Brent Heard
@bheard.bsky.social
Facilitating scholarship on clean energy systems and emerging technologies. Sr. Program Officer with the National Academies Board on Energy and Environmental Systems. 70% San Pellegrino by volume (the other 30% is coffee). brentheard.com
Reposted by Brent Heard
If CO2 emissions go to zero in 2050 (top), the sinks (green) will bring atmospheric CO2 back down (middle), & temperature will stabalise at ~1.7°C (bottom).
Going to zero today will keep us <1.5°C
Constant emissions leads to 2.6°C, rising rapidly thereafter.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Going to zero today will keep us <1.5°C
Constant emissions leads to 2.6°C, rising rapidly thereafter.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 14, 2025 at 8:23 AM
If CO2 emissions go to zero in 2050 (top), the sinks (green) will bring atmospheric CO2 back down (middle), & temperature will stabalise at ~1.7°C (bottom).
Going to zero today will keep us <1.5°C
Constant emissions leads to 2.6°C, rising rapidly thereafter.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Going to zero today will keep us <1.5°C
Constant emissions leads to 2.6°C, rising rapidly thereafter.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The US #electricity system is under stress, from growing demand & complex operating conditions. Join @nationalacademies.org for a webinar series exploring technologies & capabilities for improving reliability and resilience. Our first event on hardening the T&D system is tomorrow! bit.ly/42yNIF5
October 21, 2025 at 2:34 PM
The US #electricity system is under stress, from growing demand & complex operating conditions. Join @nationalacademies.org for a webinar series exploring technologies & capabilities for improving reliability and resilience. Our first event on hardening the T&D system is tomorrow! bit.ly/42yNIF5
Reposted by Brent Heard
📢 Submissions are now open for the U.S. Climate Collection, a joint @theAGU + @ametsoc initiative.
This special collection will publish U.S.-focused climate assessment science that’s free to read, ensuring rigorous, accessible science informs decisions for years to come.
🔗 buff.ly/1tHUSLC
This special collection will publish U.S.-focused climate assessment science that’s free to read, ensuring rigorous, accessible science informs decisions for years to come.
🔗 buff.ly/1tHUSLC
September 25, 2025 at 1:37 PM
📢 Submissions are now open for the U.S. Climate Collection, a joint @theAGU + @ametsoc initiative.
This special collection will publish U.S.-focused climate assessment science that’s free to read, ensuring rigorous, accessible science informs decisions for years to come.
🔗 buff.ly/1tHUSLC
This special collection will publish U.S.-focused climate assessment science that’s free to read, ensuring rigorous, accessible science informs decisions for years to come.
🔗 buff.ly/1tHUSLC
Reposted by Brent Heard
A new report by the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences concludes that the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence:
Effects of Human-Caused Greenhouse Gas Emissions on U.S. Climate, Health, and Welfare | The National Academies Press
Read online, download a free PDF, or order a copy in print.
nap.nationalacademies.org
September 17, 2025 at 6:34 PM
A new report by the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences concludes that the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now reinforced by even stronger evidence:
Reposted by Brent Heard
Our new report explores the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the U.S. health and welfare. Read more: nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2923...
September 17, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Our new report explores the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the U.S. health and welfare. Read more: nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/2923...
Reposted by Brent Heard
If you want to see what a best-in-class climate scientist with a lens on geopolitics and energy can do in the financial sector - read Sarah Kapnick's new report on energy system politics for JP Morgan. A few of my favorite figures below 🧵1/ www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/...
September 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
If you want to see what a best-in-class climate scientist with a lens on geopolitics and energy can do in the financial sector - read Sarah Kapnick's new report on energy system politics for JP Morgan. A few of my favorite figures below 🧵1/ www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/...
Reposted by Brent Heard
Growing connections of AI/DC have now reached a level of complexity warranting a NERC alert, citing "rapid, major swings in load, experienced both in typical operations as well as in response to grid disturbances.” = more data + modeling needed.
www.nerc.com/pa/rrm/bpsa/...
www.nerc.com/pa/rrm/bpsa/...
www.nerc.com
September 11, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Growing connections of AI/DC have now reached a level of complexity warranting a NERC alert, citing "rapid, major swings in load, experienced both in typical operations as well as in response to grid disturbances.” = more data + modeling needed.
www.nerc.com/pa/rrm/bpsa/...
www.nerc.com/pa/rrm/bpsa/...
Reposted by Brent Heard
So many companies do business in CA, this is a big deal, indeed. Investors can’t manage (at least well) what they cannot manage.
This is a big deal that California is inching forward on this, despite some delays. Especially since a similar federal measure was scrapped entirely.
California releases draft corporate climate risk disclosure guidelines
Air regulators offered guidance ahead of a climate disclosure law for corporations with at least $500 million in global revenue.
www.eenews.net
September 9, 2025 at 1:37 PM
So many companies do business in CA, this is a big deal, indeed. Investors can’t manage (at least well) what they cannot manage.
Reposted by Brent Heard
Two new papers find renewables are good insurance (they stabilize electricity price volatility in welfare improving ways)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🔌💡
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🔌💡
Power price stability and the insurance value of renewable technologies - Nature Energy
Increasing solar photovoltaic and wind generation capacity beyond European 2030 targets could make electricity prices more stable, with reductions in sensitivity to fluctuations in the price of natura...
www.nature.com
September 6, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Two new papers find renewables are good insurance (they stabilize electricity price volatility in welfare improving ways)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🔌💡
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🔌💡
Reposted by Brent Heard
re: cow’s methane-laced burps, viable emissions reduction solutions are scarce. now though, forays into methane destruction - and even atmospheric removal - are gaining traction. i explore one pathway, from Ambient Carbon, here:
How Methane-Zapping Technology Could Finally Solve the Cow Burp Problem
Ambient Carbon is doing the methane equivalent of point source carbon capture in dairy barns.
heatmap.news
August 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
re: cow’s methane-laced burps, viable emissions reduction solutions are scarce. now though, forays into methane destruction - and even atmospheric removal - are gaining traction. i explore one pathway, from Ambient Carbon, here:
Next week begins our @nationalacademies.org 3-part webinar series on greenhouse gas removals!
Experts will cover research priorities, governance challenges, and practical applications.
Learn more and RSVP here: www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/atm...
Experts will cover research priorities, governance challenges, and practical applications.
Learn more and RSVP here: www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/atm...
August 19, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Next week begins our @nationalacademies.org 3-part webinar series on greenhouse gas removals!
Experts will cover research priorities, governance challenges, and practical applications.
Learn more and RSVP here: www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/atm...
Experts will cover research priorities, governance challenges, and practical applications.
Learn more and RSVP here: www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/atm...
Reposted by Brent Heard
Reposted by Brent Heard
Nice article about NASEM review of the endangerment finding by @insideclimatenews.org
National Academies Will Review Endangerment Finding Science insideclimatenews.org/news/0708202...
National Academies Will Review Endangerment Finding Science insideclimatenews.org/news/0708202...
![Andrew Dessler, director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather at Texas A&M University, said the new controversy that the Trump administration had stirred around climate science was a fitting subject for a fast-track effort by the National Academies.
“The National Academies [were] established exactly to do things like this—to answer questions of scientific importance for the government,” he said. “This is what the DOE should have done all along, rather than hire five people who represent a tiny minority of the scientific community and have views that virtually nobody else agrees with.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:uyemf6niinxjzirk7pbzzt3j/bafkreifnvpttyaxod2ph6vreng4vhllbzg45xhfklbuvw7asa6k5eki4by@jpeg)
August 9, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Nice article about NASEM review of the endangerment finding by @insideclimatenews.org
National Academies Will Review Endangerment Finding Science insideclimatenews.org/news/0708202...
National Academies Will Review Endangerment Finding Science insideclimatenews.org/news/0708202...
Reposted by Brent Heard
It’s a signpost that grid planning + op are entering a new paradigm. System operators are rethinking how to maintain reliability in a BPS where inertia is no longer free and stability must be actively engineered.
spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-b...
spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-b...
Grid-Scale Battery Stabilizes Scottish Power Supply
Grid-scale batteries in Scotland are stabilizing power supply with advanced grid-forming inverters.
spectrum.ieee.org
August 5, 2025 at 11:57 AM
It’s a signpost that grid planning + op are entering a new paradigm. System operators are rethinking how to maintain reliability in a BPS where inertia is no longer free and stability must be actively engineered.
spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-b...
spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-b...
Reposted by Brent Heard
Timely:
A new report from the American Statistical Association reveals that federal statistical agencies—the government offices that collect and publish official data about everything from unemployment rates to immigration patterns—are in serious trouble.
www.amstat.org/docs/default...
www.amstat.org/docs/default...
August 1, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Timely:
Reposted by Brent Heard
I love renewable energy tech because it's either "use quantum mechanics and semiconductor physics to leverage the photoelectric effect" or "put three spinny things on a stick"
August 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I love renewable energy tech because it's either "use quantum mechanics and semiconductor physics to leverage the photoelectric effect" or "put three spinny things on a stick"
Reposted by Brent Heard
Nearly half the US will wilt under hot, sticky conditions through the bulk of the week as temperatures and humidity soar from Chicago to NYC and New Orleans, boosting power demand and raising health risks.
Searing Heat Threatens Grids and Health Over Nearly Half the US
Nearly half the US will wilt under hot, sticky conditions through the bulk of the week as temperatures and humidity soar from Chicago to New York City and New Orleans, boosting power demand and raising health risks.
bloom.bg
July 28, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Nearly half the US will wilt under hot, sticky conditions through the bulk of the week as temperatures and humidity soar from Chicago to NYC and New Orleans, boosting power demand and raising health risks.
Reposted by Brent Heard
It’s hard to find a trend in the electricity system right now that *doesn’t* point to near-term rate hikes if not a broad affordability crisis. That’s a serious problem for climate policy, but also the American economy writ large. I wrote about it: heatmap.news/politics/ele...
July 23, 2025 at 11:30 PM
It’s hard to find a trend in the electricity system right now that *doesn’t* point to near-term rate hikes if not a broad affordability crisis. That’s a serious problem for climate policy, but also the American economy writ large. I wrote about it: heatmap.news/politics/ele...
Reposted by Brent Heard
New report finds, yet again, that "The United States is failing to build the high-voltage transmission infrastructure needed to support the nation’s surging electricity demand and growing strategic industries."
Report: Fewer New Miles: Strategic Industries Held Back by Slow Pace of Transmission
Today, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG) and Grid Strategies released the report “Large-Scale Transmission Deployment Saves Consumers Money.”
cleanenergygrid.org
July 22, 2025 at 7:12 PM
New report finds, yet again, that "The United States is failing to build the high-voltage transmission infrastructure needed to support the nation’s surging electricity demand and growing strategic industries."
Reposted by Brent Heard
Me in UtilityDive today re: a new $10bn data center announced for NC (the same is true for most states) 🔌💡 www.utilitydive.com/news/growing...
July 7, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Me in UtilityDive today re: a new $10bn data center announced for NC (the same is true for most states) 🔌💡 www.utilitydive.com/news/growing...
Reposted by Brent Heard
When it comes to Texas weather, I look to @theeyewallwx.bsky.social to cut through the nonsense. @mattlanza.bsky.social knows his business on this analysis of the tragic TX flash flooding.
The latest on TS Chantal today, but more importantly, we take a deep dive into the causes and forecasts leading up to the horrific flooding tragedy in Texas. A lot to unpack today. open.substack.com/pub/theeyewa...
Making sense of the weather that led to a horrible Texas flooding tragedy, plus Tropical Storm Chantal
In brief: Invest 92L became Tropical Depression 3 yesterday and is now Tropical Storm Chantal.
open.substack.com
July 5, 2025 at 4:22 PM
When it comes to Texas weather, I look to @theeyewallwx.bsky.social to cut through the nonsense. @mattlanza.bsky.social knows his business on this analysis of the tragic TX flash flooding.
Reposted by Brent Heard
REPEAT Project just completed our rapid analysis of the impacts of the Senate-passed version of the One Big "Beautiful" Bill (OBBB), which the House is considering now, on the US energy sector and emissions. Still working up full report, but here is a sneak peak...
🔌💡 🧵
🔌💡 🧵
July 2, 2025 at 8:57 PM
REPEAT Project just completed our rapid analysis of the impacts of the Senate-passed version of the One Big "Beautiful" Bill (OBBB), which the House is considering now, on the US energy sector and emissions. Still working up full report, but here is a sneak peak...
🔌💡 🧵
🔌💡 🧵
Reposted by Brent Heard
This looks depressing, but there are reasons to be optimistic. Not naive, but truly hopeful.
Renewable energy technologies are cheap, and global GHG emissions are flattening.
We never had a better chance to get this done.
But a lot of work remains, and we cannot stop.
Renewable energy technologies are cheap, and global GHG emissions are flattening.
We never had a better chance to get this done.
But a lot of work remains, and we cannot stop.
July 1, 2025 at 4:07 PM
This looks depressing, but there are reasons to be optimistic. Not naive, but truly hopeful.
Renewable energy technologies are cheap, and global GHG emissions are flattening.
We never had a better chance to get this done.
But a lot of work remains, and we cannot stop.
Renewable energy technologies are cheap, and global GHG emissions are flattening.
We never had a better chance to get this done.
But a lot of work remains, and we cannot stop.
Reposted by Brent Heard
How much could clean electricity adoption change without tax credits? Existing modeling suggests that annual additions could slow by roughly half for many technologies to 2035. But these studies omit recently proposed excise taxes, which could further reduce project deployment.
June 30, 2025 at 9:41 PM
How much could clean electricity adoption change without tax credits? Existing modeling suggests that annual additions could slow by roughly half for many technologies to 2035. But these studies omit recently proposed excise taxes, which could further reduce project deployment.
Reposted by Brent Heard
This is a nice summary of the Spanish grid operator's reports on the May Iberian blackout. As with any big event like this, there were many interdependent causes, but the TL;DR is that 3 nuclear and 7 gas plants failed to provide the voltage control that the grid operator contracted them to provide.
A review of reports on Spanish blackout causes and solutions • Grid Strategies
Michael Goggin, Grid Strategies June 24, 2025 Last week, the Spanish government and Spanish grid operator Red Electrica released lengthy reports on the blackout that affected the Iberian Peninsula on ...
gridstrategiesllc.com
June 27, 2025 at 12:13 PM
This is a nice summary of the Spanish grid operator's reports on the May Iberian blackout. As with any big event like this, there were many interdependent causes, but the TL;DR is that 3 nuclear and 7 gas plants failed to provide the voltage control that the grid operator contracted them to provide.