Our Impact
Cross-Sectoral Initiatives
Tackling climate challenges that don’t fit in one box
Policy solutions to some of the most urgent climate challenges don’t fit neatly into a single sector. Crafting the best policies to promote the rapid adoption—and best uses—of specific clean technologies often requires expertise that spans electricity, buildings, appliances, industry, and transportation systems.
That’s where the Crux Alliance comes in. As a network of world-renowned policy centers, each with deep expertise in a specific sector, Crux is uniquely positioned to bring the right minds together—and to help them work in lockstep. The Alliance enables our members to combine forces, generating impact greater than the sum of what any single organization could do alone.
The Crux Alliance’s cross-sectoral initiatives are focused, multi-partner projects that bring Alliance members together to tackle complex energy transition challenges with the right mix of multidisciplinary expertise, policy know-how, and strategic execution. Together, our Alliance develops and delivers integrated policy solutions that work—across sectors, across geographies, and across the systems that shape our future.
Expore the Sectors:
Heat Pump Initiative
Heat pumps are the most powerful tool we have to decarbonize heating
These ultra-efficient electric systems transfer heat from the air, ground, or water to warm (or cool) homes, buildings, and even industrial facilities—all while dramatically reducing reliance on fossil fuels. But scaling heat pumps isn’t just a matter of swapping out equipment—it requires smart, cross-sectoral policy design that bridges the worlds of building codes, product standards, electricity pricing, and more.
Crux’s Alliance members have been partnering since 2021 to transform global heat pump policy—with major impact. Together, the Alliance members worked together to create the definitive guide to effective, holistic heat pump policy. They’ve leveraged their combined expertise to shape groundbreaking policies in the U.S., the EU, the U.K., and China, to educate the public on the many benefits of heat pumps, to counter misconceptions about costs and technological readiness, and to launch the Clean Heat Forum, a global network of governments committed to accelerating the transition to clean and efficient heating in buildings worldwide.
Featured reports
“RAP’s Heat Pump Policy Toolkit provided a comprehensive overview of key policy elements to support an accelerated heat pump roll-out. Its structure served as the basis for defining the overview of policy measures in one of our reports under the Support Action for Heat Pumps, a European Commission initiative that is executed by a consortium including Vito, Fraunhofer and the European Heat Pump Association.”
D. Person
Testimonial
Success Story
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Hydrogen Initiative
Hydrogen is a key climate tool, provided it’s held to high standards and its use is focused on specific sectors where it is truly needed
While hydrogen was once hyped as a climate cure-all, it’s now clear that its real value lies in a narrow set of high-impact sectors, such as serving as an input to manufacture green steel or certain chemicals, or to produce sustainable fuels to power long-haul shipping and aviation. Ensuring that the production of truly low-emissions hydrogen matches the demand in this narrow set of industries requires smart, cross-cutting policy—spanning electricity systems, industrial strategy, fuel standards, and international trade frameworks.
Crux launched its hydrogen program in 2022 to bring clarity, credibility, and coordination to one of the most complex climate topics on the table. The initiative is working in the EU, China, India, and beyond to steer investment away from fossil-based hydrogen and toward high-impact clean applications.
Featured reports
Testimonial
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A. Person
Success Story
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Grids Initiative
Grids are the backbone of the clean energy transition
They enable widespread electrification powered by renewables to deliver a fully clean energy economy. However, grid modernization is lagging behind the clean energy transition, slowed by high costs, lengthy permitting processes, deferred investments, and outdated planning. Building vast amounts of new grid infrastructure and scaling emerging grid technologies will require smart, cross-sectoral policy reforms that span planning, permitting, finance, supply chains, grid operations, and power system regulation.
The Crux Alliance is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge. This initiative is currently developing an integrated toolkit for grid modernization, with plans to deploy it internationally through Crux Alliance networks and in partnership with the Global Grid Catalyst. The goal is to help countries overcome the policy and institutional barriers that prevent grids from keeping pace with the energy transition— ensuring that emissions reductions proceed at the speed and scale the climate crisis demands.
Testimonial
“dolore te utinam nullam reprobo nullus. tum luptatum mauris volutpat nisi neo. duis consequat abluo abbas wisi pretium neque. ante abdo orem dapibus nullus. tum luptatum mauris volutpat nisi neo. duis consequat abluo abbassecundum. nullus. tum luptatum mauris volutpat nisi neo. duis consequat abluo abbas”
A. Person
Success Story
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Two futures for the grid
As an alliance of sector-specific organizations, Crux is uniquely positioned to tackle grid modernization holistically, so renewables and electrified demand can scale together in a grid that stays efficient, affordable, and reliable.
Explore this infographic to see what a holistic approach makes possible, and the risks of tackling these challenges in silos.
Wind and solar connected on schedule because the grid was planned and ready for them. The batteries alongside bank midday sunshine and release it at dinnertime, so clean power is there when families actually use it.
Policy: Plan new wind, solar, batteries, and the power lines they need as one package, with firm deadlines for plugging them in.
Clean power highways, built ahead of need, carry wind and solar from where it's made to where it's used. And modern monitoring lets every line carry as much as it safely can, instead of what old rulebooks guessed.
Policy: Plan long-distance lines around where clean power and demand will be in ten years, not where they were yesterday. Before building new wires, try the cheaper fixes first: the room hiding in existing lines, and customers paid to shift their use.
These buildings know what the grid needs hour by hour, shifting heating, cooling, and hot water to when clean power is plentiful. Nobody inside notices, and the owners cut their bills and get paid for helping.
Policy: Write building codes and grid rules together, so new buildings arrive ready to work with the grid. Pay building owners for shifting their power use when the grid needs it.
This factory and its grid planners worked from the same map: sited near clean power, connected on time, running heavy equipment when electricity is cheapest. Going electric beat gas on price, and the jobs stayed local.
Policy: Plan grid upgrades and industrial zones together, on one map. Set rates that reward factories for running when clean power is abundant.
These electric trucks charge where they park. A full depot draws as much power as a small town, and the grid was ready for it, because the depot and its connection were planned before the trucks were ordered. Deliveries run on cheap overnight power, and every route gets quieter and cleaner.
Policy: Plan truck depots and grid connections as one project, with utilities held to deadlines that match when the trucks arrive. Publish maps of where the grid has room, so charging gets built where the capacity is.
Every project in this picture connected on time, and every one is a payroll: line crews, charger installers, heat pump fitters. When electricity is the cheap choice, families and businesses keep going electric, so the work keeps coming, and it stays right here in town.
The city's buses charge overnight at the depot, when power is cheapest and the grid has room to spare. Quieter streets, cleaner air along every route, lower fuel costs for the city budget.
Policy: Plan bus depots and grid connections as one project. Let depots plug in sooner by agreeing to ease off in the grid's few busiest hours, instead of waiting years for a full-size connection.
Across town, the savings add up: cheaper charging, lower heating bills, building owners paid for shifting their power use. And because the plan reached every neighborhood, not just the prosperous ones, the money shows up in ordinary budgets everywhere.
Solar on the roof, a battery in the garage, a car and heat pump that soak up the roof's midday power. Each piece makes the others worth more: the sunshine gets used instead of wasted, the house runs itself, and the bill beats gas every month.
Policy: Make sure new water heaters and air conditioners can shift when they run. Design electricity rates that reward off-peak use and protect low-income households.
He didn't become an energy expert, and he never has to. He set it up once, his way: the car ready by seven, the house warm by six. Everything else happens quietly in the background, and the only surprise on his bill is how small it is.
New wind farms wait years to plug in because nobody planned the lines they would need. The grid can't take their power, so it gets thrown away while the coal plant keeps running and communities keep breathing the smoke.
A good policy, missing its partner: Auctions fund new wind and solar farms, but no one planned the power lines to connect them.
Utilities find out about new demand one connection request at a time, so they build for the biggest peak imaginable. Customers pay for oversized lines in some neighborhoods while others wait for capacity that went to the wrong place.
A good policy, missing its partner: Utilities upgrade the grid wherever they're asked, but no one showed them the cars, heaters, and factories about to plug in.
Chargers get installed wherever, vehicles charge whenever, and the grid learns about both after the fact, usually at the evening peak. Costs climb with every new vehicle, and charging loses its price edge over gasoline.
A good policy, missing its partner: Rebates help families buy electric cars, but no one planned when and where they'd charge.
Every home upgrades on its own, and the neighborhood grid is the last to know. Equipment overloads, rates rise until a heat pump no longer saves money over gas, and most families keep the old furnace.
A good policy, missing its partner: Rebates help families buy heat pumps, but no one lifted the taxes and fees that make electricity dearer than gas.
Every building electrifies on its own schedule, blind to the grid and to each other, all drawing maximum power at the same hours. The spikes force upgrades that raise rates, until the gas boiler looks like the sensible business decision.
A good policy, missing its partner: New buildings are required to go electric, but no one asked them to work with the grid.
The first the utility hears of this factory's plan to electrify is the connection request, so the factory waits years. Meanwhile the old boiler wears out, and with electricity too expensive to compete with gas, the factory buys a new gas one, locking in another twenty years of smoke for the neighbors.
A good policy, missing its partner: Grants help factories buy electric equipment, but no one fixed the years-long wait to connect it.
This delivery fleet ordered electric trucks, but nobody told the utility until the trucks were bought. Now they sit parked, waiting years for a grid connection, while every other fleet in town runs the math, sees expensive power and a long wait, and sticks with diesel.
A good policy, missing its partner: Clean-truck rules put electric trucks in the order books, but no one set a deadline for utilities to plug them in.