Episode #63: “The Grid” with author Gretchen Bakke

Matt chats with the McGill University professor, who has written a very interesting and provocative new book about America’s electricity infrastructure. The book is about much more than just renewable energy and the issues it poses to our electric grid, but that’s what she and Matt primarily talk about. They discuss the challenge of intermittency — what do you do when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine? — and the need for re-thinking the grid entirely. Bakke also describes the various approaches to storing energy, from batteries to less conventional approaches, in arguing that we’re farther than many people think from a clean energy utopia. For more information, read more about the book on Amazon and read an article she wrote recently in the New Yorker, or listen to her interview on NPR’s FRESH AIR.