Expert Columns

InterContinental Hotels Group, a member of the US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge, created the IHG Green Engage system, a comprehensive online sustainability management system that allows hotels to track, measure, and report on their carbon footprint and utility consumption.

The momentum behind the renewable energy transition is unstoppable. To date, 162 local governments, 13 states and the District of Columbia, and 229 global companies have committed to 100% renewable energy. In this column from IMT's "Stronger Together" series, Jake Duncan explores how efficiency and demand management can smooth over some of the challenges of the renewable energy transition so that we can power an electrified society quickly and cost-effectively.

As companies adjust to a new normal during COVID-19, sustainability teams face their own challenge: assessing whether and how the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout will affect progress toward their company’s renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals. In this column, Caitlin Marquis of Advance Energy Economy outlines how conditions are affecting the energy industry, how regulators and lawmakers are responding, and what to watch for in the months ahead.

In the late-2010s, the “electrify everything” movement emerged as a long-term solution to the ever-growing carbon emissions of the U.S. However, electrification as a decarbonizing strategy depends on using renewable power for new electric devices. In this column from IMT - the second in their "Stronger Together" series, Jake Duncan explores why energy efficiency is crucial to electrification.

The COVID-19 crisis is influencing every aspect of the global economy, and electric utilities are certainly seeing significant impacts. This column from the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) warns that before utility regulators take actions to adjust revenues or rates to reflect COVID-19 impacts, it is important to identify and quantify the broad range of impacts so that those that increase costs or reduce sales can be appropriately offset against those that decrease costs or cause increased sales in some sectors.

The hottest four-letter word of 2020 is MOPR (Minimum Offer Price Rule), which has become a top concern of clean energy advocates, advanced energy developers, and large power users. This column from Caitlin Marquis of Advanced Energy Economy explores the implications of this FERC rule, which poses a threat to both state clean energy policies and voluntary purchases of renewable energy in PJM - and offers an update following PJM's March compliance filing to FERC.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized Better Buildings Challenge partner Chesapeake College for energy efficiency advances made throughout its Wye Mills, Maryland campus. Most recently, the college completed a 1.8-megawatt solar array with 1-megawatt battery backup. Here's how they did it.

As the demand for climate action continues to ramp up, more cities, businesses, and utilities are discussing their decarbonization strategies for the years ahead. In this column from Jake Duncan of the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), advancing these efforts will require a shift in the way building owners and tenants, city leaders, utility representatives, and communities think about buildings and the role of energy efficiency.