The newly commissioned EnergyX demonstration facility in Texas is producing a domestic supply of lithium for EV batteries, energy storage, and other devices, loosening China’s grip on the global lithium refining industry.
Naturally, just when Hawaiʻi’s decarbonization pathway starts to look complete, another chapter occurs to me. After the generation mix, the island-by-island resource story, the transport implications, and the logic of electrification, what remains is the part of the energy transition that fossil systems used to provide almost by accident. Hawaiʻi … [continued]
Oʻahu was the test case, but it was never the whole question. The real question for Hawaiʻi was always whether the same logic that makes decarbonization viable on the most populous island would also hold across the rest of the inhabited archipelago. If Oʻahu could get to a clean, resilient, … [continued]
I recently received BLUETTI’s newest product, a very interesting one that is quite different from the normal portable power station lineup. The BLUETTI FridgePower* is designed specifically for use with refrigerators. Rather than trying to be a broad solution for all kinds of uses, it is tailored to be the … [continued]
The controversy surround the claim by Donut Lab that It has created a solid state battery continues to swirl.
This is the culminating article in a series exploring from the outside a decarbonization solution set and coarse roadmap for Hawaiʻi. It is a set of possible next actions that a Hawaiian agency, utility, authority, or coalition could undertake if the roadmap outlined in this series is worth exploring further. … [continued]
What follows is a draft roadmap for a decarbonized O’ahu. This roadmap does not appear out of nowhere. It follows a long chain of analysis that rebuilt Oʻahu’s energy system piece by piece. Earlier articles stripped away overseas aviation fuel, international maritime bunkering, and military demand to isolate the island’s … [continued]
The debate over LNG in Hawaiʻi persists because it sounds like a practical answer to a familiar problem. Oʻahu still relies heavily on imported fuel for electricity, so a different imported fuel can appear to be a reasonable bridge. LNG is marketed as dispatchable, cleaner than oil, and compatible with … [continued]
Improvements in batteries are almost a daily occurrence, as sodium-ion batteries are poised for use in more applications.
The Strait of Hormuz has always been one of the obvious stress points in the global energy system, a narrow passage through which a large share of internationally traded crude oil, LNG, and fertilizer feedstocks move every day, but most years it has been treated as a geopolitical abstraction rather … [continued]
