Electricity
Envisioning the Rural Electric System of the Future
In September 2018, experts from across the electricity industry gathered at RMI’s e–Lab Summit to discuss the most important emerging trends and opportunities. This blog outlines takeaways from the Transforming Rural Electric Supply group. The rural electric system—like the rest of the US electric system—was designed to capture economies…
Report Release: Reimagining Regulatory Process Design to Accelerate Utility Transformation
The restrictive nature of conventional regulatory processes is inhibiting the historic transformation underway in the power sector. While states, cities, and utilities are committing to ambitious renewable energy goals, shutting down coal plants, and investing in new technologies, the processes being used to update regulatory structures that…
The Diversifying Corporate Renewable Market Needs a Broad Menu of Risk Mitigation Options
The corporate renewable energy procurement market has boomed in recent years but has remained stagnant in one respect. Most large-scale, off-site procurement is still done through one method—the power purchase agreement (PPA). A market with one major way to transact, no matter how good, can never sustainably expand. After all,…
Empowering Utilities to Participate in the Clean-Energy Transition – Part 2
This is the second blog in a three-part series. The first blog, Renewable Heating in Juneau, Alaska, is available here. One of the central challenges in transitioning to a more distributed and decarbonized energy grid is supporting utilities to actively engage and lead by example and innovation, rather than…
The Power of Agreement
This past year set a new record for total capacity of announced corporate renewable energy (RE) purchases. This unprecedented demand has been met with robust supply from renewable energy project developers as well as from utilities, which have demonstrated their willingness to work with these buyers in finding new solutions…