Exploring how we generate cleaner power, from solar panels and wind turbines to geothermal, hydro, and next-generation nuclear.
Hydropower is a great source of energy that doesn’t suffer the same intermittency problems as other renewables. But dams fail. A lot. About 95% of the existing hydropower systems in the States were built before 1995, and over half operate using equipment designed over 80 years ago.1 This
In the summer of 2023, the Rijnstate hospital of Elst, The Netherlands opened its doors. What makes this particular campus interesting is how it generates its energy. Heat pumps, PV panels, and an electrolyzer all work in concert to maintain a constant supply of power. The building collects energy from
Imagine getting the energy needed to power our phones, light up our homes, or drive our cars, from thin air. And no, we’re not talking about Nikola Tesla’s dream of wireless power a century ago, but a new and accidentally electrifying discovery along those lines from the University
Wave Energy Converters have been making a lot of, um, waves in the energy sector lately thanks in part to China’s brand new, megawatt-scale, wave energy device. This device isn’t the first of its kind, but its sheer size represents a breakthrough for this underutilized but potent branch
Nuclear is reliable, works 24/7, and generates a lot of power, all for essentially zero carbon.1 That comes at a price, though. Nuclear plants are really expensive, legislatively challenging, difficult to scale, and have a hotly debated reputation. But what if there was a way to build smaller,
Fusion energy is basically just smashing things together to make energy. Grossly oversimplified? Yes, but still accurate. First Light Fusion in the UK has a unique approach to fusion energy that takes that “smashing things together” to another level. I had a chance to see their facility first hand and
“Woah …. Woah! This is massive!” -Matt “Welcome to the JET tokamak” -Fernanda Rimini Getting to see the JET tokamak fusion reactor in person was an eye-opening experience, but not in the way you might expect. What I got to see during my time at the Culham Science Center in the
With the recent news of China producing one of the largest wind turbines yet, with a rotor diameter of 260 meters (853 feet) and a rating of 18MW, it got me wondering why they’re so big. They’re almost defying imagination at this point. Bigger is always better in
My brother Sean and I talk about this video and your comments on the Still TBD podcast: 157: Solar Missteps? Living with Solar for 5 Years I’ve been living with solar panels for almost 5 years now here in Massachusetts, and I thought it was time to take a
The solar industry has a potentially fatal flaw: its reliance on silver. As a precious metal, silver is costly and difficult to come by, yet critical to pretty much every kind of solar panel.1 Worldwide solar capacity has officially crossed into terawatt territory and silver is putting that continued
We recently covered a bunch of novel approaches to bring nuclear fusion to the market sooner than you may think. One form of fusion research we didn’t touch on in depth was Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) using lasers… and shortly after publishing that video some major news broke about
Wind generates enough energy to produce about 35 times more electricity than the entire planet could even use each day.1 It's free, clean, and renewable, so why don't we see more wind turbines used on rooftops like solar panels? In a nutshell, it’s the
