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  • Spotlight: Resilience & Transformation

Spotlight: Resilience & Transformation

A Path to Global Resilience

In the early 21st century, there is an urgent need to both build the electricity system of the future and meet the needs of today. This includes creating grids that can keep critical services online during the hurricanes, floods, wildfires and the other extreme weather events that are becoming increasingly common, while reforming utility processes and moving away from fossil fuels.

There are solutions that can work for both resilience and decarbonization, such as systems based on distributed wind and solar coupled with energy storage. However, utilities, regulators and solutions providers will need to prove that they can walk and chew gum at the same time. In a series of reports, RMI is exploring these interlinked themes of resilience and transformation.

Resilience & Transformation Series

Reimagining Grid Resilience
A Framework For Addressing Catastrophic Threats to the US Electricity Grid in an Era of Transformational Change

This report describes the changing nature of resilience within the US grid and details specific recommendations to take advantage of current technological trends. This will help bring about investment in a grid that promotes resilience by design, economically and from the bottom up, and not as a cost-adding afterthought years later.
Solar Under Storm
Solar Best Practices for Policymakers and Two-Part Design Guidebook to Fuel Resilient Photovoltaic Systems for Small Island Developing States

One of the key recommendations of this report is to ensure inclusive multi-stakeholder collaboration. This entails communicating clear market signals to suppliers and upstream equipment providers and coordinating closely among practitioners and installers.
Regulatory Solutions for Building Decarbonization
Tools for Commissions and Other Government Agencies

The old model of utility regulation is not conducive to an all-electric future and the scope of change needed is broad. To help inform that evolution, this report offers a framework for the comprehensive regulatory reforms required to transition to clean energy in the US building sector, along with more than 40 specific recommendations for action.
Nigeria’s First Commercial Undergrid Minigrid Project

The solar hybrid project in Mokoloki community is Nigeria’s first rural commercial undergrid minigrid, which came online in February 2020. Early evidence indicates the project will improve electricity service, support community development, and reduce utility losses.

Additional Resources

Report

Powering Paradise

This report provides a comprehensive review of Hawaii’s clean energy journey, exploring the various elements which have come together to make this possible.

Report

Lessons for Grid Resilience from the Upper Roaring Fork Valley

This report examines the outcomes of a multi-month Rocky Mountain Institute-supported process to “create” resilience involving utility Holy Cross Energy and various other organizations in Colorado’s Upper Roaring Fork Valley. It highlights key lessons that will be invaluable to energy resilience planning and implementation efforts around the world.
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