The UtilityRadar field guide
Utility Infrastructure Guides and Explainers
In depth guides, technology explainers, and data analyses for water, wastewater, power, renewables, and utility infrastructure.
Wave and Tidal Power: Marine Renewables Explained
How wave and tidal energy work, why deployment is small, and where marine renewables are heading.
Capacity Markets and Ancillary Services: How Utilities Get Paid for Reliability
How generators earn revenue beyond energy sales. Capacity markets, frequency response, spinning reserves, and other grid reliability products.
Small Hydro Power: The Overlooked Renewable
Small hydro provides significant renewable power globally with lower environmental impact than large dams. Technology, applications, and outlook.
RTOs and ISOs Explained: Who Actually Runs the Grid
Regional transmission organisations and independent system operators. Who runs which grid, what they do, and why the map matters.
Africa Energy Access: The Largest Energy Poverty Story
Over 600 million Africans lack electricity access. How Africa is expanding energy through grid extension, mini grids, and off grid solar.
Peaker Plants: What They Are and Why They Still Exist
Peaker plants run only a few hours per year during grid stress. How they work, why they still exist, and how batteries are replacing them.
Community Solar and Community Choice Aggregation Explained
How community solar and community choice aggregation work. Who benefits, how programmes are structured, and where they are growing.
The Utility Death Spiral: Real or Overhyped?
The theory that rooftop solar plus efficiency plus fixed utility costs create a collapsing utility business model. What is real and what is overstated.
Green Steel: The Decarbonisation of Heavy Industry
How steel makers are eliminating coal from primary steel production. Hydrogen direct reduction, scrap electric arc, and the path to zero carbon steel.
From reading to data
Every article references real plants. See their data.
Locations, capacity, operators, and permits for 177,000+ utility infrastructure sites across 24 sectors: the same records our writers pull from.