Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,”

An unpublished letter from RMI to The Economist argues that European electric utilities' financial losses are the result of failed investment strategies and a failure to adapt to disruptive renewable technologies, rather than the fault of renewables themselves. The author contends that renewables provide significant macroeconomic benefits and that grid stability is manageable at high penetration levels, as demonstrated in several European countries.

• The financial struggles of European electric utilities are attributed to their failure to reinvest windfall profits from free tradeable carbon emission credits into renewable energy preparation, rather than the disruptive technologies themselves.
• Renewables have provided macroeconomic benefits to Germany, including the creation of over 382,000 new jobs, tax revenues, and a nearly 60% drop in wholesale electricity prices, which benefited industries.
• High levels of renewable energy integration are technically manageable, with Denmark averaging 41% the previous year, and Spain (48%) and Portugal (70%) achieving these levels in the first half of 2013. EU and US simulations suggest 80–90% feasibility, often without requiring bulk storage.
• Global trends show nonhydro renewables now outproduce nuclear power in Germany, Japan, India, and China. In China, nonhydro renewables added more generation last year than fossil and nuclear sources combined. Globally, in 2011 and 2012, these technologies attracted a quarter-trillion dollars in investment and added over 80 billion watts of capacity.
• Energy efficiency is reducing utility revenues, with US weather-adjusted electricity use per dollar of GDP falling 3.4% in 2012. The author suggests a bidirectional value tariff, similar to one planned by the Fort Collins, Colorado municipal utility, as a potential solution.

APA

RMI (2013). Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,”. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2014-17_UnpublishedEconomistLetter.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,”. 2013. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2014-17_UnpublishedEconomistLetter.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=RMI |title=Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,” |date=16 October 2013 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2014-17_UnpublishedEconomistLetter.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{rmi2013unpublished, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,”}}, publisher = {RMI}, year = {2013}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_2014-17_UnpublishedEconomistLetter.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }