Accelerating the clean energy economy
Every part of the energy system is changing, from power plants to power outlets
A clean energy future is possible now
Watch our video to see how clean energy is empowering communities.
See how one family has reduced their utility bill to just $3 a month through the use of clean energy solutions.
The way we power our lives is undergoing a radical transformation.
In just five years, solar panel prices have fallen 80 percent, and solar capacity installed worldwide grew more than six fold. Wind is already cheaper than coal in some places, and it is predicted to become cheaper than natural gas in less than a decade.
Our century-old power sector isn’t just growing, it’s shifting shape.
In 2014, the U.S. clean energy market grew 14 percent – nearly five times that of the overall economy – to nearly $200 billion. That’s bigger than the U.S. airline industry, and roughly equal to the pharmaceutical business.
This is less about miracle technologies, and more about how we use what we have already.
In fact, it is projected that by mid-century, with a more flexible and dynamic grid, we can meet 80 percent of the nation’s electricity needs using clean energy technologies that exist right now. That means 80 percent less carbon pollution, and 50 percent less water used to cool those power plants.
These changes create an incredible economic and environmental opportunity.
Our clean energy strategy
At EDF, our role is to make the energy revolution happen faster. We’re working to rewrite outdated regulations, spur energy services markets, and modernize our century-old electric grid.
We need to change the electric grid from a narrow, one-way street to a two-way highway, so that it performs more like the Internet – managing vast amounts of energy and information in ways that deliver more and cost less. We want to make it easier to choose clean energy, save money, and even make money in the energy marketplace.
To jumpstart this transformation, EDF has developed our strategy around the following principles, focusing on nine states that make up about half of the U.S. electricity market:
- Compensate utilities for providing customers with clean energy choices
- Make the electric grid more resilient and less wasteful
- Reward customers and companies for the full value of the clean energy they produce
- Unleash private capital through innovative financial approaches that spur clean energy investments
Media contact
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Mica Crouse Contact
Download the fact sheet
Learn how the EDF Clean Energy team is helping to transform the U.S. electricity system.
The impact and the opportunity
- 65% of global warming causing pollution is from energy generation and use1
- $150 billion lost yearly to U.S. power outages and blackouts 2
- 89% drop in the cost of solar panels since 2009 3
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Sources
- EDF calculations based on World Resources Institute Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (subscription required); includes emissions from land-use change and forestry.
- Data from U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual 2009 - State Data Tables (2011)
- "U.S. Power Sector Emissions Poised to fall to two-decade low in Transformative Year," Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). April, 2015.