The upcoming Nature Record National Assessment synthesizes knowledge about U.S. lands, waters and wildlife and the variety of benefits they provide. Nicholas Institute expert Lydia Olander is a coauthor of this first-of-its-kind accounting of what is happening to nature across the country, why it matters to our daily lives and options for decisions ahead.

A major driver of rising energy bills is the cost of building grid infrastructure to serve new data centers, electric car chargers and manufacturing plants, but even as demand grows, there is a lot of unused capacity already on the grid, reports Latitude Media. Last year, Duke University researchers found across the U.S. there may be 100 gigawatts to spare, if only utilities and state energy regulators could both measure and unlock the extra room.

Duke University expert Martin Doyle explained during the 2026 Emerging Issues Forum that many North Carolina water systems are not collecting enough revenue from their customer bases to cover their operating and maintenance costs. “The challenge for this is that we have a large number of water systems that are operating right at the financial threshold," he said.

"If the energy transition is an engineering challenge, it is equally a capital allocation—and governance—challenge. And neither is simple," writes Nicholas Institute Director Brian Murray on LinkedIn. Murray's article offers several key takeaways from Duke's third "From Billions to Trillions" summit, which convened hundreds of business leaders, investors, policymakers, consultants, faculty, students, and practitioners.

Researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and students gathered at Duke University for a workshop focused on a central challenge in climate technology: moving climate ideas out of the lab and into the real world at speed and scale.

State officials this year advanced the next phase of the state’s Flood Resiliency Blueprint, incorporating updated modeling that factors in heavier rainfall, future development and sea-level rise. That marks a shift away from relying solely on historic data and FEMA’s regulatory maps, reports WRAL News. “A lot of the regulatory floodplains really haven’t kept up with what we know is happening,” said Nicholas Institute expert Elizabeth Losos.

A surge in AI-driven electricity demand is colliding with the United States’ push to decarbonize in a moment that requires both urgency and discipline, according to speakers at Duke’s third annual “From Billions to Trillions” summit. The Sanford School of Public Policy recaps two sessions focused on a central question: How can we scale infrastructure fast enough for AI while protecting affordability, reliability and climate gains?

In the coming decades, trillions of dollars in investments will “reshape infrastructure, accelerate clean energy investment, strengthen grids, enable new industrial systems and expand access in emerging and developing economies,” Toddi Steelman, Duke University vice president and vice provost for climate and sustainability, told an audience of industry leaders, academic professionals and students. Steelman's remarks kicked off Duke's third annual "From Billions to Trillions" summit on Feb. 25.

A new Nicholas Institute report suggests the scale of new energy generation needed to meet growing demand could depend less on how much electricity data centers use than on when they use it. “At any given time there’s plenty of unused power on the grid,” report author Jackson Ewing told WRAL News. “The core challenge is those peak moments, which only happen a few times a year.”

With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Duke University’s Heat Policy Innovation Hub is helping to transcribe, formalize, and scale emergency measures like these to confront the growing threat of extreme heat — life-saving measures in a state that recorded 4,688 heat-related emergency department visits in the summer of 2024, nearly 20 percent more than in 2023.

New modeling by Nicholas Institute experts focused primarily on the economic benefits of data center load flexibility, but it also pointed the way to reducing high-emitting natural gas plants by replacing them with solar, wind and battery storage. Author Martin Ross spoke with The Energy Mix about some of the key findings of the analysis and what additional data is needed "to evaluate how the system will respond to the growth in data centers."

This week at Duke University, researchers and engineers unveiled Built to Endure, a new guide aimed at helping small and midsized cities like Chapel Hill better prepare for rising flood risks, reports WRAL News. The 51-page guide outlines practical steps communities can take to assess vulnerabilities, improve planning and use digital tools to model future flood scenarios before investing in costly infrastructure projects.

Unlike during the first Trump administration, efforts to bring coal back to prominence have coalesced into a targeted strategy, Nicholas Institute Director Brian Murray told S&P Global. Between emergency orders keeping coal-fired power plants from retirement, federal financial support and deregulatory moves, "all these things have come into place," Murray said.

More than 100 community members gathered in Gross Hall Wednesday evening for the unveiling of “Built to Endure,” a new guide from Duke University and several partners that promises to help local leaders in making smarter decisions about their infrastructure development, The Chronicle reports.

The global race to net zero is usually told as a story of green start-ups, private investors and bold climate pledges from multinational corporations.