Research Library

As we transition to a 21st-century power grid fueled by renewable energy and controlled by electronics, ensuring the reliability and stability of power supplies will be key. In this issue brief, nonresident scholar Julie A. Cohn explores recent developments and historical analogues crucial for a successful grid transition.

Is the electric grid ready for the era of decarbonization? Nonresident scholar Julie A. Cohn explains why new inverter technology could prove vital for preventing outages and grid instability.

It’s been two years since Winter Storm Uri swept across Texas, and the question of whether and how to end the isolation of the state’s grid remains. Nonresident scholar Julie Cohn offers a brief history of the standalone Texas grid to explore how the lessons of the past can inform the state’s electric power future.

As the energy transition continues, the viability of our power system is at stake. Nonresident scholar Julie A. Cohn explains the need to prepare for next-generation grid technology if we are to maintain a stable, economical and secure power system.

In the second brief of a two-part series on the Chinese Communist Party's 100th anniversary, the author examines the rhetoric of China's president, Xi Jinping, and his deeply nationalistic vision of a unified country that erases ways of being Chinese that do not conform to that of the Han majority.

Based on the results of a survey conducted in March 2021, the authors argue that Mexico's asylum system can be strengthened by bolstering transnational cooperation between Mexican civil society organizations and U.S. policymakers and NGOs.

In the transition to a renewable energy future, we must invest in a new transmission infrastructure – some crossing state borders – that connects intermittent power, traditional power and users, write Center for Energy Studies experts.

This issue brief explores China’s deepening relationship with Costa Rica, which severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2007 to strengthen its economic ties with the PRC. China’s relationship with Costa Rica has opened the possibility for the PRC to reach out to other countries in the region.