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Center for Clean Energy Innovation

Center for Clean Energy Innovation

Innovation to make energy both clean and competitive must be a central goal of climate and energy policy. ITIF’s Center for Clean Energy Innovation exists to elevate this imperative in the policy debate in the United States and around the world. We conduct research, provide nonpartisan analysis, generate policy proposals, and convene members of the analytical and policymaking communities with this mission firmly in focus. (Read more about the Center.)

Featured Publications

Why Wind and Solar Need Natural Gas: A Realistic Approach to Variability

Why Wind and Solar Need Natural Gas: A Realistic Approach to Variability

Wind and solar power will replace consistently dispatchable electricity from fossil fuels with variable and more unpredictable clean energy. Seasonal shifts and annual variations cannot be handled with batteries or other proposed storage solutions like hydrogen. Natural gas will have to bridge the gap for many decades.

US State and Regional Energy Innovation Index

US State and Regional Energy Innovation Index

Vibrant regional energy innovation ecosystems are important for any national net-zero strategy. But to understand the potential contributions they can make to the price and performance of clean energy technologies, we must first benchmark the resources they bring to bear.

A Realist Approach to Hydrogen

A Realist Approach to Hydrogen

Clean hydrogen is expensive to produce, difficult to transport, and a second- or third-best clean energy solution in almost all proposed markets. To help drive the global green transition, a realist approach to hydrogen policy must address all these practical challenges.

Mission Innovation, Phase 2: More Failed Aspirations to Fight Climate Change

Mission Innovation, Phase 2: More Failed Aspirations to Fight Climate Change

Twenty-three countries plus the EU pledged in 2015 to double their investments in clean energy RD&D by 2020. Only one met that goal. Undeterred, they announced a new set of pledges in 2021. Two years later, most are still woefully underinvesting in clean energy RD&D.

Beyond Force: A Realist Pathway Through the Green Transition

Beyond Force: A Realist Pathway Through the Green Transition

Trying to force adoption of clean energy with subsidies, regulations, and exhortations will fail. The only realistic way to spur the green transition is to develop clean technologies that can reach effective price and performance parity with dirty ones. Then markets will adopt them at scale.

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Events

November 19, 2024

How Can Decarbonization Boost U.S. Industrial Competitiveness?

Watch now for expert panel discussion exploring how the United States can take advantage of opportunities to develop cleaner industries that are more globally competitive.

March 21, 2024

The Crucial Role of Early-Stage University Research in Clean Energy Innovation

Please join ITIF for an expert panel discussion about a new report examining the role of federal funding for clean energy research conducted by colleges and universities.

July 25, 2023

A Realist Climate Policy: Driving Clean Tech to Price/Performance Parity

Watch now for the release event for the important new report and panel discussion on why P3 must be the new lens governments that governments must use to decide which clean energy technologies to support and how to support them.

July 20, 2023

Reimagining Energy Permitting for the 21st Century

Watch now for the Capitol Hill briefing event featuring keynote remarks by Reps. Garret Graves (R-LA) and Scott Peters (D-CA) followed by an expert panel discussion on ways Congress can reduce barriers to digital energy solutions, increase new energy infrastructure technologies, and modernize our entire energy infrastructure.

May 30, 2023

Further Energizing Innovation: Assessing the Federal Energy RD&D Budget for FY24 and Beyond

Watch the Center for Clean Energy Innovation’s release event covering their annual report on the federal energy RD&D budget; discussion by expert panel covering how the funding aligns with these key priorities.

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Robin Gaster
Robin Gaster

Research Director

Center for Clean Energy Innovation

Read Bio
Dorothy Robyn
Dorothy Robyn

Nonresident Senior Fellow

ITIF Center for Clean Energy Innovation and Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability

Read Bio

More From the Center

November 13, 2024|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles

It’s Global Warming, Not American Warming

Even if it were possible to radically slash U.S. emissions with today’s technologies, it still would do little to curb global warming because the United States accounts for just 13.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. It’s time to recognize that the climate crisis can only be solved with innovation.

November 5, 2024|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles

Solar and Wind Won’t Replace Natural Gas for Decades: They Will Depend on It.

Solar and wind are rapidly replacing coal, and many expect it will simply replace natural gas as well. But that’s a mistake: In fact, solar and wind for decades to come will depend on gas to fill variability gaps when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow.

October 18, 2024|Testimonies & Filings

Letter in Support of the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024

This bipartisan bill is a welcome effort to use government policy not to force change, but to enable change, through the widespread development of the clean energy technologies we need to drive costs down to meet the price and the performance levels of dirty energy.

May 10, 2024|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles

New DOE Foundation Should Think Big

Establishing the Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation (FESI) was a vital initial step, but its value will depend on what happens next.

March 13, 2024|Reports & Briefings

How Federal Funding for Basic Research Spurs Clean Energy Discoveries the World Needs: Eight Case Studies

We need new breakthroughs in clean energy technology to address climate change. Recent discoveries in areas such as nuclear fusion and biofuels illustrate how government investment in early-stage research is a critical part of the process.

March 6, 2024|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles

Let’s Be Realistic About Green Hydrogen

Like any new technology, green hydrogen must meet three related challenges: production, distribution and adoption. But it faces far higher-than-advertised hurdles at every stage.

February 12, 2024|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles

The Blue Hydrogen Bubble Must Burst

In order for blue hydrogen to decarbonize hard-to-reach sectors like aviation, heavy trucks, shipping, steel, and cement, blue hydrogen must slash costs and effectively capture and either store or use the carbon that’s generated.

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