Emily Waltz

When #BadBunny climbed utility poles at last night's #SuperBowl, his point came across loud and clear: Puerto Rico's power grid is crumbling, and the U.S. isn't doing enough about it. Here's what's happening in Puerto Rico. Photo credit: Kathryn Riley/AP. buff.ly/aOpm2S8

Despite a policy shift away from #renewables from the #Trump administration, energy companies are still turning to the fast and cheap power of solar and wind energy to provide power. The thing that’s actually changing? Their messaging. buff.ly/r64spMw

England's grid can't handle all the power flowing south from Scotland's wind farms, but this nifty new tech will help. It's called a SmartValve, and it moves more power without having to build new transmission lines. @IEEESpectrum @pfairley spectrum.ieee.org/grid-congestio…

Happening now on Reddit: AMA with nuclear battery expert Jake Blanchard. Ask him anything! I'd like to know: Would you be willing to put a nuclear-powered medical device in your body if it meant never having to change the battery? @IEEESpectrum reddit.com/r/nuclear/comm…

A raft of companies are developing nuclear batteries that can power medical implants, drones, and sensors for decades. The question is, who's going to buy them? Nuclear battery expert James Blanchard explains the technologies, challenges, and rationale. spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-batter…

The United States is tackling the nuclear waste problem with federal funding and directives that will drive innovation in reducing radioactive sludge. spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-waste-…

Cuba's power grid is nearing total failure. It can only meet 50 to 70 percent of the country’s electricity needs on an average day and has completely collapsed four times in the last six months. spectrum.ieee.org/cuba-energy-cr…

Swedish start-up @modvion has designed a 119-meter wind turbine tower made of engineered wood that rivals the height and strength of its steel competitors, and is more sustainable. Will it bring the wind industry back to its iconic wood windmill roots? spectrum.ieee.org/wind-turbine-t…

These startups are geoengineering the sea to capture and store more CO2 from the air. I visited the LA operations of startups @capturaCO2 and @equatic_tech for this deep dive in @IEEESpectrum . With @ebbcarbon & @_CWorthy spectrum.ieee.org/ocean-carbon-r…

China is building a thorium-based molten-salt reactor in the Gobi Desert. Using thorium would reduce China’s dependence on uranium imports but could also pose nuclear-proliferation risks. Here's what we know about the planned reactor. spectrum.ieee.org/chinas-thorium…

The transformer shortage continues unabated, but engineers are designing new versions of this critical piece of grid infrastructure that could help alleviate the crisis. @ORNL @INL @GeorgiaTech @Uni_Stuttgart @GEVernova @Avangrid @WoodMackenzie spectrum.ieee.org/transformer-sh…

Big Tech must secure power for data centers and is investing in startups developing new kinds of nuclear reactors and fuel. Here's the tech behind the deals spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-powere… @KairosPower @xenergynuclear @Google @amazon

Research expeditions conducted at sea using a rotating gravity machine and microscope found that the Earth’s oceans may not be absorbing as much carbon as researchers have long thought. @PrakashLab @StanfordEng spectrum.ieee.org/marine-snow

The world’s newest stellarator, a type of nuclear fusion reactor from @PPPLab, was built in less than a year and cost just $640,000. That's far faster and cheaper than the Wendelstein 7-X, a stellarator that took $1.1 billion and 20 years to construct. spectrum.ieee.org/the-off-the-sh…

Azerbaijan and its neighbors hope to build 6 gigawatts of clean electricity capacity to send under a 1,200-km stretch of the Black Sea into energy-hungry Europe. Next week's #COP29 in Baku may give the plan boost @COP29_AZ @IEEESpectrum spectrum.ieee.org/black-sea-ener…

The United States needs a lot more transmission lines, and fast. One alternative to building new ones is to reconductor old transmission lines with advanced materials like aluminum conductor composite cores, which can double capacity. spectrum.ieee.org/grid-enhancing…

Researchers are fuming over @MakeSunsets' attempts to convince consumers to release balloons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. @IEEESpectrum spectrum.ieee.org/solar-geoengin…

If TSMC wants to keep its biggest customers and continue serving as Taiwan’s geopolitical shield, Taiwan must add carbon-free energy to its grid, and fast. In this IEEE Spectrum deep dive, @pfairley visits @TWSemicon and Taiwan’s grid operator, Taipower, t spectrum.ieee.org/tsmc-energy-ch…

Amazon wants its new data center in Pennsylvania to be powered directly from a nuclear energy plant. Third parties asked regulators to intervene on the basis of energy fairness. More of these kinds of battles will surely come. @IEEESpectrum spectrum.ieee.org/amazon-data-ce…

When @awscloud paid $650 million earlier this year for a data center, it thought is was buying a steady supply of @TalenEnergy nuclear energy to power it, too. But the deal is now embroiled in a regulatory battle over energy fairness. spectrum.ieee.org/amazon-data-ce…