Austin Vernon

What if nuclear regulations were reset?

Many tech industry followers will recognize the playbook. ...

Solar PV is poised to change the global energy landscape. ...

Solar still needs storage cheap enough to move energy between seasons.

It seems grids will fare fine because of non linear affects. ...

Automated logistics will heavy impact one third of GDP. ...

How cheap can it pull CO2 from the air?

Making ultra cheap products requires different rules and strategy. ...

Can cheap, expendable drones complete every mission?

AI needs a different environment than humans to take advantage of its speed. ...

Why ground transportation still has a lot of legs. ...

Drilling and completions technology progresses, but is it enough?

Powering data centers with solar and batteries can be compelling with optimized designs. ...

The US Navy's ship program is sick, but the fixes aren't rocket science. ...

Green hydrogen could be critical for chemical production, but making it cost effective is a tall task. ...

A look at how geothermal might improve like wind and solar. ...

Electricity markets are often maligned but they are the best option for handling changing electricity generating technology. ...

Thermal storage could solve many difficult areas of decarbonization. ...

Drilling technology progresses, but is it enough?

How do we scale to gigatons?

What is the absolute minimum performance we need to counter China?

Ships need cheap batteries instead of high performance ones. ...

Humanoid robots powered by artificial intelligence could build regular houses in one day using traditional construction techniques. ...

Nuclear power could level up by producing high value products. ...

There are fundamental reasons nuclear power struggles with cost. ...

AI can revolutionize K-12, but how many actually want it?

How hard is it to fuel a war across a vast ocean?

One poorly designed class of ships does not obsolete aircraft carriers. ...

Asymmetric advantages disappear when the gloves come off. ...

New competitors hope to challenge fossil fuel's dominance. ...

The US is rapidly compensating for the short range of its fighter aircraft. ...

Stephen Malina and I co-wrote this post to praise flexible and distributed technologies. ...

New designs that can utilize cheaper battery chemistries will alleviate scaling problems. ...

Nuclear power survived a dark period in the 1980s by increasing output from existing power plants, can it build on that success to grow again?

An explanation of a Matt Ygelesias tweet. ...

Politics and physics add many constraints. ...

What technology does geothermal need to be competitive?

The benefits of different smart grid technologies vary widely. ...

Atoms are more important than bits when killing people. ...

The solar supply chain is pushing complexity to giant factories. ...

Declining launch costs enable new classes of weapons. ...

Trucks, vans, and other high mileage vehicles promise to impact oil demand more than EVs. ...

Precision Guided Munitions drive modern war and somehow Russia forgot to build enough. ...

What is the correct goal and what can be done quickly?

Inertia and new technology make it hard and undesirable to root out. ...

Technical and economic barriers prevent nuclear from growing. ...

E-Bike technology is amazing.

Grid operators must balance the grid at the millisecond level, the daily level, and during peak events. ...

What technology does geothermal need to be competitive?

Volatility flows up from our energy technologies. ...