Welcoming New 2GreenEnergy Intern/Contributor

An engineer at GM in Detroit, Mr. Shashwat Sitesh, contacted me recently, asking if he could volunteer to perform some research and reporting on clean energy issues.  Needless to say, the answer to requests like this is always yes.  Welcome to the team!

Shashwat’s areas of interests range across anything related to both energy and business, which, of course, is a virtually limitless arena.  I told him that I would send him a few suggestions in email, but it later dawned on me that I might as well just write them in a blog post and send him the link.

Here are a few off the top of my head:

• The real gating factors associated with integrating large amounts of intermittent resources into the grid-mix

• The changing demands for baseload vs. dispatchable power

• The smartest of the “smart cities”: What are they doing to drive convenience, public safety, and eco-responsibility?

• Projected emissions reductions associated with autonomous transportation

• Can bullet trains’ costs be justified in the United States?

• How EV adoption and the build-out of charging stations is (or is not) proceeding in lockstep

• Hyperloop: Is the bloom off the rose?

• Emerging battery chemistries that could further propel EV adoption by adding range and reducing cost

• The Renewable Energy Finance Forum continues to provide information, direction, and unparalleled networking opportunities

• The case for geothermal outside niche applications and isolated localities

• Beyond the Talk: Waste-to-energy–what’s really happening out there

• Ocean thermal: Any hope?

• How storage, smart-grid, and long distance transmission are being used to integrate large amounts of intermittent resources

• The developing world can leapfrog dirty energy altogether, but will that happen?

• What happened to run-of-river hydro?

• What’s next in advanced nuclear fission (what’s happening with thorium?)

• What’s next in advanced nuclear fusion? (How is “TriAlpha” doing?)

I warned Shashwat that he was talking to a bottomless pit in terms of issues like these.  Shashwat: If you don’t like any of these, just ask for more.  Again, a great pleasure welcoming a new member to the team.