by Michaels Energy | Mar 8, 2023 | The Big Why
Recently, I saw news of a study from USC that found the relatively low level of adoption of electric vehicles in California was already resulting in improved air quality and health outcomes. Based on real-world data, the study found that for every 20 EVs added to a...
by Jeff Ihnen | Mar 7, 2023 | Energy Rant
General Russel Honoré delivered the closing plenary from last week’s AESP Annual Conference. He humorously but effectively preached to the choir about climate change mitigation. I will take one sub-topic he mentioned, food waste, and run with that this week. I may...
by Jessica Wagner | Mar 7, 2023 | Videos & Webinars
At the AESP Annual Conference, Michaels Energy unveiled a new solution to improve grid resilience, reduce risk, and better meet energy demands: Thermal Energy Storage (TES). Learn how TES can tackle issues like the dreaded duck curve, grid instability, and volatility...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 28, 2023 | Energy Rant
Last week I mentioned genuine intelligence over artificial happy-talk intelligence. Want to know what the latter looks like? See this Forbes article in which data solves all problems, including heating and cooling buildings. “There is an opportunity to build the...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 21, 2023 | Energy Rant
I think the bots troll the Rant because as soon as I report something, here comes a related article. The latest occurrence featured Energy Central, which republished an article from The Washington Times, which referenced an article from The New York Times (talk about...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 14, 2023 | Energy Rant
About two weeks ago, New England got a punch in the mouth from old man winter. I tuned into the Mt. Washington Observatory (New Hampshire) to check the conditions. On Friday evening, February 3, it was cool and breezy at minus 46°F[1] with 99 mph wind and freezing...
by Jeff Ihnen | Feb 6, 2023 | Energy Rant
PSA I thought of making some wisecracks about the trial balloon that the Chinese Communist Party drifted over the United States. Whatever the intent, it’s no good. The thing that gave me a chill is that these balloons are a top ‘delivery platform’ for a nuclear EMP...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 31, 2023 | Energy Rant
In this year’s twelve-pack of predictions for 2023, I forecast that the attacks on the U.S. power grid would continue, and the media would desperately attempt to blame their ideological opponents as extremists. Yawn. The attacks certainly risk public welfare, safety,...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 24, 2023 | Energy Rant
As undergraduate mechanical engineering students, we took materials science courses and studied phase diagrams like the one below from “Metallurgy for Dummies.” Does that appear to be dummy-grade to you? It gave me a chuckle. A phase diagram for water (below) is...
by Michaels Energy | Jan 22, 2023 | The Big Why
If we are counting on energy efficiency to account for a large part of reducing carbon emissions, we need to count lifetime savings accurately. Annual CO2 emissions in the US may be leveling off or declining, but CO2 lasts a very long time in the atmosphere and its...
