Energy Flow Charts
12/2/202515 min
LLNL’s Energy Flow Charts have become one of the clearest ways to understand the nation’s energy system. Learn how these diagrams capture everything from pandemic shutdowns and shifting fuels to wasted energy we never see. From classrooms to Capitol Hill, these charts help the country plan for what comes next.
Guests featured (in order of appearance):
Hannah Goldstein, System and Policy Analysis Group Leader, LLNLKimberly Mayfield, Research Scientist, LLNL
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Big Ideas Lab is a Mission.org original series.
Executive Produced by Levi Hanusch.
Script by Lacey Peace...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[bell rings] Inside a sixth-grade classroom, a teacher dims the lights and directs the students' attention to a projector.
Speaker 1· Soundbite0:08
Okay, good morning, class. I wanna call your attention to the screen up front.
Speaker 00:13
On the screen appears a brightly colored chart featuring thick, twisting bars extending from left to right.
Speaker 1· Soundbite0:19
We'll start on the left-hand side and move to the right.
Speaker 00:22
Some are as wide as rivers, others as narrow as threads.
Speaker 1· Soundbite0:27
This is energy.
Hannah Goldstein· Guest0:29
In the boxes, they're all different colors. Solar is yellow. Natural gas is a light blue. Hydro is a darker blue. And then you can follow them all the way through.
Speaker 00:39
All the way through to what's used and what slips away.
Hannah Goldstein· Guest0:44
That is one of the most interesting, underrated boxes. That's the rejected energy.
Speaker 00:49
A few kids lean forward. For the first time, they can see energy, where it comes from, where it goes, and how much of it disappears along the way.
Speaker 3· Soundbite1:02
So we get resolution- Hundreds of miles away in Washington, D.C.,
Speaker 01:07
analysts are leaning forward in front of the exact same charts. They've waited all year for the vital information it provides to decide how secure the nation is and where to take action.
Hannah Goldstein· Guest1:21
That is why Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was tasked with it, because for a nation to be secure, you also really need to be secure in your energy infrastructure