When the Clean Energy Transition Institute (CETI) drew up its 2025 budget, approximately 40% of our overall $1 million in anticipated revenue was tied to federal funding. We had received half of that budgeted income at the mid-year mark, but the funding ceased in August, leaving CETI with a $170,000 shortfall. This unexpected development threatens our ability to sustain the momentum we’ve built and to deliver the independent, unbiased research our region relies on to understand how to equitably accelerate the clean energy transition in the Northwest.
In September, we appealed to our existing and lapsed donors to close our funding gap, and we are deeply grateful to all who answered our call for help. With this newsletter, I am broadening our request for support to all members of the CETI community.
CETI has never been stronger programmatically. Our work is in high demand, our team is thriving, and our impact across the Northwest is deeper than ever. As evidence of this fact, the Sustainable Path Foundation selected CETI for its Founders Award with a gift of $20,000 to recognize our leadership in the region.
A gift of any amount will help. You can donate online, or if you prefer to write a check, you can mail to 4616 25th Avenue NE, #416, Seattle, WA 98105.
On behalf of the CETI Board and Team, I thank you very much for considering this request to support our work at this critical time of need.
Eileen V. Quigley
Executive Director
This month, Research Fellow Sabine Blumenthal and Research Analyst Ruby Moore-Bloom demystify siting and permitting pathways for clean energy generation facilities in the Northwest. They dig into the varying federal, state, and local processes in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington and nuances in state-level processes and those that afford more local decision-making power.
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SCALE 2030The SCALE 2030 Clean Buildings Transition Roadmap (Roadmap) is underway, with the first meeting of the project's Advisory Group taking place on October 17. The SCALE 2030 team, including CETI staff and Poppy Storm of 2050 Institute, will work with this top-notch group of building experts to compile strategies and ideas spanning policy, regulation, market transformation efforts, industry-led initiatives, funding, and financing mechanisms that could be implemented to accelerate Washington’s clean buildings transition.
The Roadmap will be an actionable pathway for scaling clean buildings in the next five years. As part of the Roadmap process, the SCALE 2030 team aims to create an interactive online resource where building sector actors can easily access ideas on how to break barriers to transforming the clean buildings market.
CETI is wrapping up a project with University of Washington researchers that examines the potential benefits of community-scale solar development. The final product is a StoryMap that includes narrative text about the role that community-scale solar could play in Washington’s clean energy future along with interactive visualizations of demographic data such as energy burden and percentage of renters, as well as example community-scale solar projects in Washington. Stay tuned for the project release next month!
Ruby presented key themes from the project on a panel, Deconstructing Community Solar in WA for Broader Adoption, at the 2025 Washington State Solar Summit held on October 24. She joined individuals from the Washington State University Energy Program and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. You can find Ruby’s slide deck here.
The preliminary transmission results from WestTEC’s 10-year Horizon Report show modest additional transmission needs in the next decade beyond what is currently being developed or planned. The analysis includes upgrades for imports into the Pacific Northwest that provide increased connectivity to geographically diverse resources. Slides and a recording with more details are available from the most recent public webinar. The final 10-year Horizon Report is expected by the end of 2025.
Sabine updated the jobs visualizations on CETI’s Northwest Clean Energy Atlas to reflect updated energy employment data from the 2025 United States Energy & Employment Report (USEER). The energy employment report was published in August with 2024 data. Energy jobs are categorized into five sectors:
The visualizations show Northwest energy jobs in each of these sectors by county, subsector, and year in all four Northwest states.
Sabine also wrote a blog diving deeper into the USEER data and E2’s Clean Jobs America 2025 report, highlighting energy employment trends nationally and in the Northwest.
This month, Research Analyst Jeanne Currie wrote the next installment of CETI’s SCALE 2030 Clean Buildings Series, which explores Rapid Market Transformation (Rapid MT) as one of the five strategies proposed in SCALE 2030: Clean Buildings Transition Framework for Washington.
The SCALE 2030 framework involves increasing both the supply of and the demand for clean buildings technologies. On the supply side, Rapid MT identifies the technologies required to transition the building sector and the strategies needed to ensure that building owners and tenants in Washington can easily access key technologies at cost-competitive price points.
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