forward together. For RMIers and our partners, the week was an opportunity to showcase some of our own wins: launching new initiatives, building markets, mobilizing investment, and more. See what RMI was up to at #ClimateWeek and catch up on our top five stories from the past month in our latest newsletter 👇

Large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities are an increasingly important component of the US power system to integrate renewable generation, manage peak demand, and support grid reliability. BESS capacity has increased more than 40-fold in the US since 2018, mostly in Arizona, California, and Texas. While near-term utility-scale deployment is expected to slow, Wood Mackenzie projects the sector will grow an average of 8 percent annually over the next five years, with the broader US storage market reaching 207 GW of installed capacity by 2031. https://ow.ly/Kig750ZVbMp

Creating community at work can be difficult, especially when much of that work happens remotely. This Hispanic Heritage Month, I’ve been reflecting on the importance of fostering connection while celebrating and learning from the cultures that bring us together. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed at RMI is co-leading our Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Employee Resource Group with Oscar Hernández. From trivia and music-powered working sessions to language exchanges, we’ve tried to create spaces where colleagues can connect, share their cultures, and learn something new about the LAC region and from one another. I also think about these communities through the work we do at RMI. The energy transition affects communities in very different ways. Across the Caribbean, nations are working diligently towards greater energy independence and resilience, while here in the United States, Hispanic households continue to experience disproportionate rates of energy insecurity and electricity disconnection. These challenges look different, but both underscore the importance of understanding how our energy systems affect communities and identifying practical ways to improve outcomes. RMI’s work on energy affordability, for example, explores policies that can reduce energy burdens and help more households maintain reliable access to electricity. For me, Hispanic Heritage Month is a chance to celebrate culture and community, while also thinking about how we can strengthen communities both within our workplace and through the work we do beyond it. Learn more about RMI’s work on energy affordability, courtesy of Carina Rosenbach, Maria Castillo, and David V.: https://lnkd.in/gUwGUVRv

Most oil and gas wells in the United States are marginal, meaning they don’t produce a lot of oil and gas. Despite their low volume, however, they can leak methane (the main component of natural gas), which can cause fires and explosions, contributes to smog, and heats the planet over 80 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide in the near term. While their oil and gas production is low, the methane emissions from a marginal well can vary quite significantly, and the energy waste adds up when aggregated over hundreds of thousands of marginal wells. While some states like Colorado are actively measuring their marginal wells’ gas loss and emissions, this critical data is largely missing across the United States. Updated and differentiated marginal well emissions data can help identify the most wasteful and polluting marginal wells to prioritize their proper decommissioning and avoid their abandonment.

Distribution system investment has become one of the largest and fastest-growing drivers of customer bill increases across the United States. These investments are important in the face of intensifying affordability pressures, growing electricity demand, and need for grid resilience — and they can avoid raising costs for ratepayers if the utility model can find and capture the cheapest energy resource on the system, wherever it sits. For years, power only flowed one way, and utilities’ focus was to build enough lines to carry it. Thanks to distributed energy resources, like rooftop solar and battery storage, there are more solutions available, and a well-executed distribution system operator (DSO) model takes full advantage. As a result, a DSO can lower peak demand, defer capacity upgrades, provide grid services, and keep the lights on during times of high stress to the power system. By building a more flexible system, a DSO reduces the total investment required to deliver reliable electricity compared to the status quo. Current Energy Group, with the support of GridLab and in collaboration with RMI and the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) are working to develop a foundational report on DSO models and affordability. The article linked in the comments previews the core argument and principles guiding the work.

In the Southeast US, new energy industrial policy could catalyze up to $82 billion in private-sector investment by 2035 and yield an additional 89-128 GW of electricity generation capacity — a 52-75% capacity increase over baseline expectations, according to analysis by RMI and Rhodium Group. These policies would have the added benefit of substantial job growth in the region, not only in infrastructure and supply-chain development, but also in longer-term project operations and maintenance.