Energy Briefs

• Wave energy is underutilized globally due to its high cost versus wind and solar. • Adding a heave plate to a WEC can boost potential power production up to 5x in some sea states. • Co-designing WEC geometry with its controller, tuned to site conditions, boosts energy output. • An inerter, an inertial control device, can greatly widen a converter's efficient frequency range. • These findings support location-specific, geometry-inclusive optimization of wave energy tech.

• Durable and adaptive oil and gas transitions are most likely where there is broad political consensus, stable long‑term policy signals, and institutionalized public–private–academic partnerships, as exemplified by Denmark’s Esbjerg case. • Abrupt, top‑down transition decisions that lack early regional engagement and a clearly articulated economic pathway—such as New Zealand’s initial offshore exploration ban—generate resistance and are vulnerable to policy reversal, undermining just transition objectives. • Institutional innovation around just transition (e.g. commissions, funds, participatory planning), as seen in Scotland’s Aberdeen case, can strengthen governance capacity, but without policy durability and visible place‑based economic diversification, community skepticism and perceptions of instability persist.

• Overview and Importance: Safe Drinking Water for All • Key Discoveries and Intellectual Merit: A Process for Screening Greener Alternative Biocides

• The second-life battery industry is nascent and reliant on uncertain battery inputs • Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is a promising method for battery characterization tests • Policies such as the EU battery passport are beginning to emerge to aide in creating a circular economy for Lithium-ion batteries

• Differing resources and focuses divide machine learning advancement for energy storage between industry and academia • Pre-trained models and transparency will facilitate the future of machine learning • Government policies and incentives can help industry and academia collaborate to benefit energy storage modelling as a whole

• Developed and compared three methane pyrolysis processes for 50 tH2/day • Levelized cost of hydrogen ranges from 2.30-4.30 USD/kg • Carbon dioxide emissions range from 4.1-0.1 kgCO2/kgH2

• Full electrification of residential space heating by 2050 substantially increases electrical grid capacity requirements • Hybrid heating systems that switch from electric to gas heat during cold weather events reduce peak electricity demand • Hybrid heating systems using renewable gas avoid grid infrastructure expansion while meeting emissions limits

• Energy models are important tools for decision making, but the communication gap between stakeholders and energy modelers limits their potential value • A visualization dashboard has been developed to address this gap and facilitate dialogue • Expansions and applications for the dashboard have been uncovered from stakeholder feedback, widening the impact and user range of the dashboard

• Future capacity requirements are driven by electrification of heating and road transportation. • Hybrid heating systems switching from electric to gas heating operations during cold weather events reduce electricity demand for residential space heating. • Electric vehicle charging control can significantly limit capacity requirements of the electricity grid.

• Electrification of end-uses changes the shape of electricity demand. • Shape of electricity demand drives electric grid infrastructure needs. • Future ramping rates are driven by electrification of medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. • Electric vehicle charging control can limit capacity and flexibility requirements of the grid.

• Transmission should be seen as much as an adaptation initiative as a mitigation initiative • Interprovincial transmission provides significant reliability improvements to the system • The value of transmission cannot be quantified purely through export revenues

• News media coverage on net zero and across key stakeholders is increasingly polarized • Policy design should consider the interests of different stakeholders • Tailored communications strategies can help build consensus • Researchers and policymakers should engage with media outlets to promote balanced narratives

• Size of government is studied as a new country-level contextual factor determining citizen support for climate policy • Larger size-of-government is associated with lower climate policy support • GDP-per-capita and emissions are positively associated with policy support • High-tax countries have an aversion to environmental tax increases

• Grid composition plays a significant role in residential DR program effectiveness • Amount of VRE resources on grid impacts how DR potential is utilized • DR program effectiveness may increase with improved building stock efficiency

• Focus group participants identify funding from provincial and federal governments as adequate and as enabling alongside staffing interactions • Staffing resources, the legislative, regulatory and political environment alongside governance and information and data management were identified as both barriers and enables • Political will and information exchange enable existing climate action, but municipalities lack of autonomy over the most effective policy instruments