Global, United States, India

Powering the Shift to Clean Energy at Every Scale

The clean energy transition sits at the heart of WRI’s mission, but it is not simply a matter of building more solar panels and wind farms. It is an historical shift in how economies run and how people live — how electricity is generated and transmitted, how industries produce goods, how cities power buildings and transportation, and how communities access reliable energy every day.

In 2025, World Resources Institute launched the WRI Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition to help make that shift real. Its focus is pragmatic and scalable: overcoming the barriers that slow clean energy deployment so clean, abundant, affordable and reliable energy can reach more people faster — from neighborhoods and public services to national grids and global supply chains.

The WRI Polsky Energy Center brings together WRI’s established expertise with a world-class Advisory Group and a diverse network of partners across sectors and regions. Just as important is how it is funded. Tanya and Michael Polsky’s $75 million gift is flexible, meaning is it not tied to a single project or geography, though our initial activ- ities are focused on the U.S. and India. That flexibility lets WRI respond when policy windows open, and invest early in ideas that can grow into large-scale solutions.

The WRI Polsky Energy Center focuses on solving six critical challenges that impede progress in achieving clean, abundant, affordable and reliable energy systems:

• Transmission & distribution infrastructure: Expanding and modernizing electric grids to deliver reliable, efficient energy.
• Finance: Connecting investors, energy developers and governments with innovative financing instruments to accelerate clean energy installations.
• Critical minerals: Promoting the responsible sourcing of key materials like copper, nickel, lithium and cobalt, essential for a sustainable energy future.
• Large buyer demand: Supporting industries, cities and technology leaders in choosing cost-effective, sustainable energy to meet growing needs.
• Siting: Addressing barriers to siting clean energy projects and advancing equitable solutions.
• Entrepreneurs and workforce: Preparing the workforce for the energy transition by fostering skills development, supporting entrepreneurial innovation, and creating opportunities for individuals to drive sustainable business models and solutions across the energy sector.

Global Ambitions, Local Impact in the United States and India

While the WRI Polsky Energy Center’s ambitions are global, its impact is also local — in tangible improvements that people can see and feel. In the United States, its expertise and support helped to secure two major deals for clean, renewable energy in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. These both involved public sector entities such as school districts and healthcare systems coming together and aggregating their demand, allowing them to purchase 430MW of new renewable energy.

Also in the U.S., the WRI Polsky Energy Center helped cities translate federal policy into local impact. WRI’s hands-on technical assistance has helped cities claim 14 million dollars in federal incentives while advancing 873 clean energy projects. That funding is now paying for community improvements such as electric vehicle chargers in low-income neighborhoods.

In India, the WRI Polsky Energy Center is tackling the challenge of securing reliable energy supplies for frontline services. In Kerala, it analyzed the clean energy potential of health- care buildings, leading to the installation of solar energy at 300 facilities. More than 40 rural hospitals were provided with solar generation and storage equipment, saving money, improv- ing reliability, and improving healthcare services for more than 700,000 patients. One local council to benefit from WRI assistance was the area of Aryad Grama Panchayat, which was able to earn an income from excess electricity generated by the solar panels that it installed in its community hall, health centers and schools.

Modern life depends on energy, whether it is in communities in Kerala, cities in the U.S., or giant transnational grid infrastructure that utilizes cutting-edge technologies. The WRI Polsky Energy Center is built for that full spectrum — driving solutions that are practical at a local level and scalable enough to drive the clean energy transition.

Global Methane Hub

As an extremely potent greenhouse gas, rapidly reducing methane emissions is essential for averting the worst consequences of climate change. Since 2022, WRI has partnered with the Global Methane Hub to catalyze rapid systemic decreases in methane emissions in the energy, agriculture, and waste sectors. The Global Methane Hub funds WRI’s work analyzing methane emissions from food loss and waste in India and China, so that local actors develop pathways for effective methane reduction.

In Indonesia, we are creating tools to monitor, report, and verify methane emissions from landfills, in coordination with the government, based on their climate commitments. Meanwhile, WRI and the Global Pasture Watch consortium are developing remote-sensing based, near- real-time grassland biomass estimates across Africa and South America. This enables better management of grazing livestock, driving methane reductions.