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This Impact Area explores how the transition from fossil fuels to clean and modern energy sources impacts countries and communities around the world.

In the 18th century, when fossil fuels began to be employed, the energy revolution proceeded rapidly but unevenly. Industrial development often came at significant environmental and social cost, with benefits concentrated in certain regions while other populations were left behind. Today, access to energy is considered one of the key global indicators for prosperity and progress. Yet globally, a billion people still live without electricity.

As we move to a modern energy economy, we have the opportunity to take a different approach, one informed by past experience and enabled by new technologies. We can expand energy access more broadly, deploy systems that work with, rather than against, local environments, and create economic opportunities in communities that need them most.

By drawing on diverse perspectives and prioritizing thoughtful implementation, this energy transition can deliver substantial societal benefits. A modern, affordable, and clean energy economy can drive job creation in manufacturing and installation, improve public health through reduced air pollution, enhance energy security and independence, lower energy costs for households and businesses, and contribute to overall quality of life improvements.

Done right, the transition to a modern and resilient energy economy has the potential to benefit populations across the globe—from rural areas gaining first-time access to electricity, to industrial regions building new advanced manufacturing sectors, to communities reducing their energy costs while improving local air quality.

Here are just some of the ways in which several of the Technology Domains are making advances in this Impact Area:

Buildings

• Evaluating occupant centered design in the development of new building materials, features, and control systems.

Circular Economy

• Analysis and support for incorporating repair and end-of-life considerations into product design, so products can last longer and are easier to dispose of.
• Development of models that aim to identify the best ways to encourage adoption of more sustainable consumption modes.

Energy Justice

• Analyses of the impacts of technologies on a wide range of communities.
• Developing frameworks that enable the integration of energy justice into early stages of the research process.

Energy Policy

• Building resources that inform policy makers of the impacts of new technologies and ensure that decision makers have the information needed to understand the impacts.

Social, Institutional, and Behavioral Analysis

• Exploring different perspectives and aspects of the energy transition and how these will impact a broad cross-section of communities.

Theory, Computational Modeling, and Simulation

Using computational modeling and analysis to simulate and extrapolate societal trends for adoption of new technologies.