Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann

In Fairbanks, four trainloads of coal arrive every day to power and heat the University of Alaska campus that's known for its cutting-edge research on integrating renewable energy technologies. Building a brand new coal-fired power plant in the 21st century was, to put it mildly, a controversial decision. But believe me when I tell you—we researched the heck out of it. Today on the show, I'll walk you through the backstory of how, when it came time to replace our campus power plant, we ticked through all our options and ended up with the newest coal plant in the country — and, some would argue, possibly the last. People: Brian Rogers, former University of Alaska Fairbanks Chancellor; Matt Titus, University of Alaska Fairbanks Utility Services Places: University of Alaska Fairbanks Technology/Concepts: utilidor, coal-fired power plant Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann. Tony Williams is our producer and engineer. Jennifer Pemberton is our writer and editor. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions. News story from the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new UAF coal plant by Ravenna Koenig, Alaska's Energy Desk

On this podcast, we spend a lot of time talking about electricity — how to generate it, store it, and use less of it. But the truth is, the bigger share of our energy use often goes to heating and cooling — the invisible comfort systems that keep us alive in the places we choose to live. Humans are unusual that way. Most species adapt to their environment. We do the opposite — we adapt the environment to suit us. It's how we survive in deserts and tundra, in glass towers and remote villages. Today on the show, we're talking about passive cooling. We bring you three stories of designs that take advantage of natural temperature differences instead of using up a bunch of energy just to make something cold. People: Cloud Tsuma, guide with Sunway Safaris Places: South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Paris, France Technology/Concepts: passive cooling, termite mounds, qanat, outdoor air conditioning, evaporative cooling, district cooling Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann. Tony Williams is our producer and engineer. Jennifer Pemberton is our writer and editor. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

The multi-million dollar fighter jets that roar over the local tennis court where I coach the high school team is a daily reminder that Fairbanks is home to one of the most strategically important Air Force bases in the world. And now, Eielson Air Force Base is about to make history on a very different front — testing a first-of-its-kind nuclear microreactor. People: Colonel Michael Mullin, Deputy Wing Commander, Eielson Air Force Base; Nancy Balkus, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Places: Fairbanks, Alaska; Eielson Air Force Base Technology/Concepts: nuclear microreactor, small modular nuclear power, Arctic security, cold weather combat training Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann, edited by Jennifer Pemberton, and produced by Tony Williams.

Water is 800 times denser than air and when large volumes start moving in a single direction with force and purpose, it becomes virtually unstoppable. And that force represents an opportunity to harness the power of water in a way that's different from conventional hydropower. Instead of relying on elevation and gravity, we can capture energy directly from the flow itself. Afterall, the tides are pulled by the moon, creating a rhythm that has been in motion since long before fossil fuels were even imaginable. It's not just renewable—it's perpetual. Today on the show -- tidal energy in many different forms. People: Jeremy Kasper, Director - Alaska Center for Energy and Power; Ben Loeffler, Alaska Center for Energy and Power; Stephanie Jump, Alaska Center for Energy and Power; Places: Saltstraumen, Norway; Tanana River Hydrokinetic Test Site, Alaska Technology/Concepts: tidal power generation, tidal barrage, hydrokinetic, in-river hydro, blade runner turbine Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann. Jennifer Pemberton is our editor. Liz Smith and Tony Williams produced this episode. Music is from Bluedot Sessions. Special thanks to David Lane at Neuralsurfer, who let us use his wonderful recording of Edgar Allen Poe's "A Descent Into The Maelstrom".

We started our series on solar energy at a small scale. This time, we are going big -- the Al Kharsaah Solar Plant in Qatar is one of the largest solar farms in the world. In this episode, we're going to take a closer look at solar at scale—exploring the limits to scaling up this seemingly unlimited energy source, and the innovations underway today that could define what the solar industry looks like in the future, both in solar photovoltaics like in Qatar, as well as concentrating solar thermal. People: Puskar Thapaliya Places: Al Kharsaah Solar Plant, Qatar; Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, California Technology/Concepts: Concentrated Solar Power, Project Hail Mary Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann and edited by Jennifer Pemberton. This episode was produced by Liz Smith and Tony Williams. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

You don't need super high temperatures to harness geothermal energy. Under the right circumstances, a much smaller thermal gradient can be used as well. If we start digging, we're guaranteed to find heat. It's getting that heat to the surface where we can use it without spending more energy than we can actually get out of it -- that's the tricky part. We visit South Africa, Denmark, and upstate New York to learn about the not-so-hot geothermal resource that's beneath our feet all over the world. People: Morten Hansen, Project Services Lead, Innargi; Jeff Tester, Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems at Cornell University Places: Mponeng Mine, South Africa; Aarhus, Denmark; Cornell University Bore Hole Observatory Technology/Concepts: ground source heat pump, low temperature geothermal, district heating Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann and edited by Jennifer Pemberton. This episode was produced by Liz Smith. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

We cover the basics of geothermal energy before diving in to the more extreme versions of the technology in the next few episodes. And where better to kick off an episode on geothermal than with a mini-tour of Iceland — a country that has arguably made better use of geothermal than anywhere else on earth? In this episode, we'll visit three sites in the southwest near the capital of Reykjavik before winding up in my own backyard in Alaska. People: Viktoría Gísladóttir, Wind and Hydro Project Manager, Orkuveitan (Reykjavik Energy); Arni Hrannar Haroldsson, CEO Orka Natturunnar; Eli Gudleifsson, Alaska Center for Energy and Power; Places: Hvammvik, Iceland; Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant; Grindavik, Iceland; Chena Hot Springs Technology/Concepts: Geothermal power; geothermal district heating Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann and edited by Jennifer Pemberton. This episode was produced by Tony Williams. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and is the energy source powering our sun. The idea of a hydrogen economy has been promoted for decades. So what's holding us back? In this episode, I learn how to fill up a hydrogen vehicle in Hawaii and share the amazing story behind the discovery of naturally occuring hydrogen gas reserves in Africa that have energy wildcatters scouring the earth for more. People: Aaron Miyashiro, Service Manager, Servco Toyota in Honolulu, Hawaii; Erin Whitney, Director, U.S. Arctic Energy Office; Geoffrey Ellis, U.S. Geological Survey Places: Honolulu, Hawaii; Mali Technology/Concepts: hydrogen powered cars, geologic hydrogen Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann and produced by Jennifer Pemberton. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

Not every place has the right geologic settings for long-term carbon storage. But Alaska is one – in fact, Cook Inlet is the best tidewater location for storage on the entire west coast of North America. North Dakota is another. And for North Dakota this isn't necessarily so much about mitigating climate change, it's about building a new niche market to offer a service that others are willing to pay them for. People: Kevin Connors, University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center; Adam Dunlap, Chief Development Officer, at Harvestone Low Carbon Partners; John Reiten, Senior Energy Policy Advisor, North Dakota Office of the Governor; Stacy Tschider, President, Rainbow Energy; Haley Paine, Deputy Director, Alaska's Division of Oil and Gas Places: Bismark, North Dakota; Blue Flint Ethanol Plant; Technology/Concepts: carbon capture and sequestration Special thanks to Alaska Department of Natural Resources for allowing me to tag along on their tour to North Dakota and to Charlene Crocker and Scott Ayash from the UND for transporting their permeability fish tank display halfway across North Dakota at my request so we would get the chance to play with it. Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann. Jennifer Pemberton is our producer. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to receive 25 licensing applications in the next five years for a new generation of advanced reactors. But getting any of these designs from the drawing board to reality is going to require overcoming a lot of hurdles and uncertainties. Getting any new technology to market is challenging, but that challenge is even more acute for nuclear because of the complexities and costs that it entails. In this episode we'll look at how two U.S. nuclear projects are navigating a complicated government licensing process to develop a first-of-its-kind technology that could make a pretty big difference in our ability to decarbonize our global energy supply. People: Dayne Broderson, Alaska Center for Energy and Power; Eric Gerrard and Don Dry, Eielson Power Plant; Tara Neider, SVP and Project Director, TerraPower Places: Eielson Airforce Base, Fairbanks, Alaska; Kemmerer, Wyoming Technology/Concepts: Arctic resilience, nuclear navy, nuclear rennaisance, natrium reactor Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann and produced by Jennifer Pemberton. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

Iceland is a powerhouse when it comes to harnessing the heat and the energy that's pouring up through the tectonic crack that runs diagonally across the island. Icelanders originally got the idea for geothermal district heating from turn-of-the-century Idaho. But since then, the small nation managed to gather best practices from places like Boise, and then improve on them. And now they have the most concentrated know-how of geothermal energy in the world, and they market and export that expertise globally. People: Erlingur "Eli" Gudleifsson, Alaska Center for Energy and Power; Halla Hrund Logadóttir, Director-General of Iceland's National Energy Authority (Orkustofnun) Places: Boise, Idaho; Reykjavik, Iceland Technology/Concepts: district heating; geothermal; technology adoption life cycle Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann and produced by Jennifer Pemberton. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

We can start exploring the current energy transition by first stepping back in time to look at the last big one – the one that gave millions of people around the world widespread access to electric power. Rural electrification remains an ongoing process today, particularly in rural and remote areas of the developing world. Getting electricity monumentally changed people's lives. We'll go back to experience that transformation through the words and voices of those that were part of that struggle in rural Alaska. People: Halla Hrund Logadóttir, Director-General of Iceland's National Energy Authority (Orkustofnun); Willie Iġġiaġruk Hensley, former Alaska lawmaker, architect of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and original board member of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative Places: Reykjavik, Iceland; New Stuyahok, Alaska Technology/Concepts: Rural electrification Closing the Gap is hosted by Gwen Holdmann and produced by Jennifer Pemberton. Music is from Blue Dot Sessions.