Category: Knowledge Center America

US Transmission Expansion: Report

US Transmission Expansion: Report

October 23, 2026 | , ,

The US electricity system is expected to see substantial demand growth through the mid-2030s, driven by commercial and industrial expansion, including advanced manufacturing, data centres and domestic industrial growth, alongside electrification. To assess the transmission investment needed to support this growth and broader economic and national security priorities, S&P Global Energy released the study “Powering Growth and Affordability: The Role of Transmission in Economic and National Security”, supported by the Electricity Customer Alliance and National Grid, with Converge Strategies responsible for national security and defence aspects.

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U.S. Power Sector Shift: Report

U.S. Power Sector Shift: Report

October 16, 2026 | , ,

Clean power growth slows while fossil power rebounds: Clean power continues to account for the largest share of planned U.S. power sector development, the “pipeline” of future capacity, but growth has slowed from its 2024 peak. Meanwhile, fossil power announcements have increased since 2022, suggesting electric utilities and energy developers are recalibrating their priorities in response to evolving federal policy and projected rapid load growth, relying on methods to evaluate resource adequacy that favor traditional dispatchable resources.

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Making California’s Electricity Cheaper: Report

Making California’s Electricity Cheaper: Report

October 9, 2026 | , ,

Affordability is at the heart of almost every policy conversation across the nation, and California is facing a particularly acute energy affordability crisis — the state’s electricity rates are now the second highest in the nation and double the country’s average. Between 2000 and 2024, California’s electricity rates rose faster than inflation and became the highest in the contiguous United States, more than 50% higher than the US average. These prices are untenable, straining household budgets, and threatening the state’s electrification path to a climate-neutral economy. More than 80% of Californians rank lowering bills as a top or important priority for state leaders, and the state’s elected officials have a duty to address these intertwined problems for their constituents.

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Climate Finance in Latin America and the Caribbean: Report

Climate Finance in Latin America and the Caribbean: Report

October 1, 2026 | , ,

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has significant climate investment opportunities and some relatively mature markets, but climate finance remains far below needs and highly uneven across countries, sectors, and climate objectives. Brazil, Mexico, and several larger South American economies have deeper capital markets and larger project pipelines than other countries in the region, along with significant opportunities in renewable energy, industry, and land use. By contrast, other Caribbean, Central and South American countries face smaller markets, high exposure to climate shocks, greater dependence on imported fuels and more constrained fiscal space.

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Policy Resilience in Brazilian Renewable Energy: Brief

Policy Resilience in Brazilian Renewable Energy: Brief

September 24, 2026 | , ,

The policy brief titled “Climate and Policy Resilience in Brazilian Renewable Energy” states that the Brazilian context involving a clean-electricity base, a more balanced lobbying landscape, and mounting climate and social pressure, makes it more difficult for the kind of abrupt and unrestrained energy policy swing seen in Colombia. The trend in Brazil tends to be more economically viable for renewables. However, these structural conditions by themselves will not guarantee the success of the transition.

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Oregon Energy Security Plan: Report

Oregon Energy Security Plan: Report

September 18, 2026 | , ,

The Oregon Energy Security Plan Report 2026 published by the Oregon Department of Energy presents an overview of the state’s energy infrastructure, quantifies the threats and hazards that could cause energy insecurity, and proposes measures that the state and its partners can implement to reduce risk. The energy sector — including electricity, liquid fuels, and natural gas — is vital to the health, well-being, safety, economy, and way of life for Oregonians. Nearly all commerce and critical activities in the state rely on power and liquid fuels to operate and function.

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Building the US Electro-Industrial Economy: Report

Building the US Electro-Industrial Economy: Report

September 11, 2026 | , ,

States across the United States are competing to attract and retain the infrastructure, manufacturing, and energy assets required to support growing demand for electricity, advanced industry, and digital infrastructure. The global shift to an economy built on electricity and computerization represents a new economic development undertaking both for the United States as a whole and for individual states. These high-value industrial and infrastructure projects bring jobs, investment, and additional businesses, making them a worthwhile prize. But whereas most of these projects are commercially viable in the long term, some struggle to obtain private financing because they face permitting, market, infrastructure, or first-of-a-kind deployment risks.

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US Electricity Demand Growth: ICF Report

US Electricity Demand Growth: ICF Report

September 4, 2026 | ,

Total U.S. electricity demand will increase 21% by 2030 and 39% by 2035 from 2026 levels. But the real story is regional. Electricity demand is rising in every region of the U.S., but not at the same pace. Regions with the strongest data center activity, industrial expansion, and electrification are expected to see the greatest increases in both total electricity demand and peak demand through 2035.

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São Paulo’s Transport Decarbonization Updates: Policy Update

São Paulo’s Transport Decarbonization Updates: Policy Update

August 27, 2026 | ,

PlanClima SP is the climate action plan for the city of São Paulo and the main instrument for coordinating mitigation and adaptation actions across several policy areas, including transport, land use, energy, waste, and climate risk management. Its first version was released in 2021 and established a regular review cycle, with updates expected at least once per new municipal administration.

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US State-Level Energy Transition: Report

US State-Level Energy Transition: Report

August 21, 2026 | , ,

While policy changes have slowed the US energy transition, progress continues in several areas, with solar and batteries proving particularly resilient. According to the inaugural US energy transition leaderboard used in the analysis, Washington, Arizona, California, Illinois, and Oregon are leading the way to a low-carbon future. Republican states occupy 13 out of the top 20 positions, suggesting that economics is a far bigger driving force overall than politics. The clean energy transition is helping to improve grid reliability and temper price volatility, especially during extreme weather events.

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Transport Electrification in New York: Brief

Transport Electrification in New York: Brief

August 14, 2026 | , ,

Electric utilities and their regulators around the country are working to identify grid infrastructure needs and implement upgrades in time to meet customer electrification demand. Most utilities are working within existing regulatory processes, while some utilities are working to determine new procedures capable of meeting accelerated electrification timelines. With the Proactive Planning proceeding, New York joins California as an early mover in formalizing a process to support electric grid planning. California similarly has several ongoing rulemaking proceedings tasked with preparing the electric grid for an increase in energy demands, including those specific to transportation electrification.

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Bridging Climate Adaptation in Indonesia, Brazil and India: Paper

Bridging Climate Adaptation in Indonesia, Brazil and India: Paper

August 7, 2026 | , , ,

The paper examines how the vertical integration of climate change adaptation can be strengthened, using Indonesia, Brazil and India as comparative case studies. The paper provides empirical evidence on common barriers, highlights opportunities and offers practical recommendations for policymakers, planners and development partners on how coordination across governmental levels can be enhanced. The paper highlights how large, decentralised countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and India must overcome fragmented adaptation governance and ensure vertical policy coherence across all governmental levels to facilitate more robust and effective climate adaptation actions.

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State of Fossil Fuels in Chile: Report

State of Fossil Fuels in Chile: Report

August 7, 2026 | , ,

The report presents a snapshot of the current landscape to support Chile’s transition toward energy security and sovereignty by shifting away from fossil fuels. Renewable energy has not replaced fossil fuels; it has grown alongside them. Despite having an electricity system that is more than 60 per cent renewable, Chile consumed 29 per cent more energy from fossil fuels in 2024 than it did in 2000. The energy system is not defossilising; it is redistributing its dependence across different fossil fuel sources. Today, Chile has neither a fossil fuel phase out strategy nor a reduction plan in its dependence on fossil fuels; instead, fossil fuel use has shifted across sectors.

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US Interconnection Status: Report

US Interconnection Status: Report

July 30, 2026 | , ,

The report finds that all seven grid operators have made progress over the past 18 months by adopting cluster studies, strengthening project readiness requirements, introducing automation and implementing reforms under FERC Order No. 2023 (Order 2023), which applies to all regions except Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Southwest Power Pool and the California Independent System Operator showed the strongest progress, while the Midcontinent Independent System Operator made incomplete progress. ERCOT made incremental progress, whereas PJM Interconnection, ISO-New England and the New York Independent System Operator made expected progress. The report notes that gating policies are improving queue quality by advancing more viable projects, although their overall effectiveness remains uncertain.

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Decarbonising US Power Sector: Report

Decarbonising US Power Sector: Report

July 22, 2026 | , ,

The report assesses how much the current policy environment preserves the benefits of the prior policy environment, situates those modeled results within the real-world forces shaping delivery, and draws out what the findings imply for future policy priorities and public spending. The report further uses Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulator to compare two modeled scenarios of the US power sector: a current scenario defined by the OBBBA without the Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency regulations and a prior trajectory defined by the IRA with those regulations intact. The analysis focuses on the 2025-2035 window, when the gap between the scenarios grows fastest and today’s policy decisions can most directly shape the outcome. 

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Impacts of Energy Policy Changes in US: Report

Impacts of Energy Policy Changes in US: Report

July 17, 2026 | , ,

The report examines that the US’ energy policy framework has shifted dramatically during the second Trump administration and 119th Congress. The report uses the Energy Policy Simulator (EPS) to model federal policy decisions made since January 2025 to determine what the near future holds for families and businesses in terms of energy costs, public health, job losses, and grid reliability. The report further analyses effects of policy changes on energy prices, the economy, air pollution, and healthcare spending from 2026 to 2040. The analysis highlights that households will pay an additional $650 billion for energy – an average of $460 per household in 2035 and $490 in 2040, cutting policies that drive innovation and efficiency in the transportation sector will inflate gasoline prices 14 percent in 2035 and 26 percent in 2040.

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Affordable Energy Pathways for New England: Report 

Affordable Energy Pathways for New England: Report 

July 10, 2026 | , ,

The report “Alternatives to New England’s Energy Affordability Crisis” published by Always on Energy Research demonstrates how a focus on deploying reliable nuclear and natural gas power plants could yield hundreds of billions of dollars in savings for New England electricity customers compared to the grid outlined in the Renewable scenario stated in their previous report. The report suggests that decarbonizing New England’s economy will not be easy or affordable. Each of the four scenarios studied will have significant inflationary impacts on electricity costs in the ISO-NE region, harming families and businesses in the region by causing their power bills to rise.

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Securing Critical Minerals in the US: Paper

Securing Critical Minerals in the US: Paper

June 19, 2026 | ,

Numerous countries have developed critical minerals lists. These lists greatly overlap but are rarely identical because vulnerabilities and demand are unique to each country’s geology, capacity, and requirements. The United States 2025 List of Critical Minerals, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, includes sixty minerals, up from fifty in 2022. Unlike many other countries, the United States does not group heavy and light rare earth elements (REEs) or Platinum Group metals, resulting in larger lists.

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State of US Clean Power in Q1 2026: Report 

State of US Clean Power in Q1 2026: Report 

June 12, 2026 | , ,

Developers canceled more than 8 GW of planned clean power projects in the first quarter 2026 alone, including 4.7 GW of solar projects, bringing total cancellations since the start of 2025 to more than 21 GW nationwide. Developers announced 693 GW of clean power projects nationwide, including projects that are operating, planned and under construction. Planned investment in clean power projects is estimated to reach $377 billion through 2031. An additional 222 GW of clean power projects remain planned or under construction nationwide, with solar and battery storage accounting for 85 per cent of that pipeline. Texas continues to lead the nation in clean power development, with nearly twice as many announced clean power projects as California.

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US Short-Term Energy Outlook: Report

US Short-Term Energy Outlook: Report

June 5, 2026 | , ,

US electricity demand in the forecast rises 1.3% in 2026, averaging almost 4,250 billion kilowatthours and growing another 3.1% in 2027. Electricity demand growth is led by growth in the commercial sector, which is expected to outpace residential demand in 2027 for the first time on record. Industrial demand is also increasing, although at a slower pace. Residential electricity prices are expected to increase by 5% in 2026 and to continue to rise in 2027, although at a slower pace. The forecast for utility-scale solar generation in 2026 is 1.4% higher than in the previous outlook

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