Resources Radio

This week, host Daniel Raimi brings Ishan Sharma on the podcast to discuss the beginnings of the geologic hydrogen industry. Sharma, director and founder of a fund at Renaissance Philanthropy that seeks to grow hydrogen into a competitive energy provider, draws upon the trajectories of sectors such as oil and gas—and newer additions, like geothermal energy—to argue that with enough investment, the abundant hydrogen gas trapped beneath the Earth’s surface could be a major player in the energy game. As hydrogen is a natural output of common chemical reactions, such as the interaction of iron and water, there’s no shortage of the resource; the issue is how to find it. While interest in geologic hydrogen is ramping up, the industry faces feasibility issues related to incomplete public information, lack of understanding about the subsurface world, and regulatory voids—however, Sharma believes this low-carbon source has a bright future.

References and recommendations:

Chimaera Fund; https://www.renaissancephilanthropy.org/chimaera-fund

“Designing a Life That Matters” episode of the “Hidden Brain” podcast; https://www.hiddenbrain.org/podcast/designing-a-life-that-matters/

“Odd Lots” podcast from Bloomberg; https://www.bloomberg.com/oddlots

“Ministry for the Future” book; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-ministry-for-the-future/9780316300162/

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In this episode, host Kristin Hayes invites Sara Baldwin-Griffin to give her perspective on Utah’s growing renewable energy sector—a product of the state’s abundant resources, increasing energy demand, and collaborative policy landscape. Baldwin-Griffin, as chief executive officer of Utah Clean Energy, is supporting the industry’s boom as solar, wind, geothermal, and battery power have grown from less than 5 percent to approximately 20 percent of Utah’s energy generation within just two decades. Not only do sustainable sources of energy offer solutions for affordability and reliability issues, which have been exacerbated by the state’s emerging data center projects, but renewable energy can inject vitality back into struggling local economies. Baldwin-Griffin elaborates on the factors that have led to Utah’s clean-energy success so far, including bipartisan support and community engagement, and speculates on next steps to increase renewable energy adoption across the Western United States.

References and recommendations:

Utah Clean Energy; https://utahcleanenergy.org/

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

This week, host Daniel Raimi welcomes Shoshannah Lenski, executive director of the Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU), a municipal energy utility that is fully powered by renewable sources, optional for residents, and supplemental to the existing electricity grid. Over the past few months, the SEU has been installing solar energy systems in households to scale back dependence on carbon-intensive infrastructure, focusing on underserved communities that historically have lacked reliable, affordable electricity. Providing renewable energy as a public utility—with no up-front costs to residents—offers creative solutions for problems such as stress on the electric grid due to data center build-out, low access to renewable energy for property renters, and repealed federal assistance for solar installations. Lenski walks through the SEU’s ambitious next steps, including constructing neighborhood-scale geothermal systems that provide heating and cooling, and building “microgrids” of interconnected sites that share the energy generated by their solar systems.

References and recommendations:

Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility; https://www.a2gov.org/sustainable-energy-utility/

“The Ice at the End of the World” by Jon Gertner; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/239762/the-ice-at-the-end-of-the-world-by-jon-gertner/

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls brings Mark Brown and Jason Brooks on the podcast to discuss their work facilitating fire-resilience efforts among the residents of Marin County, California. As the executive officer of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority—the agency tasked with coordinating the county’s fire-prevention activities—Brown relies on data and strategies created by Fire Aside, a software company co-founded by Brooks. Together, the pair have contributed to an evolution in how the county approaches fire mitigation and response, promoting collaboration among homeowners, local fire services, and insurers. Brown and Brooks relate key takeaways from five years of their public-private partnership, including how to effectively advocate for behavior change, enable homeowners to improve their insurance plans, and unite communities to protect one another against the growing threat of wildfire.

References and recommendations:

Fire Safe Marin; https://firesafemarin.org/

Fire Aside; https://www.fireaside.com/

“The British Are Coming” by Rick Atkinson; https://rickatkinson.com/british-are-coming/

“The Death of Expertise” by Tom Nichols; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-death-of-expertise-9780197763834

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

This week, host Kristin Hayes invites Liz Moyer on the podcast to break down the history of US energy use in commemoration of the country’s 250th year of independence. Moyer is an associate professor at the University of Chicago, and along with research collaborators, she created an animated Sankey diagram—a chart that quantifies and depicts the flow of volume from one stage or category (in this case, different energy sources) to another (economic sectors in which the energy is used)—to visualize the evolution of US energy over time. In this episode, Moyer explains the mechanisms behind past US energy transitions, from the expansion of railroads in the 1860s to the oil crisis of the 1970s, and provides insights on the current energy transition toward electricity.

References and recommendations:

“US Energy History Visualization” by Robert Suits, Nathan Matteson, and Elisabeth Moyer; https://us-sankey.rcc.uchicago.edu/

“Energy Transitions in US History, 1800–2019” by Robert Suits, Nathan Matteson, and Elisabeth Moyer; https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54dcfad0e4b0eaff5e0068bf/t/5fbeba6ffa04221c71019ccc/1606335091993/Suits_Matteson_Moyer_2020_Energy_Transitions.pdf

“Charting the evolution of U.S. energy since 1800—from horsepower to renewables” by Rob Mitchum; https://news.uchicago.edu/story/charting-evolution-us-energy-1800-horsepower-renewables

“Infrastructure: A Guide to the Industrial Landscape” by Brian Hayes; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393349832

Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/