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brendanmcewen.bsky.social
Working on decarbonizing buildings & transportation. Huge fan o’ nature, cities, art. Tend to use this platform to read & learn, but will try to tweet on occasion.
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Posts 29 Comments 21

I had some conversations yesterday about this - battery storage of all types and applications is still so young and prone to jumps in innovation I don’t think China necessarily has the same lead over the US as with solar. A more even & distributed global supply chain is possible

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

looking forward to this one... And this schtick between these two (Dave Roberts hates thinking about food; Mike G won't leave him alone about it) is hilarious...

submitted 19 hours ago • 0 comments

Plant-based meat good

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This right here… If I had to do it all again… We need progressive & can do people in the electrical & HVAC trades! And design sectors. Perfect for high school go getters and 20/30-somethings alike, wanting to get wealthy at a good clip while saving the planet

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

"If you're having a lot of problems with your [heat pump], it's not the brand, it's the contractor."

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

This is what people don’t understand. All countries can produce electricity, many countries have to important refined oil products like gasoline and diesel using hard currency which is in limited supply. One in four vehicles sold this year will be EVs.

submitted 3 days ago • 6 comments

This is one of the most important space missions you could imagine. And it’s focused on Planet Earth, taking stock of our threatened forests.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

I can get the appeal of a rather discrete/"bring your own cord" EV chargers, versus larger (garish?) plastic things. But I worry: 1) These designs are less accessible, being so low mounted. 2) Is it more of a tripping hazard if something isn't regularly there? 3) Brutal in snow

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

This study is fascinating. I would really love to see it overlaid with: 1. The current total GHG emissions from current grid interconnections (and the extent to which existing gas plants could make up the shortfall) 2. Human population

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

The official report on the blackout in Spain and Portugal was just released. I'll give a quick summary of findings and provide some additional info. TL;DR conventional power plants didn't control the voltage as planned over-voltage caused renewables to turn off as required

submitted 10 days ago • 9 comments

THE place for electricity generation data⚡️👍 👉https://ember-energy.org/data/electricity-data-explorer/

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

NEW: Cheaper batteries mean near-24/365 solar is now economic☀️ We analysed 18 years of hourly insolation data at 12 places, to see how close to 24/365 electricity it was possible to get. The sunniest places get over 90% - and up to 99% - of the way... from just $100/MWh. 🧵

submitted 7 days ago • 22 comments

The Earth Day protests in 1970 helped force the passage of the Clean Air Act, which has since saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars. Mass action works.

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

The best estimate we have for the number of anti-Trump protesters across the US yesterday: 11 million. 11,000,000: over 3% of the entire population took part! Thread on how Dutch @nieuws.nos.nl slowly moved from ignoring the protests, to putting the number at 100,000s, to "Organizers say millions".

submitted 13 days ago • 1 comment

Welp, this is super frustrating. Honestly, since senior levels of govt have shit the bed on enforcing/evolving anti-trust law, progressive cities and utilities may need to consider govt-owned options in some sectors.

submitted 13 days ago • 3 comments

Canada’s largest off-grid solar project breaks ground www.pv-magazine.com/2025/06/13/c...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Happy Saturday to the hundreds of thousands of people out on the street today protesting for democracy. No kings!

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

This is the America that once conquered hearts and minds ❤️

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

100% (writer unknown)

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

About age 19, I was noodling around on the guitar on the ferry to Sunshine Coast. My sister says "Hey, you're getting pretty good". I say "Oh, I'm pretty good". Joni Mitchell turns around from the seat in front of us and does this huge scoff 😂

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

It was ever thus...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

The Billboard: A Blot on Nature!

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

beautiful news

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Almost everyone: "Electric cars are too expensive and are all SUVs. We need smaller, cheaper ones." *BYD launches new compact, high-quality electric car in the UK at £18,000* BBC: No, not like that. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 16 days ago • 14 comments

pretty remarkable #context regarding the extent nuclear & solar investment in the EU...

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

come on Americans... contact your Senators...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

These sorts of requests always take me "more than 5 minutes"

submitted 15 days ago • 1 comment

New research from my colleagues out today looking at the environmental and social impacts of food crop-based biofuels in the US, where we now use >30% of the corn supply and >40% of the soybean oil supply (on tens of millions of acres of prime cropland) to produce only ~6% of US transport fuel. 🧪

submitted 17 days ago • 13 comments

submitted 18 days ago • 2 comments