Follow this new series that will feature GPI staff picks throughout the year (click here for our fall 2017 picks). From podcasts to the latest analysis, you can check out what we’re interested in right now.
Article Series | “The Race to Zero Emissions,” by Akshat Rathi, Quartz
Journalist Akshat Rathi dives deep with a “series of articles exploring carbon-capture technologies from China to California, showcasing an important but poorly understood part of the world’s race to zero emissions.” The series is based on visits to carbon capture facilities and interviews with over 100 experts, from entrepreneurs to government officials, from around the world. Rathi takes the reader on this journey to learn about carbon capture’s potential to realize a zero-emission energy future, including how some entrepreneurs are turning carbon into an asset. His own conclusion after a year of reporting? Carbon capture is “both vital and viable.”
– Anna Dirkswager, Program Manager
Video | Ted Talk: “What a Driverless World Could Look Like,” by Wanis Kabbaj, UPS
As someone who loves both metaphors and electric vehicles, I find myself thinking about this short Ted Talk quite a bit. I often try to explain the crux of this video to friends, and almost always end up just pulling up the video on my phone, or saying “just. . . Google it.” The speaker draws on our own arterial systems as a model for a more efficient future of transportation, and while he never explicitly mentions electric vehicles, that’s certainly how I like to imagine the future he illustrates.
– Will Dunder, Communications and Data Systems Strategist
Podcast | “Demand Flexibility,” The Energy Transition Show, hosted by Chris Nelder with guest Sara Bell from Tempus Energy
We know the static electricity prices that show up on our monthly utility bills are inefficient when the real-time cost of production is higher or lower than average. This podcast discusses solutions to this problem through the application of new technologies like machine learning and the internet of things to improve demand flexibility. Hearing their examples informs how we could evolve electricity markets to foster innovation. For example, many smart electricity appliances aggregated together could provide value to markets. This is happening in wholesale markets in the northeastern United States and in California, but current market rules make it difficult or impossible in the Midcontinent market and most other regions of the country.
– Steve Dahlke, Associate
Blog | National Renewable Energy Laboratory Solar STAT Blog
Solar energy is rapidly becoming a significant and critical component of the U.S. energy portfolio. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office works specifically with state, local, and tribal governments to enhance adoption of technologies, policies, and improved planning methods that accelerate the deployment of solar energy. NREL provides technical assistance and provides credible data and information to inform energy and solar development market decisions. In this blog, NREL’s Solar Technical Assistance Team (STAT) provides a series of summaries of the Lab’s work related to innovations in solar deployment. The work ranges from use of “smart invertors” to enable high levels of distributed solar generation, to how the Lab provides direct technical assistance to local governments transforming local solar energy markets and to better incorporate energy into local plans, regulations, and policies.
– Brian Ross, Senior Program Director
Article | 10 Trends Shaping the Power Sector in 2018, by Gavin Bade, Utility Dive
Utility Dive senior reporter Gavin Bade takes a detailed look at what trends might impact the power sector in the coming year. From why “resilience” is the early buzzword of the new year, to potential regulatory and policy changes at the state and federal level, Bade provides broad context (and helpful links if you want to dig deeper) on what to look for in 2018. The article also includes interesting results from various Utility Dive surveys conducted in the past year, which asked questions such as: “How should the U.S. federal government approach decarbonization policy?” Bade shares major developments in the past year for various technologies, such as energy storage, coupled with useful data points that may hint at what to expect in the months ahead.
– Jennifer Christensen, Managing Editor and Senior Writer
