The Future of Power Generation: A New Era for Renewables

The CSIS Energy & National Security Program is pleased to invite you to a discussion on the outlook for the electric power sector and the future role of renewables. The U.S. electric power sector is in the midst of a transition. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) both produce annual outlooks that assess long-term trends in renewable energy, which help understand the changes to this sector. Doug Arent and Wesley Cole will outline the scenarios developed by NREL. Ethan Zindler will summarize the key findings of the BNEF study published earlier this year.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) tracks potential market trends to inform the electric sector analysis in the United States. With this data, NREL analyzes the current and future technology costs and performance for renewable and conventional electricity generation technologies. This includes market projections with a dozen possible scenarios created with NREL’s Regional Energy Deployment Systems (ReEDS) model.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance annually publishes a long-term view on the projected evolution of the world’s power markets. New Energy Outlook uniquely assesses segments of the electricity system that are driving rapid market changes, grid system developments, and dynamic business models. The comprehensive assessment includes the costs of wind and solar technology, battery storage, electricity demand, and consumer dynamics.