Rapid Decarbonization Initiative

The Rapid Decarbonization Initiative (formerly Energy Business Innovations) examines the challenges and opportunities for the electricity, transportation, and industrial sectors that emerge from the transition to a decarbonized energy future.

Despite broad consensus that the world’s economies must transition to decarbonized energy sources, questions remain whether this can be achieved in time to avert the most harmful consequences of global warming due to increased CO2 concentrations. Neither is it clear how different pathways to decarbonization compare in terms of economic benefits and costs.

RDI focuses on how the transition to a decarbonized energy future can be accelerated and accepted in the marketplace.

Research Focus Areas

  • The changing economics of decarbonization
  • Integration of renewable energy into electric power systems around the world
  • Costs of energy storage
  • Prospects and synergies for electric mobility and the electric grid
  • Industrial decarbonization
  • Corporate carbon accounting
  • Advances in digital technology in creating a flexible and decarbonized grid

Featured Research

Publication Search

Assessing the Costs of Industrial Decarbonization

Gunther Glenk, Rebecca Meier, Stefan J. Reichelstein

Companies in various industries are under growing pressure to assess the costs of decarbonizing their operations. This paper develops a generic abatement cost concept to identify the cost-efficient combination of technological and operational…

Fair Market Valuation of Electric Vehicle Batteries in Second Life Applications

Amadeus Bach, Simona Onori, Stefan J. Reichelstein, Jihan Zhuang

The rapidly growing number of lithium-ion battery packs deployed in electric vehicles (EVs) entails enormous economic potential for used EV batteries to be redeployed in a second life application, e.g., for behind-the-meter stationary energy…

Corporate Carbon Accounting: Balance Sheets and Flow Statements

Stefan J. Reichelstein
Vol. 29

Current corporate disclosures regarding carbon emissions lack commonly accepted accounting rules. The carbon accrual accounting system described here takes the rules of historical cost accounting for operating assets as a template for generating…

Leading After a Nuclear Disaster
00:30:26

Leading After a Nuclear Disaster

A conversation with Naomi Hirose, Vice Chairman, TEPCO, on how to effectively lead a company through catastrophe.

Past Events