Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,”

The author contends that European electric utilities' financial losses result from failed investment strategies and a failure to adapt to disruptive renewable technologies rather than the technologies themselves. The letter highlights the macroeconomic benefits of renewables in Germany, the technical feasibility of high renewable penetration in Denmark, Spain, and Portugal, and the global trend of non-hydro renewables outproducing nuclear power. It suggests that utilities need new revenue models, such as bidirectional value tariffs, to survive the transition to a decarbonised, distributed energy system.

• European electric utilities failed to prepare for the rise of renewables despite receiving hundreds of billions of Euros in windfall from tradeable carbon emission credits provided for free during the first decade.
• Renewables have provided significant macroeconomic benefits to Germany, including the creation of over 382,000 new jobs and a nearly 60% drop in wholesale electricity prices, though the latter initially benefited industries more than households due to exemptions from grid fees and surcharges.
• High levels of renewable electricity penetration are technically manageable, as evidenced by Denmark (averaging 41% in the previous year), Spain (48%), and Portugal (70% in the first half of 2013), with EU and US simulations suggesting 80–90% feasibility often without bulk storage.
• Globally, non-hydro renewables in China, India, Japan, and Germany now produce more power than nuclear energy; 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, as seen in the US where weather-adjusted electricity use per dollar of GDP fell 3.4% in 2012; the author suggests a bidirectional value tariff, like 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 Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,”.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 Unpublished letter to Economist responding to 12 Oct 2013 cover story “How to lose €500 billion,”. 2013.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} }