Clean Energy 101
The energy transition is big, complicated, and often challenging to understand. Yet that shouldn't be a barrier to progress. That’s why RMI is developing a growing library of 101s.
Clear explanations of energy essentials — from heat pumps and electric vehicles to green hydrogen — can help untangle this complexity and show how it all connects. These explainers focus on the fundamentals of energy and the climate, along with the basic technologies and critical policies that are essential to decarbonize the world’s energy systems.
For more on the energy transition and to set the record straight on misconceptions hindering climate action, see our library of “Reality Check” articles.
Clean Energy 101: Thermal Batteries
The why, what, and how of this technology that's helping eliminate fossil fuel combustion in industrial heating.
Climate 101: NCQG, The Key Climate Goal Behind the Acronym
A new global climate finance target may be the only way to meet our climate goals — but it must be ambitious
Clean Energy 101: Demand Aggregation
Harnessing the power of demand to accelerate the market for low-emissions products.
Clean Energy 101: How Batteries Can Support Grid Reliability
Grid-scale battery storage can beat traditional technologies in keeping our electric grid running in the face of rising demand.
Clean Energy 101: Ammonia’s Role in the Energy Transition
Ammonia is an essential commodity right now for fertilizer production, which needs to be decarbonized as soon as possible to reduce global warming.
Clean Energy 101: The Chemicals and Climate Connection
The health risk of exposing ourselves to dangerous chemicals is well-known, but the overall climate risk of these products has flown under our collective radar.
Transition Finance 101
Five common questions about transition finance, answered.
Electrification 101: How Fleets and Utilities Can Work Together to Unlock Electrified Transportation
Fleets and utilities can become leaders in the emerging vehicle electrification space by working together to drive proactive grid investments.
Methane Satellites 101: More Eyes Take to the Skies
Why we need these sky-high sensors, and what we can do with the data.
Q&A: Why We Need Hydrogen Hubs
An interview with RMI Principal Nabil Bennouna about the role regional clean hydrogen hubs will play in advancing the clean energy transition.
Electrification 101: Ensuring Equitable EV Charging Access
A new RMI tool can enable charging and grid development that reflects the needs of communities, ensuring that everyone reaps the benefits of EVs.
Sustainable Aluminum 101: How to Decarbonize a Critical Material for the Energy Transition
The aluminum industry is responsible for roughly 2 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Clean Energy 101: Why and How to Fund the Decarbonization of Aluminum
Light, strong, and highly recyclable, aluminum is essential to technologies that are driving the energy transition.
Clean Energy 101: Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling — or Really Cool Roofs
Groundbreaking materials have the potential to provide life-altering cooling to millions who lack it. How do they work? And how can they be scaled?
Electrification 101: Getting the Grid Ready for an EV Revolution
As more and more EVs hit the road, utilities need to prepare the infrastructure to charge them. That’s where planning tools like GridUp come in.
Clean Energy 101: EV Battery Recycling
An interview with Detroit-based Manager Alessandra Carreon about the benefits of a circular battery economy and what needs to happen to make it a reality.
Waste Methane 101: Driving Emissions Reductions from Landfills
Landfills are an often-overlooked source of climate-warming methane emissions. Here’s how and why we must act now.
Clean Energy 101: All Plastics Aren’t Created Equal
How a plastic is made can have a 350 percent difference on its level of life-cycle emissions.
Clean Energy 101: Book and Claim
By harnessing the power of consumer demand for decarbonized supply chains through new market mechanisms like book and claim, we can catalyze the most difficult corners of industrial decarbonization.
JETPs 101: Helping Emerging Economies Go from Coal to Clean
How Just Energy Transition Partnerships can help coal-dependent developing nations in their energy transition.
Clean Energy 101: Geothermal Heat Pumps
Geothermal heat pumps are a time-tested solution with untapped potential.
Embodied Carbon 101: Building Materials
Embodied carbon represents the millions of tons of carbon emissions released during the lifecycle of building materials, including extraction, manufacturing, transport, construction, and disposal.
EV Batteries 101: Supply Chains
What are the problems in the EV battery supply chain and how can we improve it?
EV Batteries 101: The Basics
Learn about types of EV batteries, how they’re made, and how they work.
Clean Energy 101: Reducing Climate Pollution from the Plastics Industry
We need a clearer picture of carbon emissions from plastic, so we can decarbonize the production and disposal of this common material.
Clean Energy 101: Carbon Accounting
What is carbon accounting and how can it help corporations reduce their emissions?
Methane-Detecting Satellites 101: The Completeness Quotient
A new metric of satellite completeness can help decision makers better understand the strengths and limitations of various satellite technologies.
Clean Energy 101: Virtual Power Plants
Homes and businesses can make the grid more reliable, and get paid to do so, by forming virtual power plants.
Clean Energy 101: ESG
ESG frameworks and ratings, if done correctly, can help guide investment into vital sectors that will accelerate the energy transition.