Reviewing the syllabus for Energy fascinated me greatly as the assigned readings about the current administration’s gutting of clean energy dismayed me. Holding both these feelings together seems like an overall positive for this course as I feel better prepared to prepare my community for increasing energy-related challenges. The syllabus sparked those feelings and also sparked further points of inquiry.
First, the NYTimes podcast featuring energy reporter, Coral Davenport, made me explore more of her aritcles. In one article (Trump Wants to Unleash Energy, as Long as It’s Not Wind or Solar), Davenport mentions that Trump failed to mention: “solar panels, wind turbines or battery storage, which are three of the fastest-growing sources of electric capacity in the United States.” I had never encountered battery storage, or BESS. They seem to be storage places where lithium batteries are hooked up to a grid (based on my very limited knowledge and minimal research). We’ll spend time talking about batteries, but how does this kind of large-scale battery operation work? Is it really clean, or is that relative to fossil fuels?
Second, I remembered seeing something about mushrooms using electrical energy. I did find that some researchers at Cornell powered some small robots with the aid of mushrooms, in 2024. How does any of that even work? Curious about Bioelectricity in general and how our bodies produce electricity chemically. Physics is hard enough to wrap my head around so throwing chemistry into the course might make my brain stop working. However, a lot’s going on with it, and I’d love to learn more about sustainable energy in all shapes and forms.
Ryan Rotella 
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