Climate-Tech Commercialization

Rapid adoption of electric vehicles by low-income and disadvantaged populations is necessary for decarbonization. Innovative products and business models are emerging that accelerate such adoption. Supportive policies should extend these innovations and amplify their benefits.

Many popular blockchain technologies consume vast amounts of electricity today, producing millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions and electronic waste. While the environmental and energy concerns for digital assets should be addressed, heavy-handed regulatory policies that attempt to restrict how operators use data centers are likely to be unsuccessful.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is a tremendous step forward for innovation and must become a permanent fixture in the federal structure. DOE needs time right now to build up the new office systematically, and over the next few years its funding must grow rapidly, so that it can drive a steady stream of innovations ready to be scaled up nationally and globally.

Watch ITIF and an expert panel featuring key policymakers and leading analysts who discussed how to bring House and Senate versions of competitiveness legislation across the finish line in a form that will be a winner for U.S. workers and the economy.

The modeling is clear: Building a reliable grid that will serve as the backbone for a cleaner, more electrified economy without raising energy costs, will require technological improvements that drastically drive down the costs and improve performance.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) just approved plans to deploy a new delivery fleet consisting almost entirely of gasoline-powered trucks, even as Amazon, UPS and FedEx are going all-in on climate-friendly electric vehicles (EVs).

The Biden administration and Congress should adopt innovation uptake policies to ensure that the remarkable products of federal investment and American ingenuity are not left moldering on the shelf.

ITIF’s Center for Clean Energy Innovation hosted a panel discussion on why continued innovation matters, what an innovation agenda for advanced renewables should look like, and which technologies are likely to be the next big things.

Biotechnology cannot solve the whole climate problem on its own, but unlike nuclear fusion, which has been “30 years off” for the last 50 years, bioengineered innovations have already transformed agriculture. With gene-editing, doubling agricultural productivity by 2050 is well within reach.

Silicon-based photovoltaic technology is reaching its practical efficiency limits. Perovskite solar cells, which can be fine-tuned to absorb different colors of the solar spectrum, could be a game-changer, offering the tantalizing possibility of more efficient, cheaper solar power.