eLab Accelerator Projects Sustain Hope for Clean Energy Innovation

Starting yesterday, the 2017 eLab Accelerator teams has convened at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah to accelerate their initiatives with the support of nationally renowned expert faculty and eLab’s specially trained facilitators. At Accelerator and beyond, projects from across … Continue reading

Solar Embrace

More than a year ago, RMI announced it would focus on community-scale solar. Now, as we enable power purchase agreements (PPAs) at prices 40 percent below median bids, we are seeing increasing interest in community-scale solar, and we are expanding … Continue reading

Bridges to New Solar Business Models

Creating a sustainable long-term distributed photovoltaic (DPV) market will require aligning the interests of utilities, solar companies, technology providers, and customers. Aligning those interests does not mean discarding the business models that have served the solar market until now. Rather, … Continue reading

The Business Case for Deep-energy Retrofits – retrofit

Commercial building deep-energy retrofits provide substantially greater energy savings—often reducing a building’s energy consumption by up to 50 percent—than traditional retrofits. Yet they offer more than just a low utility bill. When planned and executed properly, a deep retrofit can … Continue reading

Bringing Shared Solar to Scale

What happens when you really want solar but the obstacles seem too great? You may not have a suitable space. Or there may be a tree blocking your roof. Or you live in a condominium where you don’t have your … Continue reading

Why Elon Musk’s Batteries Scare the Hell Out of the Electric Company – Bloomberg

Climate: Now or Never Here’s why something as basic as a battery both thrills and terrifies the U.S. utility industry. At a sagebrush-strewn industrial park outside of Reno, Nevada, bulldozers are clearing dirt for Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)’s battery factory, … Continue reading

Reinventing Fire: Electricity – YouTube

Reinventing Fire: Electricity – YouTube. … Continue reading

The Devil Is In the Details (And So Is the Solution)

Assessing the benefits and costs of distributed solar PV Earlier this month, the decision of APS—Arizona’s largest electric utility—to propose two major changes to its net metering program, one which would do away with the program entirely, has become the … Continue reading

Why the Net Energy Metering Debate Misses the Point

Bundled, Block, Volumetric Rates are the Barrier to Unleashing DER Innovation It’s no secret that net energy metering (NEM) is a controversial topic in the electricity world these days. Customers love the way it helps solar PV offset their utility … Continue reading

Austin’s Solar Tariff Newly Incorporates RMI’s Energy Price Hedge Recommendation

Renewables scored a major victory recently in the natural gas heartland that is Texas. In a resolution adopted by the Austin City Council on August 28, the city declared solar energy its default generation resource, in part noting “that solar … Continue reading

Show Me the [Efficiency] Money — Solutions Journal Summer 2014 — Medium

Five real estate executives weigh in on what it will take to unlock $1.4 trillion in net energy savings through commercial building efficiency. RMI’s Reinventing Fire analysis shows how to tap into $1.9 trillion in saved energy costs in U.S. … Continue reading

Why the Barclays Downgrade of the Entire U.S. Electricity Sector Means an Upgrade for Consumers

Barclays recently downgraded the U.S. electricity sector. That’s right, the whole sector. It’s now listed as “underweight,” meaning that if you were to hold a full portfolio of bonds for the U.S. economy, you might want to be a bit … Continue reading

Empire State Building Retrofit Surpasses Energy Savings Expectations

The energy efficiency retrofit of the Empire State Building had the makings of a great story right from the start. Visionary building owner Tony Malkin, in an effort to revive the 2.7 million-square foot New York landmark, assembled a team … Continue reading

Reinventing Existing Buildings: Eight Steps To Net Zero Energy

Net zero energy buildings are becoming more mainstream as technologies and processes improve, and renewable energy becomes less costly. Increasingly, innovators are focusing on how to take existing buildings to net zero. Whether for new or existing buildings, getting to … Continue reading

Creating a Brighter Energy Future for Lake Wobegon…and throughout the USA

The American energy system risks being the thing that time forgot. Our aging fossil-fuel-based system is decaying. And in the absence of a plan, the energy system chokingly chugs along without direction or a full understanding of the challenges ahead. … Continue reading

Batteries to Bolster Solar

When SolarCity and Tesla last month announced they were teaming up to offer battery backup for residential solar PV systems, they generated much excitement … and a disproportionate amount of press. From Greentech Media to the New York Times, stories … Continue reading

Debunking the Renewables “Disinformation Campaign”

According to Fox Business reporter Shibani Joshi, renewables are successful in Germany and not in the U.S. because Germany has “got a lot more sun than we do.” Sure, California might get sun now and then, Joshi conceded during her … Continue reading

How Retrofits Can Reduce the Cost of Healthcare

With all of the media attention paid of late to the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), it’d be easy to miss a related, if seemingly mundane, development: the recent release of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced … Continue reading

Enlightened economic interest – the argument for energy efficiency and renewables. Focus on outcomes not motives. Energy wisdom over Climate problems. Bidirectional value tariff

What's in store for the future of energy? VERGE SF 2013 concluded with this 27 minute freewheeling discussion among sustainability heavyweights. The New York Times reporter Andy Revkin caught up with Amory Lovins, chairman of the Rocky Mountain Institute and … Continue reading

AT&T saves $151 million with energy efficiency measures – Electric Light & Power

In its 2012 Sustainability Report, AT&T reports energy efficiency projects saved the company more than $151 million in annualized energy savings since 2010 and nearly 1.3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), equivalent to the electricity use of 136,340 homes in one … Continue reading