Manufacturing of clean energy technologies and their supply chain components can drive economic development in communities across the country while helping improve security, competitiveness, and other benefits and building a reliable and affordable energy sector.

As the US economy electrifies, policies that support strategic industries matter more than ever to spur market development, mobilize private capital, attract manufacturing, and grow jobs. Communities throughout the United States can leverage their unique strengths and characteristics to prioritize specific industries, attract investment, and compete in the new energy economy. RMI can help economic developers understand which industries their region can compete in and what steps can help attract investment.

How we work

The United States is undergoing a major shift in how government policies support the growth and reshoring of supply chains to the benefit of American communities. RMI’s economic development work explores how federal, state and local policies can spur regional development in a fiscally constrained environment. We also work directly with states, regions, and communities to develop more targeted strategies and identify their largest economic development opportunities and clusters for cleantech manufacturing.

Thought leadership

RMI provides the research and strategic insight to equip decision makers with the evidence, frameworks, and policy tools needed to build stronger institutions and make smarter choices about how to compete for investment. Examples include:

• GREASE Lightning Analysis: Research that helps fill a major gap in understanding where new energy investment is concentrating and why and how states, regions, and communities can position themselves to this investment. It highlights the role of policy design and which design components matter most.
• Clean Growth Tool: Applied analysis that helps decision makers assess competitive position, identify opportunity areas, and make more strategic choices about how to attract and shape investment.
• Supply chain analysis: Research into supply chain strategies for different technologies and recommendations for how gaps can be filled (i.e., for grid equipment and advanced geothermal).

Place-based analysis and technical assistance

RMI works directly with communities and regional partners to turn economic opportunity into execution, helping the right public, private, and civic actors align around the decisions and actions needed to land investment and make it stick. Examples of what that looks like in practice:

• Helping regions identify where they can credibly compete for cleantech investment. RMI works with regional partners to assess which technologies and supply chain opportunities best fit local strengths, constraints, and market conditions, so places can focus on the opportunities they are most likely to win. We have worked in Southwest Pennsylvania, Northeast Ohio, North Alabama, and many other regions.
• Convening the institutions that must act together for investment to land. RMI brings together economic development organizations, government partners, and other regional stakeholders to align around a shared strategy, build coalitions, and move from analysis to an action plan on capacity, workforce, and investment readiness.
• Training practitioners to do this work in the real world. RMI delivers bootcamps and hands-on support for economic development professionals and local governments so they can apply these methods themselves in a shifting policy environment.
• Building step-by-step pathways from strategy to winning investment. RMI is developing practical playbooks and implementation support to help economic development organizations and their public partners move from regional analysis to stronger projects and better investment outcomes.
• Creating a national peer network so local leaders can learn faster. Through New Energy Works, RMI is bringing economic development and energy policy leaders together to share applied research, peer-tested strategies, and replicable success stories, with the goal of accelerating state and regional action.
• Using what happens on the ground to improve policy and research. New Energy Works is designed not just to spread insight, but also to capture questions, feedback, and implementation lessons from practitioners and feed them back into stronger subnational and federal policy thinking.
• Building a data center decision framework for community-led action. Places need practical tools to assess potential large-load investment opportunities, determine whether they align with local priorities and constraints, and identify the conditions for moving forward. RMI is now working with interested communities to create such a resource.