Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #16 – Todd Davidson

For this week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast interview, we have David Spence interviewing Todd Davidson, his colleague at the University of Texas, about Todd’s research on “Long-term storage needs, ‘green gases,’ & the energy transition.”

Todd and David’s discussion focuses on one of the most pressing problems with increasing reliance on solar and wind power: how to store the energy from these sources for use during periods where they are unavailable. He notes some of the reasons that lithium-ion batteries are, at best, only able to address a small part of this problem. And he explores the potential of storing renewable energy as hydrogen gas.

The interview principally draws on two of Todd’s recent articles: one is titled, “A Review of Four Case Studies Assessing the Potential for Penetration of Hydrogen Energy in a Future Energy System“, the other is, “Impacts of renewable hydrogen production from wind energy in electricity markets on potential hydrogen demand for light-duty vehicles.” 

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links: Apple | Google

Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #12 – Amy Stein

Another week, another EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode. This week, the University of Florida’s Amy Stein talks with David Spence about her research on “Maintaining Reliability in a Distributed Energy World.”

Amy and David explore the challenges of maintaining power grid reliability when an increasing amount of electricity is produced by distributed sources such as rooftop solar. Amy explains how energy storage and demand response can provide this reliability. And she describes how these “reliability resources” may be a poor fit with historical methods of utility investment and regulation.

The interview builds on Amy’s 2016 article on “Distributed Reliability,” which was published in the University of Colorado Law Review.

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links: 
Apple | Google