Every time we flip a switch, it's connected to an energy bill. But, the impact of that energy bill isn't the same for everyone. For many Americans, they experience unaffordable energy bills and undue energy burden–spending a greater portion of their income on energy bills than the average household. In this episode, we look at energy justice and ways we can make energy equitable for all. We speak to Jaime Garibay Rodriguez about his research into carbon lock-in and the barriers to adopting cleaner, and cheaper, energy technologies.

We often look to the smallest lifeforms for help solving the biggest problems: Microbes help make foods and beverages, cure diseases, treat waste, and even clean up pollution. Yeast and bacteria can also convert plant sugars into biofuels and chemicals traditionally derived from fossil fuels

Experts agree that CDR is and will continue to be critical to mitigate the effects of climate change, but some forms of CDR can be slow and ineffectual, and commercial CDR technologies are costly to scale and can be hugely inefficienct. Climate hawks fear carbon capture and storage and CDR could provide excuses to continue burning fossil fuels. Yet in spite of the pitfalls, scientists widely agree that CDR investment is necessary.

In this series, we learn more about what inspired our talented graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, what brought them to their field of study, and the questions that drive their work as part of the Wisconsin Energy Institute and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. 

Solar energy is made during the day, but energy demand is highest when the sun sets. In order for intermittent energy sources, like wind and solar, to help in these peak periods, we need a way to store energy. In this episode, we look at energy storage, understanding how we will store energy for a renewable energy future and what ducks have to do with it. We speak to battery researcher Eric Kazyak about how battery storage fits into this picture, from grid scale storage to electric vehicles.

We have talked about the basics of bioenergy and how we access energy from plants, but how does this fit into our lives? In the last episode of our series on bioenergy, we focus on how exactly biofuels fit into our lives and ways they have already made an impact. We speak to researcher Tyler Lark about the big picture of biofuels in the United States, from past and future policy to its effects on the ecosystem.

Wisconsin Energy Center co-investigator Grace Bulltail, a professor with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, has been named as one of the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Oustanding Women of Color honorees.