Assessing the Electric Productivity Gap and the U.S. Efficiency Opportunity

It is commonly known that energy efficiency implementation has not achieved its technical or economically feasible potential in the United States, and many have attempted to quantify how much electricity the U.S. can save in the future. However, few have compared states to each other to determine why some states have been much more effective at using efficiency as a resource. This paper explores one aspect of the energy efficiency solution: how effectively has the United States used its electricity? RMI conducted this analysis on state-level electric productivity (measured in dollars of gross domestic product divided by kilowatt-hours consumed, or $GDP/kWh) to determine which states are the most productive with their electricity.

Spatial and Temporal Interactions of Wind and Solar in the Next Generation Utility: Expanded Analysis

The “next generation” electric utility must incorporate variable renewable resources, including wind and solar, in much larger quantities than conventionally thought possible. While resource variability presents a challenge, it should be possible to reduce and manage that variability by geographically distributing renewables, combining them with different renewables, and having more dynamic control of electric loads. This analysis expands previous studies on reducing the variability of renewable resources through optimized geographic distribution. In this study, the period of analysis was lengthened from one year to three years, and the study area was enlarged to include all states within the Great Plains “wind belt.” Lengthening the period of analysis produced no significant difference in either power output or variability. However, enlarging the geographic area to three reliability regions (MRO, SPP, ERCOT) reduced system variability by 28% relative to the average individual region.

Intermittent Renewables in the Next Generation Utility

Advances in digital communications and renewable energy technologies are poised to facilitate a transition to a “next generation utility” that fully integrates both supply- and demand-side resources in a way that can enable significantly larger penetrations of intermittent renewable energy technologies than conventionally thought possible. However, as the penetration of intermittent renewable energy grows, the variability of the resource becomes of increasing concern. This paper evaluates the potential reduction in variability due to the geographical dispersion of wind resources across large geographic areas. Specifically, the analysis uses data from within the Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO), the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). This analysis shows that there is a significant advantage to geographically distributing wind resources, even if individual sites do not exhibit large negative covariance. One of the primary advantages is the drastic reduction in time in which there is zero power production. Furthermore, all geographic regions show a reduction in portfolio variability compared to any individual site. The implication of this finding is that choosing locations for wind development in part based on benefits to system reliability can both decrease the cost of and likely increase the total amount of intermittent renewables that can be integrated on to an electric grid.

Spatial and Temporal Interactions of Solar and Wind Resources in the Next Generation Utility

The “next generation” electric utility must incorporate variable renewable resources, including wind and solar, in much larger quantities than conventionally thought possible. While resource variability presents a challenge, it should be possible to reduce and manage that variability by geographically distributing renewables, combining them with different renewables, and having more dynamic control of electric loads. This study shows that interconnecting individual solar generation sites into geographically diverse arrays can reduce power output variability, and that including solar generation sites in arrays of geographically diverse wind sites can further reduce the total variability beyond what is possible for either resource type alone. Specifically, optimized portfolios offer an average decrease in variability of 55% below the average of all individual sites. Finally, it was observed that, in the modeled system, only a small subset of the potential sites in an interconnected array need to be included to achieve these variability reductions.

Accelerating Solar Power Adoption: Compounding Cost Savings Across the Value Chain

This paper discusses common barriers to solar power adoption and techniques for getting around those barriers. The authors argue that for solar power to become a significant contributor to energy supply, and hence greenhouse gas emissions reductions, the industry has to achieve high annual growth rates for decades. The challenge cannot be overstated, especially once subsidies can no longer be relied upon to drive industry growth. Several barriers, including high costs, lack of reliable demand, supply chain dynamics, and utility integration issues, threaten to prevent adoption rates from rising as fast as is required. In particular, high costs are a major barrier, since solar power must soon be cost competitive unsubsidized. Fortunately, large cost reduction potential is available, which has not been captured during the hectic expansion of the industry. Based on experience in other industries, the basic tools of end use efficiency, whole systems design, lean manufacturing, and economies of scale will let technology manufacturers and PV installers drive down costs by a factor of two or more. These savings, enabled with support from government policies, industrial collaboration, and process efficiency gains, can bring today’s PV technologies to grid parity in many markets, allowing the exponential growth curve to continue.

RMI's Top Federal Energy Policy Goals

This 19-page memo to the Obama administration outlines 17 goals that can reduce U.S. oil use and greenhouse gas emissions each by 50% in 10 years. These policies would also create over three million jobs in the next four years, and earning a profit for the nation in under 25 years. The recommendations include both demand and supply side goals in multiple sectors (buildings, transportation, industrial, electricity and heat, and liquid fuels). The recommendations also contain five overarching goals: the Smart Grid is installed, enhancing energy security, enabling distributed resources, and integrating electrified vehicles; better electricity end-use data are available; a new corps of workers is trained to power the clean energy economy; all energy subsidies are consistently reviewed, transparently displayed, and thoroughly addressed; and government purchasing power spurs the clean energy economy.

Nuclear Power: Climate Fix or Folly?

This semi-technical article, summarizing a detailed and documented technical paper (see "The Nuclear Illusion" (2008)), compares the cost, climate protection potential, reliability, financial risk, market success, deployment speed, and energy contribution of new nuclear power with those of its low- or no-carbon competitors. It explains why soaring taxpayer subsidies haven’t attracted investors and how capitalists instead favor climate-protecting competitors with lower cost, construction time, and financial risk. Comparing all options’ ability to protect the earth’s climate and enhance energy security reveals why nuclear power could never deliver these promised benefits even if it could find free-market buyers—while its carbon-free rivals do offer highly effective climate and security solutions, far sooner, with higher confidence.

Getting Off Oil

In this short article, Amory Lovins explains how investing in energy efficiency is good for business. He provides examples of businesses and government agencies transitioning to energy efficiency and innovation for a profit. He writes that a vision will form of a United States that can treat countries with oil the same as countries without oil.

Energy End-Use Efficiency

This paper, which was commissioned by the InterAcademy Council, discusses the importance and benefits of considering energy end-use efficiency when making energy economic decisions. Energy end-use efficiency is the concept of providing more desired services per unit of energy consumed. According to Amory Lovins, increasing energy end-use efficiency is generally the largest, least expensive, most benign and most neglected way to provide energy services. Making engineering decisions based on energy end-use efficiency allows systems to gain more work from energy through smarter technologies and find energy efficiency along energy conversion chains. According to this paper, there are multiple benefits to adopting energy end-use efficiency: improved services (more comfortable buildings with more attractive lighting), improved position in global fuel markets, and integrating efficiency with supply. The paper then compares the engineering and economic perspectives on energy efficiency as well as the relationship between diminishing and expanding returns to investments in energy efficiency.

Oil: Our Fatal Dependence

In this article, which is an expanded version of the 2004 article, "How America Can Free Itself of Oil--Profitably," Amory Lovins points out that saving oil is cheaper than buying it, and that the United States can eliminate its oil dependence and revitalize its economy by adopting smart business strategies. Lovins argues that America can end oil dependence by redoubling the efficiency of using oil; save half of natural gas at an eighth of today’s market price, and then substitute it for nearly a third of the oil; and Replace the last fifth of U.S. oil with modern biofuels. These strategies will make America more competitive and result in a better energy policy for the country.