Ireland’s Grid Flexibility Assessment Shows Why Location Matters
Ireland’s Naas substation shows why flexible batteries and loads must match the location, timing and operating conditions of grid constraints.
Author: Michael Barnard
China Steps Back From Promoting Second-Life EV Batteries
China spent much of the 2010s electrifying urban bus fleets while most countries were still testing whether battery-electric buses could replace diesel. By the end of 2025, it had 551,400 new-energy urban buses, representing 87.5% of the fleet. That early success has brought China to a stage other countries will … [continued]
Future Cleantech Architects Has a Shipping Factsheet Worth Reading
Shipping decarbonization presents policymakers with a bewildering range of choices. Batteries, biofuels, methanol, ammonia, hydrogen, wind assistance, shore power, nuclear propulsion and onboard carbon capture all compete for attention, despite serving very different vessel types and operating requirements. Future Cleantech Architects (FCA), a German nonprofit think tank that evaluates climate … [continued]
Germany’s 300-Meter Wind Tower Faces a 199-Meter Competitor
Germany’s GICON has completed one of the more remarkable wind-turbine construction projects in recent years. Its Schipkau prototype reached a hub height of 300 meters in September, putting the upper blade tip at a reported 365 meters. The lattice structure and telescoping inner tower allow the turbine assembly to be … [continued]
Some DOE cuts hit technologies that deserved scrutiny. The wider retreat undermines capabilities needed for an actual energy transition.
Trump’s DOE Budget Request Cuts Weak Bets And Useful Energy Research Together
Some DOE programs deserve to end. The problem is a budget request that cuts weak hydrogen bets while stripping support from technologies already delivering electrification.
The Flexibility Mesh starts with the system need, then asks which resources can contribute at that place, time and duration.
What Can Grid Flexibility Actually Do Here?
Grid flexibility is not one resource or one number. A new open TFIE Strategy report maps how batteries, demand, networks, interconnection and other resources change value with location, duration and operating conditions.
Britain’s Buses Became More “Productive” While Running Less Service
England outside London carried about 1.85 billion local-bus passenger journeys in 2024/25, compared with roughly 1.98 billion before COVID-19. Passenger journeys had recovered to 93.3% of their 2019/20 level, while bus service mileage had recovered to 86.0%. Put those two figures together and passenger journeys per service mile were about … [continued]
Gas Network Retirement Is Becoming A Real Utility Planning Tool
Gas utilities have a structural problem in an electrifying economy. Customers can stop using gas one building at a time, while most of the physical network remains in service until enough neighboring customers have left for a section of pipe to be shut down. That distinction matters more as heat … [continued]
The Economics Of Climate Free Riding Have Changed
For much of the climate-policy era, national self-interest and climate action could plausibly point in different directions. A country could let others spend more on emissions reductions while continuing to use familiar coal, oil and gas infrastructure at home. When the low-carbon alternatives were expensive, limited or immature, that could … [continued]
Verdox Captured CO₂ From An Aluminum Smelter. Commercial Scale Is A Much Bigger System.
Verdox has completed a useful industrial demonstration at Hydro’s Sunndal aluminum smelter in Norway. During a two-month test, its electrochemical process captured carbon dioxide from exhaust containing only about 1% CO₂ and operated in the presence of contaminants found in real smelter gas. Hydro’s investment and continued work with Verdox … [continued]
