As the war in Iran grinds on, friends and family members seem to be competing on whose gas prices are spiking the highest (at over $5 per gallon and climbing, California wins, hands down). But something peculiar happens when I chime in about how happy I am to be able to drive past gas stations, relatively carefree, in my electric vehicle.
One or two may grumble, “Oh, gee, that’s nice,” but mostly they don’t say anything.
I have been told that even talking about the benefits of EV driving in mixed company — green geeks and non-geeks — can be considered implicitly judgmental. Apparently, some people don’t like being reminded, however indirectly, about the economic, environmental and geopolitical impacts of their gas-powered vehicles or the existence of other options.
A similar dynamic could be at least one factor in how people are navigating the social and political disruptions of the Iran war.
President Donald Trump is trying to assauge those feeling acute pain at the pump with assurances that current high gas prices are a blip and will drop soon once we win the war, which may or may not be the assurance voters are seeking.
But for clean energy advocates of all stripes, the war presents a real-time/real-life demonstration of the dangers of fossil fuel dependence — and its price volatility — and the benefits of renewable energy. The above meme has been gleefully circulating on social media, juxtaposing an oil tanker in flames, billowing black smoke, with solar panels and wind turbines pumping out electrons under sunny skies.
While the urge to gloat may be hard to resist, right now a more restrained approach could be called for. If people’s minds and imaginations are opening up to alternatives, then telling good stories — ones that show, not tell — could be a more effective way to appeal to their emotions and foster a willingness to try something new or different.
For example, the current spike in gas prices already appears to be driving a slight uptick in consumer interest in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric models, according to Edmunds, the retail auto sales website.
“In the week starting March 2, shopper consideration of electrified vehicles … accounted for 22.4% of all vehicle research activity on Edmunds, up from 20.7% the previous week,” the company reported. “Most of that increase was driven by growing shopper interest in battery electric vehicles, which saw the largest gain among electrified powertrains during this time period.”
Even more encouraging, Edmunds is predicting a major increase in the number of leased EVs being turned in this year and entering the secondhand market at more affordable prices. Previously leased EVs could make up 8% of the used car market in 2026, versus 2% in 2025, the company said.
So, as war rages and prices climb, I am once again looking for hope in small things — like more folks driving used EVs — and more cool stories about clean technologies that can make our electric power system more flexible, reliable and affordable right now.
Ready for primetime
Let’s start with some quick stories about energy storage, specifically, a few very cool projects that have been announced in the past weeks and months.
First, back in January, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a new pumped storage hydropower project, something it had not done in 12 years. Located in south central Washington, near the border with Oregon, the Goldendale pumped hydro project will provide 1,200 MW of power, with 12 hours of duration, enough to power 500,000 homes.
A video on the project website (and YouTube) details how PSH works, pumping water from a lower reservoir to a higher one and then releasing it to back down to power turbines. What’s particularly cool here is that solar and wind farms near the project site will be used to charge the battery, that is, pump water from the lower to the upper reservoir.
Also, it will be a closed loop system, meaning it will need minimal additional water over time to offset evaporation.
(Goldendale has been heavily criticized by the Yakima Nation, which has said it will disrupt an essential tribal cultural site. I will be taking a closer look at the project and pumped hydro in a future post.)
Next up is a sodium-ion battery pilot project to be located in eastern Wisconsin, announced by Peak Energy and RWE Americas, a renewables developer, on March 11.
What is particularly cool here, literally and metaphorically, is that Peak’s sodium-ion batteries are passively cooled, meaning power-hungry and expensive air conditioning systems are not needed to keep the batteries from overheating, a built-in risk for lithium-ion storage.
According to the company website, Peak’s batteries can run at temperatures ranging from -40 to 131 degrees Fahrenheit, and the company estimates that total lifetime costs for its technology will be about half of current lithium-ion batteries.
They also are made from abundant, easily available materials — sodium, iron and carbon — which could mean cutting dependence on Chinese supply chains, a major challenge for lithium-ion. According to a 2025 Canary Media article, Peak has been importing its sodium-ion cells from China but plans to build its own supply chain and manufacturing facilities in the United States.
Finally, we have Google’s Feb. 24 announcement that it will be powering a new data center in Minnesota with a pile of solar, wind and a 300 MW, long-duration storage battery from Form Energy.
As explained on the Form’s website, the company’s iron-air batteries run on ”reversible rusting” — turning iron into rust when discharging and from rust to iron when charging — which can provide steady power for up to 100 hours. Form has another Minnesota project, a 1.5 MW battery, under construction for Great River Energy, an electric cooperative.
The connecting thread here is the development and commercialization of non-lithium energy storage in the U.S., which as mentioned previously, would cut the industry’s dependence on China. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2025, China manufactured more than 80% of all battery storage worldwide.
Why this is important, especially right now, is that I have spent the last few years listening to various fossil fuel, utility and grid executives talk about how storage is simply not ready for primetime. It is not as affordable or reliable as fossil fuels, and can’t provide long-duration power, they say.
These first projects will, hopefully, put such arguments to rest, demonstrating that renewables and batteries can provide reliable, affordable, long-duration power to the grid, reducing the need to keep old coal plants online or build new natural gas-fired generation. In other words, a tipping point — making fossil fuels unnecessary to meet soaring demand for electricity — is on the horizon and will soon be the new normal.
Innovating like crazy
Moving on to cool tech that can help cut your electric bills right now, I first heard about SPAN’s super smart electric panels in May of 2025 at Washington, D.C.’s Healthy Homes Fair, which I wrote about here.
Electric panels are the fuse boxes every home and apartment has. However, when people electrify their homes, adding a Level 2 EV charger or an induction stove, their contractor may tell them they need to upgrade their panel, to handle the extra electricity they will need, which can run $2,000 to $5,000.
SPAN’s panel provides flexible energy management so even when adding new electric appliances, a big upgrade is not needed, and you can monitor how much electricity each of your appliances is using via the obligatory, very cool cellphone app.
Why I am circling back on this story is that, as I wrote about last year’s fair, home energy efficiency is big business. On March 9, SPAN announced a new partnership with Eaton, a global electric equipment company originally founded in Bloomfield, N.J., in 1911. Eaton is making a $75 million investment in SPAN to help the company expand distribution and sales of its products, and the two companies are going to work together on new, improved home energy management systems.
Pacific Gas and Electric is also installing SPAN’s smart panels in California to help its customers electrify their homes without costly panel upgrades.
As with storage, home electrification and energy management to cut electric bills is not something that is five years in the future. To manage costs, homeowners still need to have a plan for making home efficiency improvements over time, especially since Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill axed many of the tax credits and rebates that were available for these upgrades.
What you need to know is that the startups are innovating like crazy, and the big corporations are taking notice and bringing their money, their business expertise and their customers.
This year’s Healthy Homes Fair is March 21, at Catholic University, kicking off with a cool tech showcase at 9 a.m. and the fair proper at 1 p.m. It’s free, and with everyone hyperfocused on affordability, I am expecting a great turnout. (Get all the details here.)
P.S. A Chris Wright rant
On March 12, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that the Department of Energy would be awarding $1.9 billion in federal funds for grid upgrades using advanced technologies that will expand the capacity of our existing poles and wires.
The announcement was met with generally positive comments from industry groups, as reported in this article in Utility Dive. For example, Advanced Energy United released the following statement from Managing Director Dylan Reed:
“At a time when we need the power grid to do more, investing in advanced transmission technologies is the fastest, quickest approach. … We welcome the federal support for these technologies, and we encourage the Department of Energy to move swiftly to get those funds out the door.”
The fact that Wright is providing any federal money for grid upgrades is noteworthy, but we need a bit more context.
First, in the DOE release, Wright was critical of past administrations – read: former President Joe Biden – for not investing in grid upgrades. But the $1.9 billion now on offer is part of the $10.5 billion that Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided for the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program, aimed at funding grid upgrade projects across the nation.
Under former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, DOE awarded $7.6 billion of that money to 105 projects across all 50 states.
When Wright cancelled 321 federally funded clean energy projects in October of 2025, 26 GRIP awardees were on the list, which was published by Latitude Media.
Almost all were in Democratic-led states and, yup, the total amount clawed back was about $1.9 billion.
So, Wright is repurposing GRIP funds under a new name, SPARK, which is short for Speed to Power through Accelerated Reconductoring and other Key Advanced Transmission Technology Upgrades. (Granholm did much better acronyms.)
Plus, if you dig into the official notice of funding opportunity — NOFO in government-speak — you find that DOE is prioritizing projects that promote the use of “all available power generation resources, particularly those secure, redundant fuel supplies that are capable of extended operations.”
As he has been doing for the past year, Wright is redirecting money intended to promote clean energy to instead put more fossil fuels and nuclear on line, which he makes abundantly clear one page later:
“To ensure near-term additions of dispatchable capacity, projects that include nondispatchable, intermittent generation, such as wind or solar, are not considered responsive to this NOFO.”
Ouch!
DOE is fast-tracking the awards process, with concept papers due April 2, followed by full applications on May 20, and awardees chosen by August. I may be overly cynical, but I keep thinking Wright must have started working with some companies ahead of his announcement and has a pipeline of fossil- and nuke-friendly projects already lined up.