For SmartPlanet this week, I speculated that it’s going to be as hard to find a climate change denier in the wreckage of Hurricane Sandy as it is to find an atheist in a foxhole. I expect a significant uptick in rooftop solar, battery backup, and fuel cell installations in the wake of this disaster, along with renewed interest in disaster response gear and microgrids. Read it here: Resilience lessons from Hurricane Sandy
(more…)

I have a new piece published in Scientific American today about the resurgence in freight rail and its potential to permanently cut U.S. oil consumption by moving traffic away from long-haul trucking. I am very bullish on the sector and hope to publish more articles on the subject as soon as I can place them. Read it here: Rising Energy Costs May Usher in U.S. Freight Rail Revival

For SmartPlanet this week, I updated the story on U.S. shale gas production and prices, and the increasingly dubious prospect of LNG exports at a large scale. Read it here: The murky future of U.S. shale gas
(more…)

For SmartPlanet this week, I took a fresh look at how large percentages of renewable power are affecting  Europe’s grids, and reviewed some new academic research on grid management strategies. Most of the typical objections to using more renewable power on the grid are simply wrong.  Read it here: Designing the grid for renewables
(more…)