[Episode #2] – Limits on the Grid – Part 1
What the modeling work of our national renewable energy lab tells us about how far renewables can go on the grid under various scenarios, and their real technical limits.The post [Episode #2] – Limits...
View Article[Episode #3] – Limits on the Grid – Part 2
How energy markets need to change to level the playing field for renewables, how renewables should be valued, and whether wind and solar must "eat their own lunch" by virtue of having a free marginal...
View Article[Episode #4] – Energiewende
All about Germany's famed energy transition effort, the Energiewende. What it is, what it isn't (with a strong dose of mythbusting), and what the future of grid power looks like from one of the...
View Article[Episode #95] – Powering the world with RE
Can we run the world on renewables alone? Various researchers have tried to model how a given country might run a grid using mostly renewables, oftentimes finding that carbon-negative technologies,...
View Article[Episode #96] – Sustainable Mobility
Energy transition is happening quickly and disruptively in the transportation sector. But it is generally an open question whether the transition currently at hand is producing socially beneficial...
View Article[Episode #97] – How State Policies Can Drive Decarbonization
As we continue looking for ways to decarbonize our energy systems, we often have to decide whether it’s better to try reworking our market rules so that the markets will do a better job of procuring...
View Article[Episode #98] – Why Building Transmission is So Hard
Building high voltage transmission lines has never been easy, but now it’s arguably both harder than ever, and more necessary than ever, as we seek to unlock the vast potential of wind and solar in the...
View Article[Episode #99] – Metals Supply in Energy Transition
Is the supply of certain key metals—like lithium, copper, nickel, and cobalt—and “rare earth” metals—like vanadium and indium—potentially a limiter on the progress of energy transition? Or is there...
View Article[Episode #100] – Teaching Energy Transition
For our 100th episode, we thought we’d do a little something special: Interview professors from four US universities who are using the Energy Transition Show as coursework, and make the full show...
View Article[Episode #101] – What We Don’t Know About Energy Transition
In this live conversation recorded at Stanford Energy Week in January 2019, Chris Nelder hosts a freewheeling chat with Jonathan Koomey about some of the things we think we know, and a lot of the...
View Article[Episode #102] – Transition as Wildfire Adaptation in California
California’s largest utility is bankrupt as a result of its liability for starting some of California’s largest and deadliest wildfires. Now the utility, its shareholders and investors, and the state...
View Article[Episode #103] – A Return to Regionalism
Is “peak oil” still something to be concerned about, and if so, what does depletion of conventional oil supply suggest about our future? Our guest in this episode certainly thinks peak oil will be a...
View Article[Episode #104] – 4-Year Anniversary Show
In this anniversary episode, we welcome back Jonathan Koomey to talk about some of the interesting developments and raucous debates we have seen over the past year. We’ll be talking about the flawed...
View Article[Episode #105] – Can Competition Decarbonize Electricity?
In this third part of a trilogy of shows about how to decarbonize grid power, former utility regulator Travis Kavulla offers his thoughts on how wholesale electricity markets can use competition to...
View Article[Episode #106] – Transition in South Africa
South Africa is one of the most coal-dependent countries in the world, with abundant (if low-grade) coal resources, a grid that is almost entirely powered by coal, an industrial base that is powered by...
View Article[Episode #107] – Macro-Energy Systems
Energy transition is a complex thing, involving technology, the economy, market structures, regulation, a changing climate, politics, and more. So why don’t we teach and study it that way, instead of...
View Article[Episode #108] – Will Energy Transition Be Rapid or Gradual?
Champions of energy transition see it happening relatively quickly, emphasizing the advances that are being made in technologies, policy, and projects. While fossil fuel incumbents see a long, gradual...
View Article[Episode #109] – Big Oil’s Climate Denial Machine
More than forty years ago, Exxon began researching the potential effects of carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion on the climate. As far back as 1982, honest scientists doing respectable...
View Article[Episode #110] – Death Toll for Petrol
Electric vehicles have many fairly well-known advantages over conventional, petroleum-fueled vehicles. But what most people are yet to realize is the massive energetic advantage an EV can have when...
View Article[Episode #111] – No Coal in our Christmas Stockings
New energy modeling on the U.S. states of Colorado and Minnesota offers some exciting and even startling insights: It can save everyone money to transition our power generation off of fossil fuels and...
View Article