Insights, Perspectives & FAQs by Dr. Walter L. Kuehnlein

🌟 What will be the most powerful energy source of the future?

TOP: It’s not solar. Not wind. Not hydrogen. Not nuclear.

It’s energy we never needed to consume in the first place.
While everyone talks only about storage and production, the smartest systems reduce energy use from the start.

That’s not sexy. But it’s revolutionary.

Think about it:
– How much energy do we lose to heat, friction, idle time?
– How many kilowatt-hours are wasted by poor design?
– How efficient is your system, really?

In technical terms:
The real race isn’t just how to store 1 kWh.
It’s how much energy you must invest to get it back. Sometimes it’s more than you’d think.

We need to flip the script:
→ From output obsession
→ To efficiency obsession

Because the cleanest kWh… is the one you never had to generate.
Worth rethinking what we call “renewable”.

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🔥 What if geothermal superhot rock could turn 3 MW into 45 MW from a single borehole on land and offshore?

Have you ever seen a geothermal borehole release steam at only 180 °C? It felt powerful, yet the output was modest. A few megawatts. Enough for a small town, not a city.

Today the frontier has shifted. At depths of 10 to 15 kilometers, the rock reaches more than 450 °C. Water there is no longer liquid and no longer gas. It becomes overcritical. Dense like a liquid and moving like a gas. It carries three to five times more energy. The same type of well that once gave 3 megawatts can now give 45.

This requires new drilling technology. Not only steel and concrete but millimeter wave and plasma methods that can melt or fracture rock without wearing down the drill bit.

This is the step change. A resource that works day and night, 24/7, independent of weather and season. Quiet boreholes. No smoke. No fuel. Just heat from the Earth, steady and immense.

The story does not end on land. Offshore, the crust is thinner. Superhot zones can be reached at shallower depths, often half of what is needed onshore. That opens a second path. Above the surface, wind delivers movement. Below the seabed, superhot rock offers stability. Together they can power entire regions with balance and continuity.

From one offshore platform it is possible to drill a cluster of wells, often eight to ten. With each well delivering 30 to 50 MW, all can feed into a single generation system on board, creating enough power to supply a city.

Instead of a visible offshore platform, the entire system can be operated by a subsea unit resting on the seabed, invisible to the world above the ocean.

It is not a distant dream. The skills already exist. The same ports. The same ships. The same crew. Only the target has changed. What was once oil and gas becomes clean and endless heat.

The sea may soon provide both wind and fire.

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🧭 How will the future of energy actually happen?

The future of energy won’t be invented.
It will be built. Step by step. System by system.

Not in labs alone, but out there. In the desert heat. Offshore in the storm. At night, when storage must take over and silence matters more than voltage.

After four decades in marine energy, offshore wind, I’ve stopped believing in “the next big thing.”

The breakthroughs that last are rarely loud.

They are boring at first. Then they scale. Then they change everything.

Hydrogen will matter. But only when it's moved safely, stored, and used smartly.
Batteries will grow. But only with honest answers about cost, fire risk, and rare earths.
Offshore wind will thrive. But only when it runs in sync with demand, not just the weather.

We must stop chasing silver bullets.
We need strong systems. Resilient grids. Cross-sector links. Pragmatic engineers.
And the courage to admit what doesn’t work yet.

That’s my perspective.
Energy is not a product.
It’s a promise.

And keeping that promise will require more than technology.
It will require trust.

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📈 What is my Vision for the Future of Energy?

From Earth to Everywhere: My Vision for the Future of Energy.

Energy is the currency of life, and the way we generate, store, and move it will define the 21st century.

Here’s my vision:

• Clean energy generated everywhere, from offshore wind farms to floating solar islands
• Ultra efficient, modular storage solutions, scalable, recyclable, and resilient
• Autonomous transport of energy, via green fuels, superconductors, and AI controlled infrastructure
• Decentralized systems that are smart, secure, and shared across borders

We will no longer be bound by geography or politics.
Energy will flow like data, seamless, global, democratized.

But for this to happen, we need:

• Radical innovation in marine and offshore technologies
• Brave policy decisions backed by science and systems thinking
• Massive investments into infrastructure and impact over extraction

The fossil fuel age taught us what not to do.
Now it’s our turn to build a cleaner, fairer energy future.

I'm working with partners across sectors to turn this vision into reality.
If this resonates with you, let’s connect and/or challenge it.
Because the future of energy belongs to all of us.

🌱 Is Green Energy Truly Green All the Way?

We talk about green energy. But is it really green... all the way?
It’s easy to celebrate the moment of generation: the solar panel on the roof, the wind turbine on the hill or the sea.

But what happens after that?
How much of that energy actually reaches the end, where it does real work, like turning a shaft or powering a ship?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
We lose energy at every single stage.
– In generation
– In storage
– In conversion
– In transport
– In final use

By the time we get mechanical energy at the output, we’ve often lost 60% to 80% of what we started with.

And yet, we rarely talk about that.
Rarely design for that.
Rarely measure our success by what truly arrives at the end of the chain.

If we want real sustainability,
we need to start optimizing the whole journey, not just the first step.
This is where smart systems, engineering experience, and brutal honesty matter.
Not just how clean is your input, but how efficient is your entire chain?

That’s the question I’m asking every day.
And that’s the question we must ask, if we’re serious about the future.

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🌬️ What happens when, offshore, the wind stops?

One calm afternoon offshore, the wind stopped.
The turbines slowed.
The power fell silent.

In that moment I knew.
We must store the power of sun and wind, so it is always there.

In the next five years, the leaders will be clear.
– Lithium iron phosphate batteries.
– Vanadium flow batteries.
– Pumped hydro in new places.
– Compressed air in deep caverns.
– Thermal storage ready on demand.

When these work together, the wind can stop, and the lights will stay on.

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🌊 How can offshore wind deliver clean power 24 hours a day, even when there is no wind?

Offshore wind power is one of the most promising sources of renewable energy. It offers enormous capacity and benefits from stronger and more consistent winds than onshore locations. But like all wind energy, it faces one challenge. The wind does not always blow when demand is highest. Sometimes turbines generate more power than the grid can use. At other times the wind is calm and output drops.

The answer is not simply to build more turbines. The key is to combine offshore wind farms with large-scale energy storage right at sea.

One highly effective solution is to store surplus energy in large underwater pressure vessels fixed to the seabed. These can be rigid tanks or large flexible membranes. When there is more power than the grid needs, compressors pump air into these vessels. The surrounding seawater keeps the air stored at high pressure. When electricity is needed, the air is released to drive turbines and supply the grid.

This approach has clear advantages:
• It allows offshore wind to provide electricity around the clock.
• It reduces waste because excess power is stored rather than curtailed.
• It keeps storage close to where the energy is produced, which avoids transmission losses and reduces the need for additional onshore facilities.
• It helps stabilise the grid by delivering a steady and predictable power supply.

By integrating seabed energy storage into offshore wind projects from the start, we can turn a variable source of power into a reliable foundation of a sustainable energy system.

The future of offshore wind is not only about building bigger turbines. It is about creating intelligent systems that keep the energy flowing when it is needed most, not only when the wind happens to blow.

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📊 Is LCOE enough to compare renewables with conventional power?

I am fully in favor of renewables and believe they will be the future, but when talking to policy makers and the public, we need to be clear about the real costs.

Far too often, renewable energy prices are compared directly with coal or gas using only the plant-level generation cost (LCOE).

This is misleading, not because renewables are “too expensive,” but because the system costs are fundamentally different.

For conventional plants, the price already includes dispatchability, reliability, and grid stability.
For renewables, we must add:

1. Grid Integration & Balancing: backup capacity, frequency regulation, and curtailment management.
2. Energy Storage: short-term and seasonal storage to match supply with demand.
3. Transmission Upgrades: new HVDC lines and stronger local grids for remote generation sites.
4. Overcapacity: installing several GW of solar or wind to replace 1 GW of baseload capacity.
5. End-of-Life Recycling: handling blades, panels, and batteries sustainably.

We need to consider FCOE, the Full Cost of Electricity

Without these, price comparisons are incomplete and risk creating false expectations.
If we acknowledge the full delivered cost = Generation + Integration + Storage + Transmission + Backup + Recycling, we can build policies that ensure renewables succeed without undermining grid stability.

It is not about slowing the energy transition.
It is about making sure it is technically and economically sustainable.

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⚛️ In 2040, could energy be delivered anywhere, anytime, in seconds?

Energy Storage in 2040: Power Without Boundaries
By 2040 the word battery will feel as dated as telegraph.

Energy will not live in static containers.
It will flow, follow, and find us.

What we once called batteries will have become something entirely different. These will be quantum energy systems that use the fascinating rules of quantum physics to charge in seconds and hold that charge for unprecedented periods. We are already seeing early lab devices that keep energy a thousand times longer than before and transfer it faster than any classical system.

Quantum cells are energy devices that use superposition and entanglement to store and release energy through controlled quantum states. Plausible applications could be across the energy economy including mobile delivery and offshore platforms.

Imagine
• Energy swarms made of millions of tiny quantum cells working in perfect synchrony
• Global energy routing that sends surplus from a solar dawn in Chile to a midnight grid in Tokyo in real time
• Ships and platforms that act as floating power banks for entire cities

By 2040 the question will not be where we store energy.
It will be how quickly we can move it to where it is needed most.

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🚀 What will Energy Storage & Transport look like in 2035?

By 2035, the way we store and transport energy could look nothing like today.

My top picks, proven, disruptive, and completely “out of the box”:

The Strong Contenders
– Solid-State Batteries: Higher density, faster charging, mass production targeted before 2030.
– Sodium-Ion Batteries: Safer, cheaper, cold-weather ready.
– Flow Batteries: Modular, durable, and perfect for renewables integration.

Mobility Meets Energy
– Mobile BESS: Energy delivered anywhere, from construction sites to disaster zones.
– Smart Charging Cubes: Mobile high-speed charging for EVs and trucks.
– Rail-Based Mobile Storage: Energy on trains for grid support when and where it’s needed.

Disruptive Visions
– Dynamic “Charge-on-the-Move”: Wireless charging while driving.
– Quantum Batteries: Still experimental, but could revolutionize storage and charging.

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💧 Where Does Green Hydrogen Truly Add Value?

Green hydrogen is a high-potential energy carrier, but not a silver bullet for all sectors.

Its production is energy-intensive, so the smartest use cases are where direct electrification is not technically or economically feasible.

High-value applications:
– Steelmaking: Replacing coal in direct reduced iron (DRI) plants, enabling near-zero-carbon steel.
– Ammonia production: For fertilizers and as a maritime fuel without CO₂ emissions.
– Synthetic fuels: Combining hydrogen with captured CO₂ for aviation and shipping.
– Heavy-duty transport: Fuel-cell trucks, buses, and non-electrified rail lines.
– Long-duration energy storage: Seasonal balancing of renewable-heavy power grids.

Low-value applications to avoid:
– Passenger cars and light vehicles where battery-electric options are more efficient.
– Domestic heating in well-insulated buildings where heat pumps work better.

The rule of thumb:
Produce green hydrogen where renewable electricity is abundant and cheap, and use it where alternatives are inefficient, unavailable, or incompatible with the operational demands.

Hydrogen’s future role will be decisive in hard-to-abate sectors, but its deployment must be targeted, efficient, and integrated into broader decarbonization strategies.

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⚡ Why might energy storage dictate your generation strategy?

Everyone is obsessed with generating clean energy. Solar, wind, hydrogen, geothermal, we keep building more.

But here’s the hard truth:
The way you store energy can make or break your entire system.

Because it’s not just about how much you generate.
It’s about how much of that energy you can actually use:
→ when you need it
→ where you need it
→ in the right form (often: mechanical, not electric)

That’s why generation and storage must be designed together, not in silos.
In many cases, the storage system governs what kind of generation makes sense at all.

☑ Smart energy systems flip the logic:
Start from output demand → Define optimal storage → Then match generation.

That’s system thinking. That’s real resilience.
That’s where we need to go.

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🔋 How will we move from charging queues to energy hubs?

Can Battery Swapping + BESS reshape EV infrastructure and grid resilience? I believe so.

This dual-purpose system can accelerate mobility and support the power grid:

– Ultra-fast mobility: Swap an EV battery in under 3 minutes. No range anxiety. No waiting.
– Two lives for one battery: First in an EV, second as part of a stationary BESS.
– Decentralized storage hubs: Swapping stations double as distributed BESS sites for peak shaving, load shifting, and backup.
– Renewable-friendly operations: Charge when solar or wind peaks, discharge when demand spikes.
– Circular by design: Standardized, swappable batteries simplify reuse.

That’s how energy and mobility converge. That’s system thinking.

Let’s build smarter, not just bigger.

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🌱 What’s the difference between regenerative and renewable energy?

Not all renewables are regenerative.

Renewable means “can be replenished.” But regenerative means “gives back more than it takes.”

Our systems must not only minimize harm, they must actively repair and restore:

– Regenerative farming rebuilds soil health
– Regenerative energy systems feed back into local resilience
– Regenerative design is circular by nature

True sustainability isn’t about being less bad, it’s about doing net good.

It’s time to go beyond renewable. Let’s build regenerative systems for a thriving future.

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♻️ Is Your Sustainability Strategy Just Greenwashing?

If your "sustainability strategy" fits neatly into a glossy brochure, it’s probably greenwashing.
Real sustainability is messy. Complex. Uncomfortable. And it forces change.

We’ve come to a point where the word sustainable is stamped on everything, from bottled water to billion dollar oil projects.

But sustainability isn’t a label.
It’s a long term responsibility. It’s systemic, not cosmetic.

✅ It's about confronting uncomfortable truths.
✅ It's about rethinking your supply chains, not just recycling your packaging.
✅ It’s about governance, not green logos.
✅ And yes, it’s about profits, but the kind that don’t cost us the planet.

What I’ve learned over four decades in energy, offshore, and ice tech is this:
Sustainability is not a “narrative.” It’s an engineering challenge, a leadership test, and a moral compass.

Greenwashing happens when we settle for stories instead of systems.

Let’s stop painting things green and start building what the next generation actually needs.

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🧠 Is AI Replacing Engineering?

AI won’t replace engineers, but engineers using AI will replace those who don’t.

Tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or simulation optimizers are changing how we work:

– Repetitive tasks? Automated.
– Drafting, documentation, and coding? Accelerated.
– Complex analysis? Enhanced by pattern recognition and data crunching.

But the real power is in augmented intelligence, where human expertise + AI = exponential results.

Engineering is not going away. It’s evolving.

Let’s not fear the tools. Let’s master them.

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