I’m pleased to welcome Kristoffer Acuña to the GPI team as a program assistant with the Metro Clean Energy Resource Team (Metro CERT). In this position, Kris will work on the Cities Charging Ahead! project, which aims to help Minnesota cities increase understanding of and make progress toward electric vehicle readiness. Kris will also assist with additional projects for GPI’s work as part of the Metro CERT and other projects that are part of our Communities Program.
Over the last year, GPI celebrated our 20th anniversary as an organization dedicated to transforming the energy system to benefit the economy and environment. As GPI staff, partners, and supporters reflect on the progress we’ve made together and look ahead to future opportunities for even greater impact in 2019 and beyond, we’re sharing a Q&A series we’ve created with our CEO and program leadership team.
Over the past year, we’ve shared stories, news, and publications on that make progress toward our mission of transforming the energy system to benefit the economy and environment. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and are grateful for our donors, partners, and collaborators who enable us to make an even greater impact.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are an essential part of the effort to decarbonize the transportation sector—and the energy system as a whole—by midcentury. When combined with a decarbonized electricity sector, EVs can contribute to rapid decarbonization of transportation while bringing many other economic and public health benefits.
2018 has been a big year for energy storage in the Midwest and across the country. Between the hundreds of megawatts (MW) that have been deployed and are now operational to the detailed policy work to enable the next wave of business models, there has been no shortage of work for energy storage wonks. Continue reading »
In 2014, we wrote about “A New Approach to Small Business Energy Efficiency,” in which we described the unique barriers—time, knowledge, and trust—that small businesses face in identifying and enacting energy efficiency improvements. We proposed that the best solution may not be a technological one, but a social one—partnering with individuals who have existing relationships with small businesses in their community and training them as “energy coaches” who can provide the commitment, information, and trust that resource-limited business owners require. Continue reading »
The Great Plains Institute and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions hosted an expert workshop in Washington, D.C. for state officials and stakeholders exploring recent energy and environmental policy developments in the PJM region and the potential challenges in 2019. You can view the full event video below.
GPI is proud to be a contributor to the newly released Solar Potential Analysis Report for the MN Solar Pathways initiative. The report shows that Minnesota can produce 10 percent of its electricity from solar by 2025 and 70 percent from solar and wind by 2050 at generation costs comparable to natural gas. Continue reading »
We are excited to announce an opportunity for you to invest in our work to transform the energy system this giving season.
Thanks to a generous $25,000 Challenge Match from Great River Energy, your gift to GPI today will be doubled!
There’s growing global recognition that technologies which capture carbon, and in some cases remove it from the atmosphere, will be vital to achieving a decarbonized economy. There is also increasing interest in these technologies given their potential economic value since carbon can be used to develop products through beneficial use or conversion. Continue reading »
