Mike Barnard

1 week ago | medium.com | Mike Barnard

How Megaprojects in Canada and the Netherlands Turned Cost Overruns into Taxpayer BurdensInfrastructure megaprojects have an irresistible allure, and the Netherlands and Canada are illustrative of this. Governments, engineers, and industrial backers alike see in them the potential for transformative leaps forward — massive pipelines to move energy, corridors connecting resources to markets, and infrastructure that promises to underpin entire industries or energy transitions.

1 week ago | medium.com | Mike Barnard

Why Plug Power, Ballard Power, and FuelCell Energy’s ongoing financial gymnastics can’t mask fundamental market flaws. Plug Power’s stock dipped into dangerous territory, trading below the critical $1 threshold required by Nasdaq for more than a month, signaling yet another existential crisis for the firm. This isn’t the first time Plug has flirted with financial oblivion, of course; the company executed a 1-for-10 reverse stock split back in 2011 to dodge delisting.

1 week ago | cleantechnica.com | Mike Barnard

LNG Canada, the massive liquefied natural gas facility at Kitimat, British Columbia, is on the verge of ramping into full operation. Its commissioning marks a pivotal moment for Canada’s energy and climate policy. Promoted as a cleaner alternative to coal and a model of low-emissions LNG infrastructure, the project is also emblematic of a global trend: locking in decades of fossil fuel infrastructure at a time when net-zero ambitions demand urgent emissions reductions.

1 week ago | cleantechnica.com | Mike Barnard

In the wake of the International Maritime Organization’s vote to price carbon in shipping fuels, I had the opportunity to sit down with an insider and expert on maritime decarbonization, Tristan Smith. He’s the director of a maritime advisory services consultancy, UMAS, and professor at University College London. This is a lightly edited transcript of the first half of our conversation. Michael Barnard [MB]: Hi, welcome back to Redefining Energy – Tech.

1 week ago | cleantechnica.com | Mike Barnard

On April 28, 2025, the Iberian Peninsula experienced a dramatic blackout. At exactly 12:33:30, a cascading failure disconnected the grids of Spain and Portugal from the wider European electricity system, plunging millions into darkness. We now have not the hot takes of the usual anti-renewables rabble, but the 192-page report from Spain on the causes.