Our climate in the next thirty years will not look the same as today, and that’s exactly why our energy systems will soon look completely different. Energy systems are the big umbrella of how and where we create electricity, how we transport that electricity, and how we use electricity. We’re discussing the past and the future of our energy environment with Emily Richardson, a Masters of Engineering student in the Energy Systems Program. In the interview we learn about how our current energy infrastructure works, why it’s pretty darn old, and what needs to change (quickly) for our upcoming future where renewables contribute significantly more to the grid and more distributed power generation systems (like home solar panels) really complicate the picture. But there are solutions, many of them! But we need to build and retrofit carefully to accomodate these upcoming shifts in our energy future.