By 2024, nearly 250 million smart meters will be installed in 50 emerging market countries backed by an investment totaling $34.7 billion, according to a report by the Northeast Group,. Smart meter investment has been led by the European Union which set a target years ago to achieve 80% market saturation. Now, other emerging market countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia are following suit.

According to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, the cost of producing electricity from renewable energy resources could be comparable with traditional resources by 2020. The group highlights the cost of onshore wind power has fallen dramatically since 2010 alongside solar photovoltaics, the cost of which has drop by 73% during the same period.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy released a report predicting that 2018 will be a big year for the electric vehicle market, particularly as costs come down and new models that have longer range are released. U.S. automakers now offer more than 40 kinds of plug-in cars, in response to growing consumer demand.

In a recent press release the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy, a national non-profit advocate for energy efficiency, called the Trump administration’s proposed budget for energy efficiency “a bad sequel” to the budget proposed in 2017. The group states that the budget will dramatically cut funding to weatherize low-income homes, as well as slash funding by 70% for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Austin Energy, a large community-owned utility in Texas, recently unveiled the first utility-run program in the country to help support commercial customers adopt solar power technology. The “Value of Solar Rate” compensates customers with a credit based on their solar energy production, whether it’s used by the customer or pumped back into the grid.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy recently announced it has joined a coalition of groups that are working to support smart technologies to improve energy productivity in the manufacturing sector. The group, comprised of public, private and nonprofit groups purport that “smart manufacturing” could save manufacturing companies $15 billion in annual electricity savings by 2025. Read more. (http://aceee.org/press/2018/01/aceee-supports-smart-manufacturing)

As the Trump Administration considers rolling back fuel standards, two new Environmental Protection Agency reports show that fuel standards are effective. The reports reveal that the automotive industry has achieved gains in fuel economy over the past few years with no impacts to their bottom line.

Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr recently announced the country’s plans to invest $120 million in electric vehicle infrastructure. This funding is one piece of the nation’s efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

California utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric recently announced it will be rolling out new “time-of-use” rates that will encourage its customers to be more energy efficient, particularly during peak hours of demand. The new rate structure will start in April 2018 and will slowly be rolled out to its customers.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently announced it will be launching the Electrification Futures Study, a research project aimed at identifying the potential impacts of “electrifying” all parts of the U.S. economy, including commercial and residential buildings, transportation and industry. The study will answer these questions:

1) What end-use electric technologies are available for the highest energy-consuming services today, and how might the technologies advance over time?
2) How might widespread electrification impact national and regional electricity demand and consumption patterns?
3) How would the U.S. electricity system need to transform to meet changes in demand from an electrified economy?
4) What role might demand-side flexibility play to support reliable operations of a clean electricity grid?
5) What are potential costs, benefits, and impacts of mass electrification?

Learn more here: https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/electrification-futures.html