As a technology and innovation reporter for WIRED, Daniel Oberhaus is plugged into the latest news in the energy sector and keeps a close eye on what the trends of tomorrow will be. One major story he’s watching is how carbon emissions will bounce back following the COVID-19 pandemic and what can be done to keep them down.
“I think if anything, the pandemic has shown just how much we need to do in order to hit our climate goals,” says Oberhaus. “The big answer there is we need to go fully towards carbon-neutral or carbon-negative technologies.”
Oberhaus recently joined Monica Trauzzi for a special at-home episode of “Off the Menu,” where they discussed the evolving energy landscape, including the recent shocks in the oil industry, and the need to accelerate carbon-free energy development and deployment.
Not only is there a lot of innovation happening but there's a sense of urgency to it. And it's something I try to communicate with my work and I think a lot of people on this beat do as well, is that it's nice to talk about cool tech, but it's cool tech with a purpose and a very, very urgent one.
Oberhaus is looking ahead to hydrogen technology and high-temperature nuclear reactors, which he calls “cool tech with a purpose,” as game-changers in future efforts to reduce carbon emissions. As for present-day energy stories, Oberhaus described his experience reporting on this spring’s refueling outage at Palo Verde Generating Station in Arizona. Despite these challenging and unprecedented times, Oberhaus said, “the energy industry has just really shown that it can shine even in the worst circumstances.”
Transcript
Monica Trauzzi
Energy has been such a big story throughout the pandemic. And obviously, carbon emissions have been contracting, that's a huge story. But the bigger question is where will carbon emissions go next? It's expected that they will rise. What do you think some of the technologies are, that we need to see come into play in order to get to a place where we're keeping emissions down?
Daniel Oberhaus
The big answer there is we need to go fully towards carbon-neutral or carbon-negative technologies. So not only solar wind and nuclear, of course, but also we need to start thinking about technologies that can also remove carbon from the air. So carbon capture and storage, there's a lot of innovation happening in these spaces as well. Whether or not that will actually end up happening, I'm a bit skeptical myself. I think if anything, the pandemic has shown just how much we need to do in order to hit our climate goals. There's a big lobby that backs dirty energy and it's in their interest to kind of maintain ground, which they've also experienced a major shock. Oil has seen three shocks in 12 years, but nothing quite like this where you have demand collapsing at the same time as the supply-side shock.
Monica Trauzzi
The conversation on climate and energy seems to have shifted a bit as a result of the pandemic. Do you think that it's a permanent shift or will we go back to a lot of the same debates that we were seeing before, pre-pandemic?
Daniel Oberhaus
I think this really underscores just how much we need to do in a sustainable way. Obviously, we can't have everyone stay home, no one wants to do that. So I think it's probably going to make people be like, "Well, we do need to really start rethinking what it means to adopt green energy on a massive scale." Problem is, it's not just oil getting hurt by this, the renewable energy industry is also having a hard time. It's exposed the vulnerability of supply chains. We're really dependent on China for solar cells, for batteries, for grid storage. So they might not be hurting as bad as oil, but standing these things back up, all the way from the lithium mines in South America to the battery production facilities in China is very, very challenging.
Monica Trauzzi
You cover technology and innovation. When you think ahead to the next few years and even beyond, what are the technologies that get you most excited?
Daniel Oberhaus
I think anyone who watches this would laugh when I say this, but I am really excited about hydrogen. This technology is accelerating very, very fast and our ability to create green hydrogen is accelerating very, very fast. So that I'm incredibly excited about. And the other technology that I'm really excited about are all these high-temperature nuclear reactors that are coming out. Not only for what they can do for revitalizing the nuclear industry but also their ancillary effects. And so I'm thinking about the ability to use high-temperature nuclear reactors that have these small geographic footprints for industrial processes. And I think that can just really change the game in terms of if we're talking about reducing CO2, not only is there a lot of innovation happening but there's a sense of urgency to it. And it's something I try to communicate with my work and I think a lot of people on this beat do as well, is that it's nice to talk about cool tech, but it's cool tech with a purpose and a very, very urgent one.
Monica Trauzzi
What's it been like reporting during the pandemic? I imagine that you've had to change the way that you work.
Daniel Oberhaus
So it hasn't changed that much for me. I've been really fortunate that a lot of the people working in the energy industry have been really responsive. The energy industry has just really shown that it can shine even in the worst circumstances. I had the opportunity to speak with the people at Palo Verde when they were refueling last month, which as I'm sure everyone watching this podcast is aware, this is a process that requires hundreds of people to come in from all around the country, all these contractors. So it's really not an ideal thing to be doing middle of the pandemic, but they had their protocols in place. They knew exactly how to handle this, they can do it with a skeleton crew and it was great to hear that the biggest power plant in the US, the biggest nuclear power plant, is going to handle it just fine.
Monica Trauzzi
You and I are both eating burgers or we're talking a lot. We should be eating more. I'm in Washington, DC. I got my burger from Le Diplomate. The next time you're in town, you should absolutely go to Le Diplomate, it's a great burger. But where did you get your burger and fries from? You told me you're in Bushwick.
Daniel Oberhaus
I went to, there's a place called The Wheelhouse around the corner from me and they're just a solid burger spot. I'm vegetarian so it makes it a bit more challenging to find a good burger place, but they have Impossible burgers which I just adore. And they actually know how to make them, most people cook them like a regular burger and they just end up dried out. But you really just need to flash cook them and they actually know how to do that.
Monica Trauzzi
This was great. It was fun. Thank you for doing this and taking the time. I really appreciate it.
Daniel Oberhaus
Yeah, it was. Thank you for having me and next time I'm in DC, I will drop you and Mary a line. I would love to get a drink in person or something.
Monica Trauzzi
Yeah, we should absolutely grab a drink.
Daniel Oberhaus
Touch elbows or whatever is socially acceptable at that point.
