Insights
Articles
Written by the engineers doing the work, not a content team. Sixteen practice areas, updated weekly.
16 results
Levelized Cost of Electricity: What It Captures and What It Misses
LCOE is the most widely cited metric in energy economics, and one of the most widely misapplied. Understanding its assumptions matters as much as the number itself.
Grid-Scale Battery Storage: Chemistry Trade-offs from LFP to Flow Batteries
Lithium iron phosphate dominates today's grid storage market, but the right chemistry depends on duration, cycling profile, and site constraints far more than headline energy density.
Reverse Osmosis Desalination: Energy Recovery and the Real Cost of Water
Energy recovery devices transformed desalination economics over the past two decades. Understanding how they work explains most of the cost reduction the industry likes to cite.
Integrated Urban Infrastructure: Aligning Energy, Water, and Mobility Systems
Cities that plan energy, water, and transportation infrastructure in separate silos consistently under-invest in the shared infrastructure that would make each system cheaper and more resilient.
Direct Air Capture vs. Point-Source Carbon Capture: A Technical Comparison
DAC and point-source capture are often discussed as competing technologies. They actually solve different problems, at very different costs per tonne of CO2 removed.
Small Modular Reactors: Engineering Promise and Deployment Reality
SMRs promise factory-built economics and simplified safety cases, but the engineering case depends heavily on which of a genuinely diverse set of reactor designs is under discussion.
Digital Twins in Process Engineering: From Model to Live Mirror
A digital twin is not a 3D model with a dashboard bolted on. The engineering value comes from a live data connection that keeps the model honest against reality.
Predictive Maintenance: Applying Machine Learning to Rotating Equipment
Machine learning models can outperform fixed-threshold alarms at predicting rotating equipment failure, but only when built on well-labeled failure history, which most fleets don't have yet.
Distribution Automation and DERMS: Managing the Two-Way Grid
Distribution grids were built to move power one direction. Rooftop solar, EVs, and behind-the-meter batteries have quietly broken that assumption, and DERMS platforms are the response.