What a Decision-making Process for Achieving 100% Renewable Energy Might Look Like

An earlier article in this series – Asking the Right Questions to Swiftly Achieve 100% Renewable Energy –showed what four right questions might look like for swiftly achieving 100% renewable energy.

A preceding article in this series – What Achieving 100% Renewable Energy Might Look Like – showed that the third of those right questions – “What might a decision-making process for achieving 100% renewable energy look like?” — might be re-stated as:

“What might a decision-making process for adopting a renewable energy option look like?”

If a decision to adopt a renewable energy option looks like decision-makers making a consensus decision that they want to adopt the renewable energy option because they persuade themselves that the option delivers greatest benefits for energy service users (as laid out in Chapter 13 of You Can Reverse Global Warming), then a decision-making process for making such a decision might look like this:

First, decision-makers identify energy options available for adoption

Second, decision-makers evaluate benefits of those energy options

Third, decision-makers compare benefits of those energy options, and

Fourth, decision-makers persuade themselves (and are in consensus) what energy option they want to adopt to deliver greatest benefits for energy service users and achieve 100% renewable energy.

Hawaii Story: Decision-makers at Hawaii’s principal electric utility, Hawaiian Electric, are developing an Integrated Grid Planning (IGP) process that includes the following key aspects:

• identifying distributed energy resource (DER) solutions (including combinations of DER solutions) to address identified distribution needs (e.g., circuit hosting capacity violations)
• evaluating technical performance benefits, economic benefits, greenhouse gas emissions reduction benefits and 100% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) contribution benefits of identified DER solutions
• comparing such benefits of identified DER solutions on an apples-to-apples basis, and
• procuring DER solutions that deliver optimized benefits for electric power customers.

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When decision-makers ask themselves a third right question – “What might a decision-making process for achieving 100% renewable energy look like?” – they engage themselves in thinking about the pre-existing answer revealed by that right question.

Decision-makers persuade themselves of the pre-existing answer by thinking about that pre-existing answer – which might look like:

(1) decision-makers identifying energy options available for adoption

(2) decision-makers evaluating benefits of those energy options

(3) decision-makers comparing benefits of those energy options, and

(4) decision-makers persuading themselves (and in consensus) on what energy option they want to adopt to deliver greatest benefits for energy service users and achieve 100% renewable energy,

By asking themselves that right question, decision-makers persuade themselves and come into consensus on that pre-existing answer, and they think it was their own idea.

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In summary:

If a decision-making process for adopting a renewable energy option looks like decision-makers:

(1)       identifying energy options available for adoption,

(2)       evaluating benefits of those energy options,

(3)       comparing benefits of those energy options, and

(4)       persuading themselves what energy option they want to adopt to deliver greatest benefits for energy service users and achieve 100% renewable energy,

then decision-makers might consider asking themselves the following questions:

First, what might identifying energy options available for adoption look like?

Second, what might evaluating benefits of those energy options look like?

Third, what might comparing benefits of those energy options look like?

Fourth, what might decision-makers persuading themselves what energy option they want to adopt to deliver greatest benefits for energy service users and achieve 100% renewable energy look like?

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Wondering what identifying energy options available for adoption might look like?

My new book, You Can Reverse Global Warming, is the first-ever book to identify, order and simplify the categories of energy options available to decision-makers.

For a limited time, you can download a complimentary advance copy of You Can Reverse Global Warming at www.erikkvam.com.

Got questions about how you can swiftly achieve 100% renewable energy?  About how you can reverse global warming?  If you do, I hope that you will send me a message at extraordinary@erikkvam.com.

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In the next article in this Reversing Global Warming series, I’ll show you what identifying energy options available for adoption might look like.

Thank you for reading this article.  I’m grateful for your comments.