OVERCOMING ALL BARRIERS TO INDUSTRIAL ELECTRIFICATION

The report argues that direct electrification is the most efficient way to decarbonize industrial process heat, outperforming alternatives like green hydrogen, bioenergy, and carbon capture. It identifies three primary barriers: economics (high electricity costs relative to fossil fuels), grid readiness (slow interconnection and outdated planning), and technology maturity (lack of awareness and scale for high-temperature solutions). To overcome these, the authors recommend a combination of financial incentives (such as a Clean Heat Production Tax Credit), grid reforms (including surplus interconnection and real-time pricing), and foundational RD&D and workforce training.

• Direct electrification is more energy efficient than traditional combustion because it avoids energy losses associated with hot exhaust gases and water vapor formed during fuel burning.
• Direct electrification is generally superior to other decarbonization pathways; green hydrogen requires approximately twice as much clean electricity per unit of heat delivered, while bioenergy for three-quarters of U.S. industrial process heat would require 21 percent of total U.S. agricultural land.
• The primary economic barrier is the significant price gap between electricity and fossil fuels, as electricity is often several times more expensive per unit of energy than fossil fuels in many regions.
• Grid readiness is a major obstacle, with U.S. interconnection requests for new generation capacity totaling 2,600 GW—more than double the existing installed capacity—and wait times increasing by 70 percent over the last decade to nearly five years.
• Industries that burn their own byproducts, such as refining and pulp and paper, face unique challenges because they must replace both the heat and the electricity generated by these byproducts, which often account for a large share of on-site energy.
• A two-pronged approach combining electrification with energy and material efficiency could offset 40 percent of the projected increase in electricity demand from electrifying all eligible U.S. industrial processes.
• The report proposes a Clean Heat Production Tax Credit (PTC) to reward the production of heat without on-site GHG or pollutant emissions, ideally calculated as a function of the required temperature to account for varying technology efficiencies.
• To improve grid capacity, the report suggests 'surplus interconnection,' which could potentially add nearly 1,000 GW of new clean electricity resources to the U.S. grid by leveraging existing infrastructure that is not running 100 percent of the time.

APA

Baldwin, S., Desphande, S., Sawe, N., Rissman, J., & Solomon, M. (2025). OVERCOMING ALL BARRIERS TO INDUSTRIAL ELECTRIFICATION. Energy Innovation. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Overcoming-All-Barriers-to-Industrial-Electrification.pdf

Chicago

Baldwin, Sara, Sonali Desphande, Nik Sawe, Jeffrey Rissman, and Michelle Solomon. OVERCOMING ALL BARRIERS TO INDUSTRIAL ELECTRIFICATION. Energy Innovation, 2025. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Overcoming-All-Barriers-to-Industrial-Electrification.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Baldwin |first1=Sara |last2=Desphande |first2=Sonali |last3=Sawe |first3=Nik |last4=Rissman |first4=Jeffrey |last5=Solomon |first5=Michelle |title=OVERCOMING ALL BARRIERS TO INDUSTRIAL ELECTRIFICATION |publisher=Energy Innovation |date=June 2025 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Overcoming-All-Barriers-to-Industrial-Electrification.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{baldwin2025overcoming, author = {Baldwin, Sara and Desphande, Sonali and Sawe, Nik and Rissman, Jeffrey and Solomon, Michelle}, title = {{OVERCOMING ALL BARRIERS TO INDUSTRIAL ELECTRIFICATION}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/Overcoming-All-Barriers-to-Industrial-Electrification.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }