Net Energy Metering, Zero Net Energy, and the Distributed Energy Resource Future

On behalf of PG&E, Rocky Mountain Institute organized and facilitated a roundtable of experts to evaluate the potential implications for the utility and its customers of a future business environment characterized by high levels of customer energy efficiency, growing numbers of Zero Net Energy buildings, and increased adoption of distributed generation (largely solar PV) by utility customers. The group worked to build a shared understanding of the problems and challenges facing stakeholders in the electric system and to identify the essential characteristics of workable long-term solutions.

 

Reinventing Fire Electricity Sector Methodology

This document provides RMI's methodology for the analysis of the electricity sector in Reinventing Fire.

 

Soft Energy Paths for the 21st Century

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Amory Lovins to outline his reaction to the Fukushima disaster and his suggestions for Japanese and U.S. energy policy for its house magazine Gaiko (Diplomacy). An abridged version was published 30 July 2011 in Japanese and is cited in this unabridged English version. It's a timely contribution to the rapidly growing movement in Japan to accelerate the strategic shift from nuclear power to efficiency and renewables, as Germany is already doing—an approach consistent with sound economics and with RMI's U.S. findings in Reinventing Fire. The abridged version of the article is available at http://www.gaiko-web.jp/ in Japanese.

 

Renewable Energy's "Footprint" Myth

Many nuclear advocates argue that renewable electricity has far too big a land ‘footprint’ to be environmentally acceptable, while nuclear power is preferable because it uses orders of magnitude less land. If we assume that land-use is an important metric, a closer look reveals the opposite is true.

 

Response to RADM Robert G. James (USNR Ret.)'s 2 August 2011 Wall Street Journal op-ed "Of Mustard Fuel and Marines"

Former Naval and CIA officer and oil-industry executive Robert James claimed that military interest in advanced biofuels is a green fad and compromises combat effectiveness. Amory Lovins, who's helped to lead military energy reform for three decades, corrects Dr. James's misconceptions and misrepresentations in this comment posted on 3 August 2011 to his op-ed.

 

Would the World be Better off Without Nuclear Power?

In April, 2011, Amory Lovins participated in an online debate for The Economist on whether the world would be better off without nuclear power. In Lovins' debate piece, he presents evidence to show that new nuclear build is uneconomic and unnecessary.

 

Efficiency and Micropower for Reliable and Resilient Electricity Service: An Intriguing Case-Study from Cuba

Cuba's decrepit electricity grid suffered 188 days of significant blackouts in 2004, 224 in 2005, 3 in 2006, and 0 in 2007. This dramatic improvement was due to a nationwide efficiency program, a crash program of switching to a majority of distributed generation, and reorganizing grid architecture around islandable netted microgrids. This success could be instructive for failing grids like those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Achieving Low-Cost Solar PV: Industry Workshop Recommendations for Near-Term Balance of System Cost Reductions

This report synthesizes the specific design strategies and technical and process best practices that emerged from RMI’s June 2010 “Solar PV Balance of System” design charrette. BoS costs—all the upfront costs associated with a PV system except the module—account for over half of PV system cost and pose a barrier to widespread adoption. The charrette process identified many opportunities that could offer the potential to reduce balance of system costs to $0.60 - $0.90/watt, a 45 percent to 65 percent reduction over current best practices. This report quantifies and prioritizes cost reduction strategies and provides detail on specific recommendations to reduce costs.

 

Profitable Solutions to Climate, Oil, and Proliferation

Protecting the climate is not costly but profitable (even if avoided climate change is worth zero), mainly because saving fuel costs less than buying fuel. The two biggest opportunities, both sufficiently fast, are oil and electricity. The US, for example, can eliminate its oil use by the 2040s at an average cost of $15 per barrel (2000$), half by redoubled efficiency and half by alternative supplies, and can save three-fourths of its electricity more cheaply than operating a thermal power station. Integrative design permits this by making big energy savings cheaper than small ones, turning traditionally assumed diminishing returns into empirically observed expanding returns. Such efficiency choices accelerate climate-safe, inexhaustible, and resilient energy supply—notably the ‘‘micropower’’ now delivering about a sixth of the world’s electricity and 90% of its new electricity. These cheap, fast, market-financeable, globally applicable options offer the most effective, yet most underestimated and overlooked, solutions for climate, proliferation, and poverty.

 

Presentation of Achieving Low-Cost Solar PV: Industry Workshop Recommendations for Near-Term Balance of System Cost Reductions

This presentation provides a high-level overview of key technical and process best practices that emerged from RMI’s June 2010 “Solar PV Balance of System” design charrette in a graphical format. It includes the main charts and graphs that summarize the report analysis and recommendations. BoS costs—all the upfront costs associated with a PV system except the module—account for over half of PV system cost and pose a barrier to widespread adoption. This summary focuses on the recommendations to reduce costs across the PV industry.

 

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