Priti Patel, Great River Energy’s vice president and chief transmission officer, has joined the Great Plains Institute’s (GPI’s) board of directors. Continue reading »
GPI Welcomes Gail Nosek as Communications Director
January 19, 2018 in News & Press Author: Rolf Nordstrom
I am thrilled to welcome Gail Nosek as the Great Plains Institute’s (GPI) communications director. Gail brings significant strategic communications, public relations, social media, and multi-media journalism experience that makes her an excellent fit to lead GPI’s communications as we celebrate our 20th anniversary and look to our next 20 years of transforming the energy system. Continue reading »
Your Life Runs on It — and It Needs an Upgrade
July 26, 2017 in Energy Systems Author: Rolf Nordstrom
You might think this is about food, love, or coffee. Nope, this is about electricity. It’s hard to name something you’ll do today that doesn’t require it, and yet we mostly take it for granted, unless you lose power or your cell phone dies. Pause for a minute to consider that without electricity we would not have computers, TVs, microwaves, refrigeration, skyscrapers (no elevators), medicines that require refrigeration, and a very long list of other features of modern life. In short, electricity just might be the most important product you never think of. Continue reading »
GPI has a long list of initiatives to advance biomass-based energy, fossil energy plus carbon capture, utilization and storage, and energy efficiency strategies for industrial and commercial facilities. Each of these strategies is important elements of GPI’s work to further industrial decarbonization strategies in key U.S. states. Continue reading »
Over our nearly twenty year history, the Great Plains Institute has been extremely fortunate to be supported by a diverse group of philanthropic foundations—which today provide some 95% of GPI’s revenue—along with a small but growing group of committed individuals and institutions who believe in GPI’s nonpartisan, consensus-based approach to crafting effective, broadly-shared energy and climate solutions: now more urgent than ever. Continue reading »
What do Sweden, the U.S., Brazil & India All Have in Common?
December 2, 2016 in News & Press Author: Rolf Nordstrom
So back in June I get this email out of the blue from a very gracious woman at the Swedish Embassy inviting me to be part of a U.S.-Brazil-India delegation to Sweden. All I need to do is get myself there and back. Continue reading »
The Climate Corner: Why the Clean Energy Transition Seems Both Impossible and Inevitable
June 17, 2016 in News & Press Author: Rolf Nordstrom
*This originally appeared in the Door County Peninsula Post here*
Why does a clean energy transition seem impossible? Let’s start with the basics of the climate change problem that 97% of climate scientists say, categorically, we need to fix: Continue reading »
Collaboratory Report Outlines Our Energy Future
May 12, 2016 in Reports & Whitepapers Author: Rolf Nordstrom
There is a growing, global momentum among businesses, communities, states, and nations toward an economically and environmentally sustainable energy system.
To achieve such a system will require harnessing the speed and innovation that only the market, bound by the right policy framework, can deliver. And that will require fresh thinking: enter, the Collaboratory. Continue reading »
As an organization whose tagline is “Better Energy, Better World,” we’re excited this Earth Day to share with you the progress we’re making together with our partners from the local to the national level. Continue reading »
The Paris Paradox: Climate Fix Seems Both Impossible & Inevitable
December 15, 2015 in Carbon Management Author: Rolf Nordstrom
It’s no secret that the world has come to depend almost entirely (87%) on fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—for meeting our energy needs. Since the Industrial Revolution the discovery and use of fossil fuels have led to the largest increase in human well-being ever experienced, quite literally making modern life possible (think electricity, medicine, computers). Continue reading »
