Michael Barnard’s TFIE Strategy Briefing

Michael Barnard’s TFIE Strategy Briefing

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Why Are There So Many Bus Companies in Glasgow?
London has plenty of private bus operators too. The difference reveals what Britain changed about public transport forty years ago—and why the…
 • Michael Barnard
Zero-Emission Bus Procurement Has Converged on Battery-Electric
The 2026 procurement record across 81 countries now supports battery-electric as the reference case for zero-emission bus fleets.
 • Michael Barnard
The Fabric First Trap Is Still Thinking About Winter
Cold homes matter. So do lethal summer heat and indoor air quality. Social-housing retrofit needs to protect people year round.
 • Michael Barnard
Graphyte Buries Biomass. That Should Be the Last Thing We Do With It
Carbon Casting can remove carbon. The harder question is whether drying, wrapping and burying useful biomass is a sensible use of a scarce biological…
 • Michael Barnard
Verdox Captured CO₂ From an Aluminum Smelter. Is That the Right Carbon to Capture?
The technology passed a meaningful test on a difficult industrial exhaust stream. The investment case depends on what it costs to handle the entire…
 • Michael Barnard
Hawaiʻi’s LNG Bridge Has an Expensive Far Shore
Solar and batteries could protect Hawaiʻi households while shrinking the market for LNG and its costly ammonia exit.
 • Michael Barnard

September 2026

New York’s e-bike death count is a car and truck crash count
The new vehicles get the fatality headlines. The cars and trucks in the crashes, and the costs of the trips they replace, are too often missing.
 • Michael Barnard
Heart Flew on Batteries. Its Airliner Still Needs Turbines.
The ES-36 maps the moving boundary between battery power and liquid-fuel energy.
 • Michael Barnard
Kraaken’s Math Doesn’t Add Up
The floating AI platform promises power, water and mobility. Its public engineering still leaves the hardest balances open.
 • Michael Barnard
SEAI Found Deep Retrofit Needn’t Come Before Heat Pumps
Ireland’s 2022 heat study distinguished necessary fabric improvements from extensive renovation. Its July 2026 grant changes revisit that distinction.
 • Michael Barnard
HyFlux Has A Clever Motor. It Still Has A Hydrogen Aircraft Problem.
A clever motor inside a weak hydrogen aviation system.
 • Michael Barnard
Ocean Thermal Energy Works. That’s Not Enough.
The oceans contain an immense amount of heat, and OTEC can turn some of it into electricity. The problem is how much infrastructure it takes to extract…
 • Michael Barnard
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