[Themaintainers] {Ideas for Varun} Themaintainers Digest, Vol 74, Issue 9
Varun Adibhatla
varun.adibhatla at gmail.com
Tue Apr 26 18:03:34 EDT 2022
Lindsay,
These are incredible resources. Thank you so much!
Yes, The financing of green infrastructure is critical.
The Mikheeva, Ryan-Collins paper offers some interesting international
examples that remind me of 2 main things that may be useful to you.
I also am compelled to say that I'm a bona-fide Mariana Mazzucato superfan!
Do you get to work with her as part of your research!?
ONE, Every month or so, I try to unpack WW2 & New Deal from a financing and
ROI perspective. What worked incredibly well / What was meh / What was a
catastrophe?
- Decarbonization Strategies
<https://yakcollective.substack.com/p/decarbonization-strategies?s=r> was
my response to Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya’s call for boldness and
explored Thunberg Climate Action Bonds modeled after WW2 War Bonds and
Green Liberty Bonds.
- I've found Rob Johnson's podcast from the Institute of New Economic
Thinking to be very enlightening. His discussion with Bill Janeway
<https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/podcasts/william-janeway-governments-role-in-r-d-and-in-addressing-climate-change>
in particular educated me on Elliot Janeway's (Bill's father) book called
The *Struggle for Survival: A Chronicle of Economic Mobilization in
World War* that shows how WW2 readiness was rooted in economic
foundations laid by the New Deal.
TWO, My Wall Street background adds a certain hue to my public interest
views on how we achieve a resilient + decarbonized future.
- To decarbonize, we need to deploy capital in a way that likely has not
been witnessed before.
- Securitization of decarbonization & resilience (or both) is something
that deeply interests me and needs to play a role in how we transition.
It's a form of financial exuberance that I find compelling.
- It's sad that they are abused (Salomon Brothers scandal and '08 crisis
to name a few) but if designed and implemented well, they can be very
effective in mobilizing trillions over a short time.
- This paper from the National Regulatory Research Institute shows the
role of securitization
<https://pubs.naruc.org/pub/34058ED0-1866-DAAC-99FB-B8BC5BCC625C>
- Rocky Mountain Institute has a fab paper on Securitization in Action
with some great illustrations
<https://rmi.org/securitization-in-action-how-us-states-are-shaping-an-equitable-coal-transition/>.
Special Purpose Vehicles and Transition Assistance are terms they use.
Our aim is to create the digital standards necessary to facilitate a form
of enlightened (vs irrational) exuberance.
A final note on "regressive" maintenance - A term to describe maintenance
against the public interest.
The maintenance of gas distribution assets plays an active role in delaying
scalable decarbonization.
Consider that a street that experiences a gas main replacement seals its
carbon fate for the next 50-75 years.
Varun
On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 11:37 AM Ewy, Lindsay <lindsay.ewy.21 at ucl.ac.uk>
wrote:
> Hi Varun,
>
>
>
> Your team’s research project sounds interesting and I look forward to
> reading it once its available. I’m working on my masters at University
> College London at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
> <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/> where we talk a lot
> about a systems-approach to change (economic, political, and cultural).
> One of the key research themes for the institute is directing finance for
> the green economy. You can find all of the papers here
> <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications?collection=drupal-bartlett-publications&meta_UclOrgUnit=%22UCL+Institute+for+Innovation+and+Public+Purpose%22&>,
> but to give you a flavor of the research some papers specific to energy
> include:
>
>
>
> - Equinor and Ørsted
> <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2021/mar/equinor-and-orsted-how-industrial-policy-shaped-scandinavian-energy-giants>:
> How industrial policy shaped the Scandinavian energy giants
> - Governing finance to support the net-zero transition
> <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2022/jan/governing-finance-support-net-zero-transition-lessons-successful>:
> Lessons from successful industrialisations
> - How can South Africa advance a new energy paradigm?
> <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2022/mar/how-can-south-africa-advance-new-energy-paradigm-mission-oriented-approach>
> A mission-oriented approach to megaprojects
>
>
>
> I feel Germany is also highlighted as an example of how to do more
> regional / community-based energy projects, so it might be worth looking
> into the KfW, which has financed a lot of those projects. If you’re
> looking for consensus-building mechanisms agencies or groups doing
> strategic design or futures work have a lot of ideas about how to do that
> in the less data focused way. Some well-known examples are the Helsinki
> Design Lab, Finland’s Innovation Fund (Sitra), and the Greater Good Studio
> in Chicago. The institute also works with a number of organizations, which
> may be a place to identify individuals to connect with in the U.S. You can
> find the full list of organizations here
> <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/moin-participating-members>,
> but a few U.S. based ones include:
>
>
>
> - NYSERDA
> - Office of Investment and Innovation @ SBIR
> - New Energy Nexus
>
>
>
> A few other organizations I’ve come across which you might find helpful
> are:
>
>
>
> - RE-AMP <https://www.reamp.org/>, climate solution collaborative in
> the Midwest
> - Democracy Collaborative <https://democracycollaborative.org/>,
> focused on building more just systems
> - REScoop <https://www.rescoop.eu/>, European federation of energy
> cooperatives
>
>
>
> Whew, this is longer than I planned! I hope this helps.
>
> All the best,
>
>
>
> Lindsay
>
>
>
>
> *Date: *Monday, April 25, 2022 at 7:42 PM
> *Subject: *Fwd: Themaintainers Digest, Vol 74, Issue 9
>
> ⚠ Caution: External sender
>
> *From:* themaintainers-request at lists.stevens.edu
> *Date:* April 24, 2022 at 12:00:16 GMT+1
> *To:* themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
> *Subject:* *Themaintainers Digest, Vol 74, Issue 9*
> *Reply-To:* themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning for resilient
> decarbonization (Varun Adibhatla)
> 2. Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning for resilient
> decarbonization (Varun Adibhatla)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 11:26:40 -0400
> From: Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>
> To: themaintainers <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
> Subject: [Themaintainers] Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning
> for resilient decarbonization
> Message-ID:
> <CACQpXG6M7CBh-8Sn5p2G=rGiCy+=EnvRUhGFS60PuNWpTzb9tQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hello folks,
>
> It's been a while since I've posted here. I hope all are well.
> Happy belated Earth Day as well!
> I come here today to ask for guidance, feedback, and connections from
> yourselves or your networks.
>
> For the past year, I've been working on a grant funded research project on
> grid resilience.
> Our focus is to help communities (cities, utilities, regulators) make
> better capital planning decisions in service of fair & resilient
> decarbonization.
> Over the past year, we've swimmed through vast amounts of research and
> jargon that often involve utility hegemony, regulatory capture, and
> activism.
>
> Today, decarbonization policies at the generation and transmission side
> are making optimistic strides. We are on our way towards bringing online
> many thousands terawatts of renewable energy.
> However, the picture at the local / distribution level where most of
> the end use is concentrated is limited for the following reasons:
>
> *The risk of unequal outcomes*
> Distributed energy generation, community solar and microgrids are inspiring
> signals but hard to scale. We think they result in a form of decarbonized
> inequality that serves communities with capital, networks, and time to
> create their own decarbonized enclaves.
>
> *The risk of fragile outcomes*
> Building electrification plans are often blind to utility-level grid
> resiliency.
> A street that ends up having all electric end-uses
> (heating/cooling/cooking/transport) but served by wires on poles is an
> incredibly fragile state to be in.
>
> *They risk being unfair to low and middle income residents*
> An individualized approach to decarbonization also puts low & moderate
> income residents on the hook for paying for stranded assets (i.e.) the gas
> utility, who's trade associations have adopted adversarial stances
> <
> https://www.energyandpolicy.org/gas-utilities-greenwashing-to-expand-fossil-fuels-rng-hydrogen/aga-uses-millions-of-dollars-from-utility-customers-to-promote-a-fossil-fuel-agenda/
> >
> to citywide electrification while also engaging in rate hikes and
> disinformation campaigns that affect the energy-vulnerable.
>
> *The choices that Palo Alto, CA makes*
> I find it especially remarkable that even a city like Palo Alto, CA, a
> community on the backyard of the venerable Stanford University, that
> supposedly represents the vanguard of liberal values AND having the rare
> privilege of owning most of its horizontal infrastructure
> (roads, water/sewer, energy) has chosen to commit upto $30 Million to
> *maintain* its gas distribution network.
> Palo Alto could instead plan to be the first truly decarbonized city in
> America but their capital plans paint a different picture.
>
> This is why our focus is to improve the ecosystem around capital planning
> decisions
> towards ensuring that infrastructure capital is planned in a manner that
> distributes decarbonization benefits in a manner that is more equal,
> resilient, and fair.
>
> At the moment, we are focussed on municipal utilities by creating
> resources, tools, data, and consensus-building mechanisms that have not
> existed before.
>
> Our barriers are less technical and more political, economic, and cultural.
> We would love to talk to anyone who could help us with advice, get
> connected to experts, decision-makers, or funders.
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Varun
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> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 11:59:20 -0400
> From: Varun Adibhatla <varun.adibhatla at gmail.com>
> To: themaintainers <themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
> Subject: [Themaintainers] Rethinking Infrastructure capital planning
> for resilient decarbonization
> Message-ID:
> <CACQpXG43+jj+1ditm1z4+GcRXV-yoAFFK6-fANgH9koLtAZxsA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hello folks,
>
> It's been a while since I've posted here. I hope all are well.
> Happy belated Earth Day as well!
> I come here today to ask for guidance, feedback, and connections from
> yourselves or your networks.
>
> For the past year, I've been working on a grant funded research project on
> grid resilience.
> Our focus is to help communities (cities, utilities, regulators) make
> better capital planning decisions in service of fair & resilient
> decarbonization.
> Over the past year, we've swimmed through vast amounts of research and
> jargon that often involve utility hegemony, regulatory capture, and
> activism.
>
> Today, decarbonization policies at the generation and transmission side
> are making optimistic strides. We are on our way towards bringing online
> many thousands terawatts of renewable energy.
> However, the picture at the local / distribution level where most of
> the end use is concentrated is limited for the following reasons:
>
> *The risk of unequal outcomes*
> Distributed energy generation, community solar and microgrids are inspiring
> signals but hard to scale. We think they result in a form of decarbonized
> inequality that serves communities with capital, networks, and time to
> create their own decarbonized enclaves.
>
> *The risk of fragile outcomes*
> Building electrification plans are often blind to utility-level grid
> resiliency.
> A street that ends up having all electric end-uses
> (heating/cooling/cooking/transport) but served by wires on poles is an
> incredibly fragile state to be in.
>
> *They risk being unfair to low and middle income residents*
> An individualized approach to decarbonization also puts low & moderate
> income residents on the hook for paying for stranded assets (i.e.) the gas
> utility, who's trade associations have adopted adversarial stances
> <
> https://www.energyandpolicy.org/gas-utilities-greenwashing-to-expand-fossil-fuels-rng-hydrogen/aga-uses-millions-of-dollars-from-utility-customers-to-promote-a-fossil-fuel-agenda/
> >
> to
> citywide electrification while also engaging in rate hikes and
> disinformation campaigns that affect the energy-vulnerable.
>
> *The choices that Palo Alto, CA makes*
> I find it especially remarkable that even a city like Palo Alto, CA, a
> community on the backyard of the venerable Stanford University, that
> supposedly represents the vanguard of liberal values AND having the rare
> privilege of owning most of its horizontal infrastructure
> (roads, water/sewer, energy) has chosen to commit upto $30 Million to
> *maintain* its gas distribution network.
> Palo Alto could instead plan to be the first truly decarbonized city in
> America but their capital plans paint a different picture.
>
> This is why our focus is to improve the ecosystem around capital planning
> decisions
> towards ensuring that infrastructure capital is planned in a manner that
> distributes decarbonization benefits in a manner that is more equal,
> resilient, and fair.
>
> At the moment, we are focussed on municipal utilities by creating
> resources, tools, data, and consensus-building mechanisms that have not
> existed before.
>
> Our barriers are less technical and more political, economic, and cultural.
> We would love to talk to anyone who could help us with advice, get
> connected to experts, decision-makers, or funders.
>
> Thank you!
> --
> Varun Adibhatla
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--
Thanks,
Varun
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