RMI in Brief
News From Around the Institute
Business Renewables Center Accelerates Corporate Renewables
Officially launched February 2015 — and the recipient of a Bloomberg New Energy Finance FiRe award in April 2014 — RMI’s Business Renewables Center streamlines and accelerates corporate purchasing of large-scale, off-site renewable energy such as wind and utility-scale solar. The BRC’s membership includes renewable energy project developers, deal intermediaries such as consultancies and law firms, and corporate buyers totaling more than $430 billion in annual revenue, including GM, eBay, Bloomberg, Kaiser Permanente, Johnson & Johnson, Salesforce.com, Sprint, and HP. A May 2015 event in San Francisco — co-hosted with NGO partners World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute, and BSR — brought in more than 130 attendees.
Repeat Win at Bloomberg New Energy Finance FiRe Awards
In April 2015, beEdison — a solar diligence platform — won a Finance for Resilience (FiRe) award at Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s summit in New York City. beEdison is powered by the truSolar standard, a FICO-like risk assessment for solar projects that RMI, Distributed Sun, and a consortia of partners developed.
2nd Annual e-Lab Accelerator Held in Utah
In March 2015, RMI staff, expert national faculty from e-Lab, and 12 diverse project teams — ranging from California to New Jersey and New Mexico to Alaska — came together for RMI’s second annual Accelerator, held at Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah. With projects spanning resilient community microgrids, battery energy storage, electric vehicle adoption and grid integration, progressive utility business models, and more, the four-day intensive work session sped progress on electricity innovation.
Spinoff Black Bear Energy Launches
Companies with large real estate portfolios have a tremendous value creation opportunity on their vacant rooftops, which are ripe for on-site renewable technologies such as commercial-scale solar. Seeing a market need, RMI thus helped launch Black Bear Energy as a “buyer’s rep” company to aid companies navigating a complex landscape of options.
e-Lab Leap Initiative Empowers Low-Income Customers
Working first in New York State but ultimately expanding beyond it, e-Lab’s recently launched Leap initiative is focused on ensuring that low- and fixed-income customers are part of the electricity grid’s evolution, rather than getting left behind by it. In cooperation with a broad suite of state and local agencies, advocacy and community organizations, technology providers, and others, it is answering critical questions about affordable access to clean energy technologies and developing solutions that empower and improve the lives of low-income households and communities.
Caribbean Partnership with Clinton Climate Initiative
In late May, RMI and Carbon War Room announced a new partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation. Focused on the transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency in the Caribbean region, it complements RMI and Carbon War Room’s Ten Island Challenge and creates an integrated team that will work seamlessly together to ensure success.
— Peter Bronski
