Amy Harder, a veteran journalist, now runs a new site out of Breakthrough Energy called Cipher. She looks at the transition's hard questions, hard slogs, and compelling stories in a casual Zoom with undergraduates.
The economics in converting buildings to electricity look logical - over the long run, for pension fund investors. For a building owner with cash flow to manage, it's trickier. This explainer runs through the costs and trajectory for turning building systems to potentially clean sources.
(Photo by overWHAMmed, from Flickr Creative Commons). This transmission line in Pelzer, SC, testifies to the market potential for investment in new high-voltage lines.
The main line is the main event. Transmission of clean electricity, combined with storage, means that every state and nearly every community can effectively live on fossil-free power. Financing and permitting involve economic, political, and engineering knots. This explainer takes in the breakthrough ideas and baseline for speedier deployment.
Activists in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood have explored whether Clean Peak Standards can address air quality and energy inequity. (Photo by Victoria Belanger via Flickr Creative Commons.)
One state has tried requiring power at peak demand periods to come from clean sources. This mandate can improve air quality in low-income communities. Critics question its effect on emissions, though, and its optimal design as clean-energy storage for utilities evolves.
This steel factory in Michigan, captured at sunset, reflects one industry where hydrogen may promise a sort of new dawn. (Photo by Billy Wilson via Flickr Creative Commons.)
Not every analysis concludes that the scale-up costs of hydrogen make it more bankable than wind, solar and hydropower. But since hydrogen production requires less land, and since it can reach hard-to-decarbonize sectors, many investors are giving it a long look. Now you can too.
