Utilities and Electric Vehicles: the Case for Managed Charging
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How to Retire Early Making Accelerated Coal Phaseout Feasible and Just “Possible Quote on the Report/Research Topic Here
M OUN KY T C A I O N R I N E STIT U T How To Retire Early Making Accelerated Coal Phaseout Feasible and Just “Possible quote on the report/research topic here. Et que prorpos et, consedi dolupta spicid quam nus qui audipit verumet usdandi genima venimagni sandiat iatur? Quia volorror ad quossimet ulpa seque ab il min coraeribus aut repudis esto magnientus, sum nos ea erum es samuscimus mo quodissimus qui ute et landis aut enisque volor alitate essed molupidunt voluptat qui coressin nulparumqui rerem re pa et haria nonsedit dere voluptam vene es eum volorep eribusanim rem est, as explitas sinis essus con con praeperit quunt.” —Name of the person being quoted Authors & Acknowledgments Authors Paul Bodnar, Matthew Gray (Carbon Tracker Initiative), Tamara Grbusic, Steve Herz (Sierra Club), Amanda Lonsdale (Magnitude Global Finance), Sam Mardell, Caroline Ott, Sriya Sundaresan (Carbon Tracker Initiative), Uday Varadarajan (Rocky Mountain Institute and Stanford Sustainable Finance Initiative) * Authors listed alphabetically. All authors from Rocky Mountain Institute unless otherwise noted. Contacts Caroline Ott, [email protected] Matthew Gray, [email protected] Steve Herz, [email protected] Suggested Citation Paul Bodnar, Matthew Gray, Tamara Grbusic, Steve Herz, Amanda Lonsdale, Sam Mardell, Caroline Ott, Sriya Sundaresan, and Uday Varadarajan, How to Retire Early: Making Accelerated Coal Phaseout Feasible and Just, Rocky Mountain Institute, 2020, https://rmi.org/insight/how-to-retire-early. Images courtesy of iStock unless otherwise noted. Acknowledgments This report has benefited from the input of over 60 individuals from over 30 institutions. For a complete list of individuals who informed this report, please see the acknowledgments on pages 54 and 55. -
Annual Report 2019–2020
annual report 2019–2020 Energy Solutions for the Decisive Decade M OUN KY T C A I O N R IN S T E Rocky Mountain Institute Annual Report 2019/2020TIT U1 04 Letter from Our CEO 08 Introducing RMI’s New Global Programs 10 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Contents. 2 Rocky Mountain Institute Annual Report 2019/2020 Cover image courtesy of Unsplash/Cassie Matias 14 54 Amory Lovins: Making the Board of Trustees Future a Reality 22 62 Think, Do, Scale Thank You, Donors! 50 104 Financials Our Locations Rocky Mountain Institute Annual Report 2019/2020 3 4 Rocky Mountain Institute Annual Report 2019/2020 Letter from Our CEO There is no doubt that humanity has been dealt a difficult hand in 2020. A global pandemic and resulting economic instability have sown tremendous uncertainty for now and for the future. Record- breaking natural disasters—hurricanes, floods, and wildfires—have devastated communities resulting in deep personal suffering. Meanwhile, we have entered the decisive decade for our Earth’s climate—with just ten years to halve global emissions to meet the goals set by the Paris Agreement before we cause irreparable damage to our planet and all life it supports. In spite of these immense challenges, when I reflect on this past year I am inspired by the resilience and hope we’ve experienced at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). This is evidenced through impact made possible by the enduring support of our donors and tenacious partnership of other NGOs, companies, cities, states, and countries working together to drive a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future. -
Rmisolutions F a L L 2 0 0 2 SIP
Rocky Mountain Institute/volume xviii #3/Fall 2002 RRMMIISSoooolllluuuuttttiioioioonnnnssss newsletter S m all is Pro f it a ble Today’s electricity problems—and costs— are in the grid B y A mory B. Lovins For the first century of electrical power, as Profitable: and Jeremy Heiman generating plants became larger and more The Hidden centralized, delivery of power became Economic lectricity has been so successful more and more dependent on the grid. Benefits of providing the energy needs of citi- Driven by demand that escalated as costs Making Electrical Resources the Right Ezens and industry that many of us declined, the size of power plants grew Size, written by RMI cofounder and CEO can’t imagine life without it. Flip a switch, during the first years of the 20th century. Amory Lovins and six coauthors. Small Is a light comes on. Spin a dial, a fan begins The complexity and size of the grid Profitable builds on the assertion central to whirling. Crank a knob and a pump starts increased at the same time. But by the Lovins’s groundbreaking 1977 work, Soft pushing. Electricity has become a pervasive early 1990s, it was Energy Paths, arguing that energy efficien- and essential force in modern life because clear that utilities cy and cheaper electricity from small, it is a versatile, convenient, controllable, were no longer put- renewable sources of energy will gradually clean-to-use, and generally reliable form of ting many large replace the output of large, centralized fos- energy. Although only about one-sixth of power plants in their sil fuel-powered generating stations and the total energy delivered in the United shopping carts. -
Electric Vehicles As Distributed Energy Resources
ELECTRIC VEHICLES AS DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES BY GARRETT FITZGERALD, CHRIS NELDER, AND JAMES NEWCOMB O Y M UN ARBON K T C C A I O N R I W N E A M STIT U T R R O O AUTHORS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AUTHORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Garrett Fitzgerald, Chris Nelder, and James Newcomb The authors thank the following individuals and e-Lab * Authors listed alphabetically. All authors are from member organizations for offering their insights and Rocky Mountain Institute unless otherwise noted. perspectives on this work, which does not necessarily reflect their views. ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS Jim Lazar, Regulatory Assistance Project Rich Sedano, Regulatory Assistance Project Riley Allen, Regulatory Assistance Project Sarah Keay-Bright, Regulatory Assistance Project Jim Avery, San Diego Gas & Electric CONTACTS Greg Haddow, San Diego Gas & Electric Chris Nelder ([email protected]) San Diego Gas & Electric Load Analysis Group James Newcomb ([email protected]) Noel Crisostomo, California Public Utilities Commission Jonathan Walker, Rocky Mountain Institute SUGGESTED CITATION Chris Nelder, James Newcomb, and Garrett Fitzgerald, The authors also thank the following additional Electric Vehicles as Distributed Energy Resources individuals and organizations for offering their insights (Rocky Mountain Institute, 2016), and perspectives on this work: http://www.rmi.org/pdf_evs_as_DERs. Joel R. Pointon, JRP Charge Joyce McLaren, National Renewable Energy Laboratory DISCLAIMER e-Lab is a joint collaboration, convened by RMI, with participationfrom stakeholders across the electricity Editorial Director: Cindie Baker industry. e-Lab is not a consensus organization, and Editor: David Labrador the views expressed in this document are not intended Art Director: Romy Purshouse to represent those of any individual e-Lab member or Images courtesy of iStock unless otherwise noted. -
How Big Is the Energy Efficiency Resource?
Environmental Research Letters EDITORIAL • OPEN ACCESS How big is the energy efficiency resource? To cite this article: Amory B Lovins 2018 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 090401 View the article online for updates and enhancements. This content was downloaded from IP address 147.202.68.137 on 06/05/2019 at 16:06 Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (2018) 090401 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad965 EDITORIAL How big is the energy efficiency resource? OPEN ACCESS Amory B Lovins PUBLISHED Rocky Mountain Institute, 22830 Two Rivers Road, Basalt CO 81621, United States of America 18 September 2018 E-mail: [email protected] Original content from this Keywords: increasing returns, efficiency, climate, integrative design, whole systems, expanding returns work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Abstract Any further distribution of Most economic theorists assume that energy efficiency—the biggest global provider of energy services—is a this work must maintain attribution to the limited and dwindling resource whose price- and policy-driven adoption will inevitably deplete its potential author(s) and the title of and raise its cost. Influenced by that theoretical construct, most traditional analysts and deployers of energy the work, journal citation and DOI. efficiency see and exploit only a modest fraction of the worthwhile efficiency resource, saving less and paying more than they should. Yet empirically, modern energy efficiency is, and shows every sign of durably remaining, an expanding-quantity, declining-cost resource. Its adoption is constrained by major but correctable market failures and increasingly motivated by positive externalities. Most importantly, in both newbuild and retrofit applications, its quantity is severalfold larger and its cost lower than most in the energy and climate communities realize. -
Energy Efficiency, Taxonomic Overview
Copyright (c) 2004 Rocky Mountain Institute. All rights reserved. Licensed to and first published in: A.B. Lovins, "Energy Efficiency, Taxonomic Overview," Encyclopedia of Energy 2:383-401 (2004), 6 vols., San Diego and Oxford (UK): Elsevier, www.elsevier.com/locate/encycofenergy (hard copy) and www.sciencedirect.com/science/referenceworks/012176480X (downloadable). This article is RMI Publication #E04-02 and can be downloaded free from: www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid171.php#E04-02 Please note the following updates to the published article: p. 396, col. 2, full para. 2 ("Perhaps..."): The vehicle efficiency stated is from a simulation of on-road performance, obtained by multiplying each vector in the standard EPA test cycles by 1.3. The equivalent EPA adjusted efficiency (the kind used for official efficiency ratings and shown on the window stickers of market vehicles) is 2.06 L-equivalent per 100 km, 48.5 km/L-equivalent, or 114 miles per U.S. gallon-equivalent. Resimulation in 2004 with a gasoline hybrid-electric powertrain as efficient as that of the 2004 Toyota Prius, and conservatively adjusted to all-wheel-drive operation like the fuel-cell version, yields simulated EPA adjusted efficiency of 3.56 L/100 km, 28.1 km/L, or 66 miles per U.S. gallon. p. 397, col. 2, line 5: for 8.6 read 6. p. 401, col. 2, lines 3-6: the Lovins et al. 2002 reference Small Is Profitable can be obtained at least cost via www.smallisprofitable.org. p. 401, col. 2, lines 7-10: the Lovins et al. 2004 reference should read: Lovins, A.B., Datta, E.K., Bustnes, O.-E., Koomey, J.G., & Glasgow, N. -
Higherground
HIGHERGROUND 2006 -2007 Annual Report HIGHERGROUND From the Chairman This year, an exciting and welcome storm broke over our heads: showers of recognition, flashes and rumbles of acceptance, and a flood of global demand for our help in taking solutions to scale. RMI spent the year racing for higher ground—expanding our capabilities and effectiveness to step up to what the world now requires of us. Our steadfast vision of a secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining world (“Imagine a world…”) strikes an ever-deeper chord with diverse people and organizations everywhere. RMI’s roadmap for this half-century of change is continuing to unfold in a series of gratifying shifts now snapping into focus. For example, to much industry mirth in 1991, I suggested that a four-seat carbon-fiber car could weigh just 400 kg and get over 100 mpg. This October, Toyota showed such a car; the world’s top maker of carbon fiber announced a factory to mass-produce ultralight auto parts; and our Fiberforge spinoff’s new manufacturing process entered production at an aerospace plant. This summer, two trans- formational RMI car projects with the auto industry exceeded expectations. With leadership from Boeing in airplanes, Wal-Mart in heavy trucks, and the Pentagon in military energy efficiency, RMI’s 2004 Winning the Oil Endgame journey off oil is underway, and we’re focused intently on driving it faster, especially in automaking. In 1976, I foresaw a dramatic market shift toward the decentralized production of electricity. Today, a sixth of the world’s electricity (slightly more than comes from nuclear energy) and a third of the world’s new electricity is so produced. -
TOWARDS a CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY Post-COVID-19 Opportunities for India’S Energy and Mobility Sectors
TOWARDS A CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY Post-COVID-19 Opportunities for India’s Energy and Mobility Sectors BY NITI AAYOG AND ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE M OUN KY T C A I O N R I N E STIT U T Towards a Clean Energy Economy AUTHORS NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant Anil Srivastava Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Clay Stranger Ryan Laemel RMI India Akshima Ghate Jagabanta Ningthoujam Ashpreet Sethi SUGGESTED CITATION NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Towards a Clean Energy Economy: Post-COVID-19 Opportunities for India’s Energy and Mobility Sectors, 2020. Available at RMI: https://rmi.org/insight/india-stimulus-strategy-recommendations-towards-a-clean-energy-economy/ Available at RMI India: www.rmi-india.org/insight/india-stimulus-strategy-recommendations-towards-a-clean-energy-economy/ Images courtesy of iStock/Shutterstock unless otherwise noted. The views and opinions expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the positions of the institutions or the government. While every effort has been made to verify the data and information contained in this report, any mistakes or omissions are attributed solely to the contributors and not to the organizations they represent. Green Stimulus and Recovery Series Towards a Clean Energy Economy Table of Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................4 Highlights .........................................................................................................................................................5 -
21St Century Water Systems: Scenarios, Visions, and Drivers
21st Century Water Systems: Scenarios, Visions, and Drivers Richard Pinkham Research Scholar Rocky Mountain Institute Snowmass, Colorado Urban water systems are in a period of stress and uncertainty, and will experience rapid and significant changes in coming decades. Water supply, stormwater management, and wastewater treatment systems face threats and opportunities created by developments within the water management sector, and by forces from outside the water sector, beyond the control of water system managers. Scenario building and visioning exercises are valuable tools for understanding change and planning strategies for the future. The first is a “what if?” technique that portrays different ways forces beyond ones control could play out. The second typically portrays desired outcomes as goals for planning and action. Both must assess a variety of forces, or “drivers,” that will shape the future. This paper presents the results of a water systems scenario building project conducted by Rocky Mountain Institute for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1995; outlines a “soft path” vision for sustainable urban water resources infrastructure; and discusses selected drivers that could force or enable the development of a new urban water management paradigm. Water 2010: Four Scenarios for 21st Century Water Systems Scenario planning is a formal process increasingly used by corporate and government strategists. It offers a creative, flexible way of preparing for an uncertain future (Schwartz 1991; van der Heijden 1996). The technique throws out the notion of prediction—a risky business at best—and instead focuses on identifying the most critical dimensions of uncertainty. By assuming various outcomes for those uncertainties, scenario planners can then envision several different but equally plausible futures, which help reveal the interlinking trends and factors that will shape whatever future finally unfolds. -
RMINL Fall01.Bs10.11.01
RockyRocky MountainMountain Institute/volumeInstitute/volume xviixvii #3/Fall#3/Fall 20012001 Brit tle Ti m es, R M I’s Resp onse B y A mory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins wreaked havoc. A week later, revenge. Amidst talk of technology and ret- their violence was threatening ribution, we need understanding and trans- to hijack much of U.S. policy. formation. Their attack so outrages • America’s distinctive strengths flow from common decency as to tempt her diversity, freedom, and tolerance—pre- reactions that Americans cisely the qualities that are most under would abhor in normal attack, most precious, and most vital not to times—bombing civilians impair. Terrorists succeed if they drive us to ruled by despots considered deny our values and diminish our free- complicit, eroding civil liber- doms. ties, blaming anyone who • The attackers hope to provoke a looks or thinks differently, jihad/crusade confrontation between rushing to military and energy America and Islam, and more broadly to choices that would be inflame tensions between the powerful and repented at leisure. But if the dispossessed. We defeat this goal if we policy simply reacts to the ter- continued on next page rorists, they win. America and the world need rather to address root causes: to reas- sume global leadership in helping all people to fulfill CONTENTS their legitimate aspirations for OTHER VOICES: ERIC RASMUSSEN ..p a ge 4 a safe and decent life. BATTLING WASTE INTHE MILITARY . p a ge 6 The terrorist attack elicited T h e eve n ts o f 11 S e p t e m b er m ig h t h ave p er- m a n e n tly a lt ere d o u r u n d erst a n din g o f wh at is wide agreement on some FUEL CELLS ...........p a ge 10 re q uire d t o m a in t a in a f re e a n d o p e n socie ty. -
Cleaner Energy, Greener Profits
Cleaner Energy, Greener Profits: Fuel Cells as Cost-Effective Distributed Energy Resources Contents: Executive Summary . 2 By Joel N. Swisher, Ph.D., P.E. Introduction . 4 Rocky Mountain Institute Fuel cells: A small, clean,reliable This publication and its underlying research were funded power source . 6 by the grants from the W. Alton Jones Foundation, What is different Pew Charitable Trusts, and Energy Foundation. about today’s electricity problems? The author, a civil and mechanical engineer with a . 8 Stanford doctorate in civil and environmental engineering, is an authority on distributed generation Changing Trends in and leads RMI’s Energy and Resource Services team. the Electricity Industry . 9 Small is profitable: the economic benefits of distributed generation . 13 Early markets and commercialization paths . 32 Cleaner Energy, Greener Profits Executive Summary The electric power industry is undergoing centrally focused “generation-transmission- major changes that are reshaping the traditional distribution” companies into a more heteroge- roles of utilities, creating opportunities for new neous structure. The new industry will be made technologies, and redefining the scope and up of companies fulfilling various traditional character of government regulation. These roles, including independent power producers, changes are arising out of the interaction of electric service providers, energy brokers and several driving forces: marketers, transmission operators, and local distribution companies. • An emerging technological shift could offer distributed generation sources economic One of the most promising and exciting distrib- benefits unavailable to traditional, central- uted generation (DG) options is fuel cell ized sources of electricity. technology, which converts fuel to electricity at • Regulatory and public policy support is high efficiency, without combustion, and with growing for competition over traditional negligible emissions. -
Amory B. Lovins Disruptive Energy Futures
O B Disruptive energy futures Y M UN AR ON K T C C A I O N R Amory B. Lovins I W N E A M Cofounder and Chief Scientist STIT U T R R O O Shell PPT, Detroit, 27 April 2017 © 2017 Rocky Mountain Institute Thank you for the honor of sketching some context about the energy transformation we’re all creating together. * Henry Ford and Thomas Edison “I can’t wait to see what happens when our industries merge.” 188.5610 from https://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/pic/2004/July.asp Ford’s auto industry, Edison’s electricity industry, and Rockefeller’s oil industry changed the world. If Ford and Edison took a very long nap on one of their car-camping trips, woke up, and saw their businesses today, they’d recognize almost everything except the electronics. Yet today their industries face vast disruptions, as 21st-Century technology and speed collide head-on with 20th- and even 19th-Century institutions, rules, and cultures. Let me sketch how the first two of these three great industries are coming together to eat the third. As we might imagine * Ford mischievously muttering to Edison, let’s see what happens when electricity displaces gasoline, then those electric cars add flexibility and cheap distributed storage that help the grid accept variable solar and windpower— replacing giant power stations and their fossil fuels. * Heresy Happens U.S. energy intensity, 1975–2016p 1.25 Government and Industry Forecasts, ~1975 1 Actual 0.75 0.5 Lovins, Foreign Affairs, Fall 1976 Per Dollar of Real GDP 0.25 Index of U.S.