e-Lab Accelerator

A bootcamp for electricity innovation

Behind the Scenes at e^-Lab Accelerator

Each year, teams from across the U.S. and around the world join experts from RMI to develop, test, and scale solutions to meet the unprecedented challenges we face as the electricity grid transforms.

What Is e^-Lab Accelerator?

e^-Lab Accelerator is an invitation-only four-day working meeting bringing together teams throughout North America that are working on high-impact and innovative projects at the electricity system’s distribution edge.

Why It Matters

e^-Lab Accelerator helps unlock opportunities to drive projects forward more effectively and collaboratively. Trained facilitators and technical experts provide customized content, training, and tailored feedback for each team’s unique project.

Who’s Involved

Accelerator teams comprise 5–7 people representing multiple project stakeholders and partners. A team’s project must be actively under development, although it may range from an idea just brought into existence to a project well under way.

This Year's Topics

New business models for utilities and other solutions providers:
Projects to advance new business models that accelerate the transformation to a low-carbon energy system.

Grid modernization and planning for DERs:
Projects to meet emerging transmission, distribution, and generation needs through integrated planning for non-fossil resources.

Electrification of buildings:
Projects to help scale widespread transition of homes and businesses off of fossil fuels for space and water heating and other end uses, toward efficient use of low-carbon electricity.

DER adoption at scale:
Other projects to accelerate the adoption of cost-competitive and beneficial DERs.

What We’ve Accomplished

e^-Lab Accelerator 2019 brought together cutting-edge projects from across the country to catalyze real proof points of how the electricity system is rapidly evolving, and how these changes can benefit communities. Thirteen teams brought a mix of decision makers—ranging from city government officials to utility executives to technology providers—to apply their collective brainpower to solve complex problems in a high-energy, focused, and collaborative environment. Topics included improved resource planning and programs for DERs and building electrification, new business models to support decarbonization, and improving communities' access to clean energy.

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