The holiday season is officially underway. With the end of 2022 in sight, I bring you our penultimate newsletter for the year with updates on how the Clean Energy Transition Institute carried out our ambitious clean energy transition agenda in November.
As you recall, the Net-Zero Northwest (NZNW) project is developing decarbonization pathways analysis for the four Northwest states. The modeling incorporates the Inflation Reduction Act and current technical and economic data on key emission reduction strategies. It will examine employment and workforce implications of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and model health impacts from changes in criteria pollutants.
To date, Evolved Energy Research has modeled a pathways Core Case and will run scenarios that explore the role of transmission, transportation electrification, distributed energy resources, and clean fuels in attaining a net-zero Northwest target. Evolved will also produce the health impacts data. BW Research will begin the economic impact modeling next month. We aim to disseminate findings throughout the first quarter of 2023.
Evolved’s lead modeler for the NZNW project, Jeremy Hargreaves, will speak about the modeling at the Northwest Public Power Association (NWPPA) conference (Building an Agile Power Supply for an Uncertain Future) on December 7.
The Evergreen State now has some of the strongest building codes in the nation for heat pump installations in new construction. Washington adopted new residential energy codes in November that will require heat pumps for all space heating/cooling and water heating in new home construction. This update adds to energy code revisions earlier this year that require most new commercial and large multifamily buildings to install electric heat pumps. Read more from CETI Researcher Ruby Moore-Bloom.
On November 9, the CETI team spoke to Shift Zero member organizations about our Community-Defined Decarbonization report. After I provided background on the Institute and the origins of this project, Research Fellow Mariah Caballero presented key findings and Ruby showed the report’s interactive maps on the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas. We ended the lunch ‘n learn with an engaging Q & A discussion about the challenges and opportunities for decarbonizing Washington’s rural and Tribal communities. Slides and the recording from this presentation are available on our website.
CETI’s first Claiming Power short film, Harvesting the Sun, was shown at the North Olympic Peninsula Energy Futures conference, which both filmmaker Jessica Plumb and Ruby attended. Co-hosted by the North Olympic Development Council and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the two-day conference included panels on grid reliability, Tribal energy goals, and federal funding opportunities. Participants also engaged in small group, facilitated sessions to develop project ideas that could address climate change and the clean energy transition for North Olympic Peninsula communities.
CETI Research Fellow Leslie Ngyuen created a new interactive visualization for the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas that explores the carbon intensity of electricity production (i.e., how much carbon dioxide is emitted for every megawatt-hour of electricity produced?) in all U.S. states, with a focus on Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Check it out and let us know what you think! If you are new to the Atlas, check out two of Ruby’s blogs that explain what to expect from the data visualizations and how to navigate the website.
Speaking of the Atlas, how well do you know the Northwest energy system? Take our quiz and use our interactive Atlas visualizations to find out.
Last month we asked what percentage of electricity generated in the four Northwest states in 2020 came from carbon-free sources? The answer was c) 73%. Congratulations to Wendy Williams, Deborah Reynolds, and Richard Wesley for their correct answers!
This month’s question comes from our newest visualization: Between 2013 and 2020, in which year was Oregon’s carbon intensity of electricity generation the lowest?
a. 2020
b. 2017
c. 2015
d. 2013
Send us your answers and check back next month to see if you were right. We’ll send a prize to the first three people who send us the correct answer.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission is working on a natural gas decarbonization pathways project with a consultant, SSG (Sustainability Solutions Group). They have created a survey to explore approaches to reducing emissions in Washington’s natural gas system. It takes about 20 minutes to complete, and we urge you to share your views.
Climate Solutions is offering a two-part signature event next week that I wanted to alert you to. You can hear from Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Howard Frumkin, and Dr. Via Gupta on Thursday, December 8 at 4:00p PT and author and activist Rebecca Solnit on Friday, December 9 at 12:00p. This all-star line-up will speak about the link between health and climate change and why we should have hope that we can accelerate positive change. Register here.
CETI is thrilled to welcome Elizabeth Willmott to our Advisory Council, which is comprised of leading decarbonization experts. Elizabeth heads up Microsoft’s carbon reduction team and is focused on the company’s internal carbon fee, carbon accounting, and carbon reduction solutions.
We’re very pleased to announce that in October we received a $30,000 grant from the Bullitt Foundation in support of Operation 2030. We thank the Bullitt Foundation for their ongoing engagement in our work.
We were honored to be asked to present to Microsoft employees as part of the company’s October GIVE fundraising drive. I explained what CETI is and described our 2022 accomplishments and impact since our inception in 2018.
Thank you to everyone who has given so generously to support our work. When allocating your end-of-the-year charitable donation funds, we would be grateful if you were to consider making a tax-deductible contribution to CETI.
We will be back next month with our final newsletter for the year.
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