
Microgrids

Bringing Reliable, Renewable Energy to the People
Income inequality is palpable on the streets of the United States in cities and towns alike. On one block you may have neighborhoods with maintained roads and sidewalks, well-funded schools, and easy access to services including grocery stores, transit, healthcare, and banks. And on the next block you may have…

Resilience in Louisiana: Lessons from the Military and Islands
Three days after Hurricane Ida made landfall, roughly 2 million people remain without electricity in Louisiana and Mississippi. Even critical facilities, including sewage pumps in New Orleans and a hospital in rural South Louisiana, have seen outages. These and other incidents underscore just how dependent our civilization…

The New (Ab)Normal
In Colorado at the end of October, the largest fire in the state’s history is still burning on over 200,000 acres (more than 300 square miles). The Cameron Peak Fire started on August 13, so it has been burning now for over two months and is still only…

Synchronizing Agriculture and Distributed Energy Can Reduce Nigeria’s Oil Dependency
What if it was possible to boost both national and local economies while increasing energy access and saving rural residents money? That is exactly the opportunity in Nigeria, where COVID-19 impacts and the ensuing oil price collapse have made foreign exchange scarce, threatening an economy that relies heavily on…

Beyond 60 Minutes: The Caribbean, Center Stage for the Soft Energy Pathway
In 1976, RMI co-founder Amory Lovins wrote “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?”, which outlined his proposal for a “soft energy pathway” for global security. In an era defined by large centralized electricity generation—primarily powered by coal and nuclear energy in the United States—where power was transmitted hundreds of miles…