What is Reinventing Fire?
Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era offers actionable solutions for four energy-intensive sectors of the economy: transportation, buildings, industry, and electricity.
Built on Rocky Mountain Institute’s 30 years of research and work in the field, Reinventing Fire maps pathways for running a 158%-bigger U.S. economy in 2050 but needing no oil, no coal, and no nuclear energy.
Read the Reinventing Fire Executive Summary
Digging up and burning the deposits of ancient sunlight stored eons ago in primeval swamps has transformed human existence and made industrial and urban civilization possible. However, those roughly four cubic miles of fossil fuels every year are no longer the only, best, or even cheapest way to sustain and expand the global economy—whether or not we count fossil fuels’ hidden costs. READ MORE »
INFOGRAPHIC: Blueprint to the new energy era
Business can become more competitive, profitable, and resilient by leading the transformation from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables. This transition will build a stronger economy, a more secure nation, and a healthier environment.
Click here to view the infographic.
Key Topic Areas
Transportation
In 2050, superefficient autos, trucks, and planes, far more productively used, would need three-fourths less fuel, no oil, and less lifecycle cost. Yet they could provide greatly enhanced personal mobility and freight services with uncompromised convenience, safety, and performance.
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Buildings
By aggressively adopting readily available efficiency techniques, by 2050 buildings can use 38 percent less energy than officially projected, despite 70 percent more floorspace. Integrative design offers an even smarter way to design or retrofit an entire building. Effective local and regional policies, such as smart building codes and utility regulations, can be major accelerators. And, reduced need for electricity decreases fossil fuel use, offering an easier and cheaper transition from coal to more resilient and benign sources of electricity.
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Industry
By 2050 U.S. industry’s 2050 energy consumption could be cut 9% below 2010 levels while industrial output grows 84%. By adopting emerging energy efficiency technologies, leveraging integrative design, widely reusing waste heat, and switching some uses to cheaper fuels, America’s industrial sector which employs almost 20 million people, could be reinvigorated--creating jobs and driving global competitiveness.
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Electricity
Strong forces are aligning to drive transformative change in the electricity sector, creating a “perfect storm” of opportunity to reinvent the electricity system. The system is aging, technological advances and innovative IT have opened up new choices, and global growth in renewables is driving cost reductions. RMI’s vision is a customer-centric electricity system that is efficient, renewable, and distributed.
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