Suzanne Russo
A Fond Farewell to an Austin Legend
By Suzanne Russo - I’m not the first person to say this, but if you’ve lived in or moved to Austin in the last 30 years, you probably need to thank Pike Powers. More than any singular person, Pike is the symbol of Austin’s transition from a sleepy college town to a global technopolis.
We need energy data to combat climate change, and we need a data utility to make that happen.
Heading into COP26, how can leaders ensure energy data meets its full climate potential? Our experience with energy data has led us to the answer: support the development of a data utility staffed with data scientists, computers scientists, cybersecurity experts and domain experts that would prioritize customer privacy and protection, limit profiteering, require transparency, and advance the integration of data and computer science into our nation’s grid system.
Digital Dirt: A toolkit to advance soil carbon measurement and verification solutions
Over the last year, Pecan Street has been working with some remarkable partners to apply our research and data expertise to some vexing challenges around carbon sequestration. Today, we posted some fruit of our labor, a Digital Dirt Toolkit that takes us several steps toward a data-driven solution
We support full residential electrification – addressing electric panel capacity is critical to that goal
Earlier this week, we released a new analysis on electric panel capacity and residential electrification. Our goal was to draw attention to the opportunities to clear the path for electrification by introducing policies and incentives for electric panel upgrades.
Earth Day 2021: Is it just us, or does something feel different?
After more than 50 years of celebrating Earth Day, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s taken far too long for the simple concept of valuing our planet to go mainstream. It has taken too long. Climate scientists have been telling us for decades the clock is ticking while the world gets its act together.
What’s Holding Back the Energy Future We’ve Been Promised?
Over the last 10 years of conducting research on electricity use and advanced technologies like electric vehicles and solar systems, my colleagues at Pecan Street have found there are four key technology roadblocks that are holding back innovation and adoption of cleantech products, services and systems.
The Role of Consumer Data in Clean Energy Deployment
An article by Pecan Street's CEO Suzanne Russo was recently published by Forbes about the role of consumer data regulation in accelerating clean energy deployment. This is Russo's first article to be published as a member of the Forbes Technology Council.
We Don’t Have Time to Solve Problems One-at-a-Time. And We Don’t Have To.
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street - We can’t solve all of our problems independently – we don’t have time. And science tells us we don’t have to. So Pecan Street is adopting a Wicked Solutions approach to all our work. We will apply our unique capabilities to identify and prioritize the wicked problems that sit at the nexus of climate change mitigation and adaptation and focus our effort toward developing wicked solutions.
New Pecan Street Annual Report
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street - Our special edition annual report shares highlights from our first 10 years and recaps activities from the past fiscal year (FY 2018-19). The Pecan Street team had a lot of fun thinking back on everything we’ve accomplished so far — I hope you enjoy reading about these projects as much as we enjoyed working on them.
White Paper: Exploiting the Energy-Water Nexus to Reduce Emissions and Conserve Water
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street – Our new white paper uses Pecan Street's unique datasets of home energy and water use data to estimate the climate emissions potential of residential electricity and water conservation and identify the household energy uses with the highest water intensity and the water uses with the highest energy intensity.
On COP 25 “Ambition Day,” Pecan Street Announces Soil Research Initiative
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street – The scale of the climate change challenge requires solutions of equal scale, and carbon sequestration within farmland soils offers a unique opportunity to reduce emissions. We believe the Pecan Street model can help to accelerate progress toward realizing the potential of this critical carbon sink.
How is an Electric Grid Like an Octopus?
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street – We know that achieving the kind of emission reductions we’ll need to ward off the worst consequences of climate change will require a more flexible, responsive and sophisticated grid. And that will take new thinking. But when it comes to rethinking our grid, we may have some guidance from natural systems that were designed long before the first watt ever powered a lightbulb.
Pecan Street @ 10: Putting People and Privacy First in a Data-Centric World
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street – We may be in the research field, but with our participants, we’re in the trust business. The reason we have been able to develop our new technologies and share the research insights we’ve discovered over the last ten years is that regular people have been willing to share their information with us.
Data: The Fifth Utility?
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street – The data challenge extends far beyond Amazon, Google and Facebook. Data is everywhere. In our work at Pecan Street, conversations about distributed energy are often conversations about data.
What 1-second data can tell you about voltage and solar
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street One topic we’ve been focusing on recently is voltage stabilization. It’s not sexy, but it’s important. In short, the goal is to keep voltage on the grid as constant as possible. A number of things upset that constancy, and operators have developed a number of responses, from load shifting to capacitor banks, reactors and more.
Annual report and year end review.
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street The past year was one of successes, reflection and transition at Pecan Street, and we’re proud to share with you how we’ve continued — and expanded — the organization’s commitment to world-class energy and water research. You can download the entire Annual Report here.
Pecan Street’s high-resolution data is unlocking grid mysteries
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street Clean electricity is booming. Last year in California, solar power plants generated nearly 12% of the state's total electricity production and distributed solar likely produced another 5%. Texas got 18% of its electricity from wind and solar. In many markets, unsubsidized clean energy costs the same or less than conventional fossil-fuel powered plants. And the cost of clean, renewable electricity continues to fall.
Better late than never, right?
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street You know those friends you haven’t seen in a while…the ones that you KNOW have been busy trying to change the world, but haven’t bothered blogging about it? That’s us.