PODCAST · technology
Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories
by Gwen Holdmann | Alaska Center for Energy and Power
Join host Gwen Holdmann for Closing the Gap: stories from the front lines of the global energy transition, from our front row seat from right here in Alaska.
Episodes
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The Story of Nuclear Power: Coming this Fall from Closing the Gap
The award-winning Closing the Gap podcast is returning for a third season with a special series. It's a sweeping look at the past, present, and future of nuclear energy—one of the most promising, controversial, and misunderstood technologies of the modern age. We're traveling the world to trace…
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Listen to Gwen on the Fissionary Podcast
Gwen, Jennifer, and Tony have spent this spring and summer traveling around reporting for an exciting new season of Closing the Gap that will tell the entire history of nuclear energy over 10 episodes-- from neutron star collisions to the most recent test reactors that just went critical by...
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Coal-Powered Energy Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
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...
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The Last Coal Mine in Svalbard
Norway is determined to move away from coal and other fossil fuels entirely, but the town of Longyearbyen in the Arctic outpost of Svalbard is literally built around coal and has identified strongly as a coal town for more than 100 years. This year, the last coal mine in Longyearbyen shut down —...
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Passive Cooling
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…
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Trash is Treasure: Waste-to-Energy
Waste-to-energy systems kill two birds with one stone: they deal with garbage and produce power at the same time. Copenhill in Denmark has been called the coolest power plant in the world, and it's hard to argue with that. It's a place where you can ski down the roof, climb up the side, and then...
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A Nuclear Reactor for Alaska's F-35s
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...
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Nuclear Energy 2.0 is (Still) Upon Us
Back in 2019, Congress directed the Department of Defense to find a site and pilot a small nuclear reactor to enhance energy resilience at military installations. That site is Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska. Recently the Air Force named a developer for the reactor, so we're...
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Harnessing the Maelstrom: Tidal Energy
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…
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Big Dam, Little Dam: Meet the New Hydropower
Hydropower comes in many forms, though most people still associate it with big dams. In the heyday of dam building, projects like Grand Coulee Dam and Boulder Dam in the American West were monumental efforts. But back then, we didn't fully understand how dams could disrupt ecosystems; now we do,...
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Concentrated Solar Power...Can Save the World?
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...
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Balcony Solar
This is the first episode in a series about solar energy, and we're starting really small. In Germany, Gwen learned about these compact personal solar kits you can install yourself -- right out of the box. There, they call it balkonkraftwerk, or balcony solar. Of course she had to buy one when…
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The Heat Beneath Our Feet: Low Temperature Geothermal
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…
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Touching Magma: Super Hot Geothermal
A look at the extreme edges of geothermal energy. We'll start with the super hot -- actual liquid magma -- chatting with a couple of visionary Icelanders that have some big ideas about the future of geothermal. People: Hjalti Páll Ingólfsson, Director, GEORG (Geothermal Research Cluster); Eli...
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A Geothermal Primer
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…
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A Brighter History with Town Gas
Before our towns and homes were lit by electricity, we relied on something called town gas for everything from reading lights to cooking. Eventually, town gas in most places was replaced by natural gas, which burned cleaner. But the switch from town gas to natural gas was not a one to one...
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Hydrogen: Too good to be true?
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...
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Turning carbon emissions into stone in Iceland
We explore two carbon capture technologies that are exploiting natural geologic processes. But the companies working on these solutions are taking those natural processes and speeding them up a bit -- giving mother nature a little extra push in order to try and slow down climate change. The first...
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Deep Under the Corn: Carbon Capture in North Dakota
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...
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A Small Town in Alaska Considers Going Nuclear
Like much of rural Alaska, the town of Nome relies heavily on imported fuels for heating and power. The cost of heating oil here is well over $7/gallon. That's what incentivizes a lot of Alaska communities to pursue new energy technologies, often well before they are part of the mainstream. Nome...
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Nuclear Energy 2.0 is Upon Us
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…
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Nuclear Energy: How Safe is Safe Enough?
Nuclear power is different from other energy sources. When we talk about new nuclear projects, it can still bring up strong and sometimes emotional reactions for people -- more so than with other sources of energy, and those opinions are much more divided across the political spectrum than any...
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Geothermal heating: from Idaho to Iceland
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...
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How Iceland ended up with some of the cheapest electricity in the world
Iceland is widely regarded as a global leader in clean energy. Not only is their energy sustainable, it's cheap, too. They have some of the most affordable heat and power in the world. But it was literally one of the poorest countries in Europe two generations ago. So, how did Iceland get here?...
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Bam! A Transition - Rural Electrification in Iceland and Alaska
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…
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Introducing Closing the Gap: Stories from the front lines of the global energy transition
I'm Gwen Holdmann, an energy researcher in Alaska. This podcast is where I share stories from the people I've met and the places I've visited around the world that are at the leading edge of the global energy transition: Geothermal beaches in Iceland, hydrogen-fueled tiki torches in Hawaii,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Join host Gwen Holdmann for Closing the Gap: stories from the front lines of the global energy transition, from our front row seat from right here in Alaska.
HOSTED BY
Gwen Holdmann | Alaska Center for Energy and Power
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories have?
Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories currently has 26 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories about?
Join host Gwen Holdmann for Closing the Gap: stories from the front lines of the global energy transition, from our front row seat from right here in Alaska.
How often does Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories release new episodes?
Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories has 26 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories?
Closing the Gap with Gwen Holdmann | Energy Transition Stories is created and hosted by Gwen Holdmann | Alaska Center for Energy and Power.
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