Research that Informs Business and Public Policy
Electricity can provide more than we think. People talk a lot about the potential benefits of bringing electricity to some of the billion homes in the world that do not … Continue Reading Are We Looking for the Benefits of Rural Electrification in the Wrong Places?
You aren’t getting “green electrons”, but charging at the right times still lowers GHG emissions. I spent a fascinating few days at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) last month, … Continue Reading Charging With the Sun
Covering roofs with solar panels will block cool roofs. Have you heard of cool roofs? The idea is that if we paint a lot of roofs white, or generally make … Continue Reading How Should We Use Our Roofs?
(This post is co-authored with Catherine Wolfram and Derek Wolfson, Energy Institute PhD student researcher) Microgrids are difficult to implement and can be undermined by promises of grid expansion. Nuclear … Continue Reading Are Solar Microgrids the Future in the Developing World?
California’s rooftop solar mandate is an opportune moment to revisit a pair of prescient studies by Michael Cohen and coauthors. A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post … Continue Reading Does Rooftop Solar Help the Distribution System?
What the Solar Rooftop Standard has to tell us about our climate policies. If you follow this blog, you are probably already aware that last Wednesday, the California Energy Commission, … Continue Reading Lessons in Regulatory Hubris
700,000 California homes now have solar panels; what does this mean for everyone else’s rates? “This is the future,” one of my neighbors recently told me, proudly showing off his … Continue Reading Why Am I Paying $65/year for Your Solar Panels?
