Before we share our direction for 2025 next month, the CETI Team and I want to take a moment to look back at how we worked to accelerate an equitable clean energy transition in 2024, which was a year of considerable growth and output for us all. Below we walk through the highlights of our grant-funded programs and contract projects.

In addition to the varied and impactful projects that the CETI team worked on last year, I had the privilege of serving on the boards of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Renewable Northwest, and the Washington State Green Bank—regional organizations that each play a critical role in advancing an equitable clean energy transition in the Northwest. I will continue that service in 2025.

None of our work would be possible without the philanthropic support we received, nor the partners we are fortunate enough to collaborate with. We are deeply grateful for the community of funders and partners who support our efforts to achieve our mission.

Eileen V. Quigley
Executive Director

Project and Program Highlights

From energy pathways to workforce, building decarbonization to rural clean energy development, CETI spent 2024 working across the Northwest to accelerate a clean energy transition. We:

• Released Net-Zero Northwest Workforce-State Analysis, in collaboration with BW Research, which assesses how achieving net-zero emissions would impact existing and future employment in each of the four Northwest states
• Participated in debates about transmission as one of four public interest organizations on the WestTEC’s Regional Engagement Committee and continue to do so this year
• Were selected by the Oregon Department of Energy in a competitive process to provide technical support for the state’s energy strategy over the next two years. We are partnering with Jeremy Hargreaves of Evolved Energy Research, Elaine Hart of Sylvan Energy Analytics, and Angela Long of Rockcress Consulting in this endeavor, which kicked off in April 2024
• Engaged in five projects for the Washington Department of Commerce:
  • Analysis and a report on deploying green electrolytic hydrogen and renewable fuels with Evolved Energy Research
  • Qualitative and quantitative research and a report on the impacts of clean energy development on the state’s rural communities with Ross Strategic and Industrial Economics, Inc.
  • Research and guidance on a residential energy workforce gap analysis
  • Support for a study of Washington’s refineries, including a refinery workforce analysis, that CETI provided based on our Net-Zero Northwest Workforce Analysis‍
  • Economy-wide energy pathways scenarios to achieve emission limits for Washington’s Comprehensive Climate Action Plan with Evolved Energy Research‍
• Continued work on SCALE 2030, a CETI project with 2050 Institute to chart a path to accelerating building decarbonization at scale in Washington
• Began work with the University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative to examine the potential benefits of community-scale solar development for rural communities
• Expanded the data visualizations available on our Northwest Clean Energy Atlas, including new visualizations exploring how the Northwest heats homes and a new ‘Jobs’ category‍
• Started providing technical facilitation support, working with Ross Strategic, for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Pacific Northwest Regional Energy Planning Project, a study that will explore how utilities in the Northwest can plan infrastructure investments to meet future grid needs, high load growth, and decarbonization targets

We Dove Deep. . .

We also dove into key issues and themes that emerged from our project and program work:

• Examined environmental and energy justice considerations for green hydrogen
• Gleaned insights from CETI’s NZNW Workforce Analysis into how to ensure an equitable workforce transition
• Visualized GHG emissions trends and electricity generation capacity in Northwest states
• Explored what fuels are used to heat Northwest homes and other housing characteristics that could inform a strategy to decarbonize buildings
• Explained community benefits strategies for clean energy developers to employ that will provide lasting benefits to impacted communities
• Investigated Northwest clean energy workforce trends from the 2024 U.S. Energy & Employment Report

And We Demystified. . .

We know that decarbonization is complicated, so in 2024 we tried to explain some of the complexities of the clean energy transition with our Demystifying Decarbonization blog series:

• Demystifying the Five Pillars of Decarbonization
• Demystifying Building Sector Emissions in Washington
• Oregon 2024 Legislative Clean Energy Policies Wrap-Up
• Washington 2024 Legislative Session Clean Energy Policies Wrap-Up
• No Transition Without Transmission
• New Infographics Demystify Electricity
• An Intro to Electricity Markets for the Northwest
• The Northwest’s Path to a Day-Ahead Market

As the year drew to a close, we launched our Decarbonization Forum series with an emissions accounting webinar and accompanying resources on December 10. This series will continue into 2025 to convene experts on some of the biggest issues facing the region along the road to net-zero, including the impacts of data centers and AI on the electricity grid, carbon dioxide removal and sequestration, and building decarbonization, among other topics.

Next Up:

 Next month we will share our plans for 2025, and we aim to release our Impact Report in March.

 A big thank you to the CETI community for your engagement and support for our work. We could not have accomplished all that we did without you.

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