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Renewable Energy

Postcards from an energy-inclusive future

July 10, 2017

Getting to 100 percent renewable energy in Hawaii by 20245 means granting energy access to "everyone, everywhere," said Holmes Hummel, director of Clean Energy Works and former senior policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Policy and International Affairs. 

"It gives me hope that 30 years after 2045, we may be able to celebrate an energy sector that is fossil-free worldwide," she said. To do that, the International Energy Agency said that $1 trillion of energy investment capital must be deployed every year for over the next decade. 

However, U.S. financing mechanisms were disqualifying the very citizens who most need sustainable, low-cost energy access. 

Hummel recollected her father's words:  "If a job is taking too long, you're using the wrong tool. Look for a different tool."

That advice led her on a quest across the country to create inclusive financing to help scale clean energy investments in distributed energy solutions from better buildings to clean transit.