Illustrative: atoms and bonds of a lattice with a phonon travelling through it and one dopant site

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

Energy and Resources

Climate and energy technologies

Climate and energy technologies, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Climate and energy technologies: foundations and practice

This area covers the technologies of decarbonisation and climate response and the risks they carry: energy storage, hydrogen, advanced nuclear including small modular reactors and fusion, and carbon dioxide removal with its measurement and permanence.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

Small modular reactors move toward deployment, so scale-up, supply chain and first-of-a-kind delivery risks now need concrete evaluation. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC Approves Construction of Nation's First Small Modular Reactor, 29 September 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define carbon dioxide removal and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain energy storage and battery safety and hydrogen production, storage and safety with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against small modular and advanced reactors, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Energy storage and battery safety
    • Energy storage and battery safety
    • Hydrogen production, storage and safety
    • Small modular and advanced reactors
  2. Fusion research and its timelines
    • Fusion research and its timelines
    • Carbon dioxide removal methods
    • Measurement, reporting and verification
  3. Permanence and reversal risk
    • Permanence and reversal risk
    • Technology readiness and scale-up risk
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • Each doubling of cumulative deployment cuts a technology's cost by its learning rate; the capital cost that results, spread over the cycles a battery delivers and divided by its round-trip efficiency, gives a levelised cost of storage; that number, against the alternatives, is what an investor or a planner compares.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-T12 Energy transition technology risk
  • NRS-H109 Hazard family: Energy-transition technology failures
  • NRS-M15 Method fabric: Energy risk

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC Approves Construction of Nation's First Small Modular Reactor, 29 September 2026
  2. Schmidt et al., The future cost of electrical energy storage based on experience rates, 2017
  3. Schmidt et al., Projecting the future levelized cost of electricity storage technologies, 2019
  4. Way et al., Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition, 2022
02Live map

Energy now in New Zealand

Night-time lights, fires and gas flares, sunshine and heat, the signals of energy use, supply and demand, over New Zealand.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

Energy now

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

Energy now, framed on New Zealand.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MERRA-2 reanalysis, NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • MODIS and VIIRS atmosphere products, NASA LANCE and LAADS DAAC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Past year, daily temperature (ERA5 via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
  • Past year, daily temperature and sunshine (NASA POWER): These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program..
  • Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
  • Optional layers (8 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Incoming sunlight at the surface over land, monthly mean: MERRA-2, NASA GMAO / GES DISC · July 2026
  • Daytime cloud fraction: MODIS Terra, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land surface temperature, day: VIIRS NOAA-20, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

What is changing, with standards and evidence

Climate and energy technologies: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed climate and energy technologies between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Climate and energy technologies: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

Small modular reactors move toward deployment, so scale-up, supply chain and first-of-a-kind delivery risks now need concrete evaluation. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC Approves Construction of Nation's First Small Modular Reactor, 29 September 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in climate and energy technologies since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce construction permit issued for first US commercial small modular reactor on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. Construction permit issued for first US commercial small modular reactor
    • The NRC approved a construction permit for the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a 300 MW boiling-water small modular reactor at Clinch River, Tennessee, after a 14-month review; an operating licence is still required before fuel loading.
    • Small modular reactors move toward deployment, so scale-up, supply chain and first-of-a-kind delivery risks now need concrete evaluation.
    • U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 29 September 2026
  2. US regulator authorises first non-light-water power reactor construction in decades
    • The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorised a construction permit for TerraPower's sodium-cooled Kemmerer Unit 1 in Wyoming, the first commercial reactor construction approval in nearly a decade and the first for a non-light-water design in over 40 years.
    • Advanced reactor licensing is moving from paper to construction, bringing new technology, first-of-a-kind cost and schedule risks into practical assessment.
    • U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 4 March 2026
  3. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  4. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • Grid automation, storage and forecasting.
    • Attacks on control systems, space weather, load growth from AI, hydrogen and storage safety, and advanced nuclear.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-T12 Energy transition technology risk
  • NRS-H109 Hazard family: Energy-transition technology failures
  • NRS-M15 Method fabric: Energy risk

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC Approves Construction of Nation's First Small Modular Reactor, 29 September 2026
  2. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC Issues First Commercial Reactor Construction Approval in 10 Years For TerraPower in Wyoming, 4 March 2026
  3. Schmidt et al., The future cost of electrical energy storage based on experience rates, 2017
  4. Schmidt et al., Projecting the future levelized cost of electricity storage technologies, 2019
  5. Way et al., Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition, 2022
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Carbon dioxide removal

Activities that take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it durably.

Term

Permanence

How long removed or avoided carbon stays out of the atmosphere, and the risk that it returns.

Term

Measurement, reporting and verification

The process of quantifying a climate outcome, reporting it and having it checked independently.

Term

Small modular reactor

A nuclear reactor designed to be built in factory-made modules at a smaller scale than conventional plants.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

Risk Academy
Related

Around Climate and energy technologies: courses

Risk Academy

Study climate and energy technologies with us, or teach it

Every course is free and open. Institutions and experts can co-teach, host a cohort, contribute a lab or review a course before it opens.

Browse the course catalogue Partner with the Academy
Risk Academy

Courses · practice · credentials

Not for profit

Our articles, maps and twins are free to read and free to republish. Readers and partners keep it that way.

Support our work

Who funds us

Risk Academy is a not-for-profit institution. To ask who funds a piece of work, use the funding questions form.

Independence

Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.

Corrections policy

Licence

Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.

Privacy choices