Areas of Expertise:

Clean Energy, Demand Side Management, Energy Economics, Energy Efficiency, Power Sector, R&D, Regulation, Renewables, Smart Grid

Additional Areas of Expertise:

Demand Side Management; energy systems analysis

Brent Nelson is a Senior Energy Analyst at Ascend Analytics, working with utilities on power system resource planning. He was formerly an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University, with a focus on renewable energy adn energy systems analysis. He also spent two years at the US Department of Energy as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the Building Technologies Office. He completed his graduate work at GeorgiaTech, earning masters and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering, and he completed a postdoctoral fellowship studying design innovation and engineering design education. Prior to his time at GeorgiaTech, he completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, where he graduated with high honors.

Recent Posts by Brent Nelson

• How Demand-Side Management Can Reshape Our Energy Use

Recent Comments by Brent Nelson

• "It’s difficult to make common threads between the two. California has a mixture of market and regulatory structures that results in the worst of both"
  Texas’ Freeze, Energy Foresight, and Preparedness
• "It's difficult to make common threads between the two. California has a mixture of market and regulatory structures that results in the worst of bot"
  Texas’ Freeze, Energy Foresight, and Preparedness
• "Full disclosure: I worked at DOE during Dr. Moniz' tenure as Energy Secretary. I especially appreciate the principle of focusing on 'all GHG emitting"
  A Framework for The Green Real Deal
• "Another big issue (for the building sector) is the difficulty to value energy efficiency in property assessment. As a result, efficiency upgrades beco"
  But First, Energy Efficiency
• "To echo the comments of others, this seems to be a cludgy approach carbon management. Putting an actual price on carbon would help create economic inc"
  USE IT Act: Reducing Emissions Through Carbon Use Innovation, Not Regulation
• "While this may not have been Farangmeher's original point, recapture of waste heat could result in significant carbon emission reductions if that wast"
  USE IT Act: Reducing Emissions Through Carbon Use Innovation, Not Regulation
• "It has always been unclear to me what problem is solved by blockchain. For example, it allows distributed transaction between energy entities (consume"
  How Blockchain is Changing Energy
• "Another good question - I guess I don't see mitigation (i.e. prevention) in a different category than restoration. Both are approaches to preventing l"
  Coal, Nuclear, and National Security
• "That's a great question, and part of my issue with the general conversation around resilience. Resilience against an extended duration (even if unlike"
  Coal, Nuclear, and National Security
• "In response to your questions: 1. The implications would be almost universally bad...worse emissions, higher costs to consumers, delayed innovation"
  Coal, Nuclear, and National Security