by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 9, 2022 | Energy Rant
When I started at Michaels millennia ago, we had a brilliant walking encyclopedia of knowledge and engineering know-how. His name was Dave Hamilton, or Ham for short. He was probably 30 years older than me. My boss at the time said Ham knew the answer to any problem....
by Jeff Ihnen | Aug 2, 2022 | Energy Rant
When Val Jenson talks, I listen. When he writes, I read. His recent article in Energy Central triggered an avalanche of ideas for a program, portfolio, and industry overhaul needed to get us there, which is the next level of savings equal to the last 25 years of...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 25, 2022 | Energy Rant
Two weeks ago, I wrote the “electric storage industry that is grabbing all they can before someone figures out that will never be the answer to bridging gaps of intermittent renewables.” Time’s up. Utility Dive last week quoted a North American Electric Reliability...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 19, 2022 | Energy Rant
This week in concert with critical thought prompted by the EPRI electrification conference, I introduce Rant Revelations. Some are not new, but it is time to start a list. Profit Rules Decarbonization can only happen if it is profitable. That is how we decarbonized to...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jul 12, 2022 | Energy Rant
I attended Electric Power Research Institute’s Electrification 2022 Conference in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago. As a critical thinker and engineer, I often listened and thought, what about this or that, what does that look like at scale, or what you really need to...
by Michaels Energy | Jul 6, 2022 | The Big Why
At their core, energy efficiency programs exist to help the market overcome barriers preventing the adoption of energy-efficient equipment or behaviors. Some barriers, like the high first cost of equipment, are obvious and often targeted, but they may mask other...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 27, 2022 | Energy Rant
When I was a kid, maybe in junior high, we were assigned a project to describe, step by step, how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After moment of, “huh,” I understood the task and purpose of the assignment. There isn’t enough of this type of assignment in...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 21, 2022 | Energy Rant
I knew a little about ESG – environmental, social, and corporate governance. I even saved a few articles to my pile, but when Tesla was recently booted from the index and Elon Musk called it a scam, I thought, this is a good time to investigate. Musk took to Twitter,...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 14, 2022 | Energy Rant
As of last week, year-to-date energy prices are up 58% for NYMEX crude oil, 91% for NYMEX gasoline, and only 39% for retail gasoline. Retail prices seem to have a long way to climb as the high NYMEX prices make their way to the local gasoline pump. This week we look...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jun 7, 2022 | Energy Rant
I drove the 3.5-hour route to see my mother last weekend. In preparation, I decided to fill my little tank the night before. And besides, I thought, prices are likely to be higher tomorrow. It was $4.149 per gallon. The next day, about 45 miles down the road on I-90...
