Energy Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the field an answer needs. A question sitting between two disciplines appears under both, which is why the group counts add up to more than the number of questions.
Not Yet Classified 9
Aswan High Dam
When was the Aswan High Dam completed?
Open Aswan High Dam
Why It Is Open Reference works disagree by three years: the cited engineering profile states construction ran 1960 to 1968, while many standard references give completion as 1970 and the formal dedication as January 1971. The disagreement is definitional, whether completion means the end of construction, the last generator entering service, or the dedication, and the atlas cannot settle a definitional dispute by picking a favorite.
What Would Settle It An authoritative engineering history of the dam, or the Egyptian ministry record, stating which event each date names: end of rock-fill construction 1968, final turbine commissioning 1970, formal dedication January 1971. Encyclopaedia Britannica likely settles the framing but is bot-blocked; the fetch is queued for the owner (this file, part B).
Expertise Needed Engineering history
Question posed in
Power Technology, Projects, Aswan High Dam.
Pioneers
When was Henry J. Rogers born and when did he die?
Open Pioneers
Why It Is Open Biographical sources on Henry J. Rogers, the Appleton industrialist behind the Vulcan Street Plant, document his business role and home in detail but no birth or death date has been found in the sources consulted this pass.
What Would Settle It A primary genealogical record, such as an obituary, gravestone, census entry or probate record, naming his birth and death dates.
Expertise Needed Genealogy and local history
Question posed in
American Society of Civil Engineers Official Site.
Nuclear Power
When will deep geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste become operational at scale?
Open Nuclear Power
Why It Is Open Finland's Onkalo repository, the furthest advanced in the world, remains without an operating licence as of early 2026, with the regulator STUK's decision delayed until the end of June 2026, while the United States shelved its Yucca Mountain repository in 2010 after decades of preparation and billions of dollars of investment, with no replacement site designated since. No country has yet begun routine operation of a deep geological repository for high-level waste, so estimates of when this technology will be proven at scale rest on regulatory and political timelines as much as engineering ones.
What Would Settle It Onkalo receiving its operating licence and beginning waste emplacement, or a comparable repository elsewhere reaching the same milestone, would establish a real-world operating timeline rather than a projected one.
Expertise Needed Nuclear engineering and geology, together with energy policy
Question posed in
Wikipedia, Finland; United States sections.
Compressed-Air Energy Storage
How much long-duration grid-scale energy storage will be needed, and at what cost, as the share of renewable generation grows?
Open Compressed-Air Energy Storage
Why It Is Open Projections of long-duration storage cost and deployment differ because the underlying cost trajectories are themselves uncertain: hydrogen storage costs have a learning rate broadly similar to lithium-ion batteries but described as much more uncertain, and it remains disputed whether dedicated long-duration storage or alternative flexibility options such as demand response, network expansion or flexible generation will prove the lower-cost path to a high-renewable grid.
What Would Settle It Sustained multi-year cost and deployment data across storage chemistries and grids at high renewable penetration, compared against the competing flexibility options, would settle which projection was closer to reality.
Expertise Needed Electrical engineering and energy economics
Question posed in
Wikipedia, Hydrogen and chemical storage; Economics, Market and system value sections.
Just Transition
When, and by whom, was the term "just transition" first used?
Open Just Transition
Why It Is Open The concept's own reference history hedges its origin: it is widely believed, not established, that Tony Mazzocchi of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union coined the phrase in the American labor movement, sometime before the United Nations and the Paris Agreement adopted the framing decades later for climate policy. No precise year or first-use document is cited for the labor-movement origin, only a general attribution.
What Would Settle It A labor history source, an OCAW archive, a biography of Mazzocchi, or a peer-reviewed history of the just transition concept naming the specific speech, pamphlet or year the phrase first appears, rather than the general "widely believed" attribution this entry currently carries.
Expertise Needed Labor history
Question posed in
Wikipedia, Just transition, origin section.
Methane Hydrates
Will methane hydrates ever become a commercially extracted energy source?
Open Methane Hydrates
Why It Is Open NOAA estimates hydrate deposits hold roughly twice the carbon of all proven coal, oil and conventional gas reserves combined, but no country has moved past experimental test extraction. Whether stable, economic extraction is achievable at all is unresolved, not merely undocumented: disturbing a deposit risks a large methane release and submarine landslides, so the open question is as much about whether pursuing it is prudent as whether it is possible.
What Would Settle It A sustained, government- or industry-confirmed commercial production project, or an authoritative engineering assessment (USGS, IEA, or a national hydrate research program such as Japan's MH21) concluding commercial extraction is or is not achievable within a stated timeframe.
Expertise Needed Petroleum and marine geology engineering
Question posed in
NOAA Ocean Exploration, Ocean Facts, What are gas hydrates?.
Nuclear Fusion
When, if ever, will the first fusion power plant begin generating electricity commercially?
Open Nuclear Fusion
Why It Is Open As of 2025 the National Ignition Facility in the United States is the only laboratory to have demonstrated a fusion energy gain factor above one, but the efficiencies needed to reach engineering breakeven, a genuinely net electricity-producing plant, or economic breakeven, where the plant's output pays for its own whole-life cost, are still orders of magnitude away. Every operating fusion device today, including ITER once it reaches full operation, is an experimental or demonstration reactor, not a commercial power source, so no timeline for the first commercial plant is settled.
What Would Settle It A published construction timeline from a national program or private fusion company (ITER, a national laboratory, or a company such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems) confirmed against an independent engineering assessment (IAEA or a national energy department) as targeting genuine grid-connected commercial generation, not a further experimental or demonstration milestone.
Expertise Needed Plasma physics and fusion engineering
Question posed in
Wikipedia, Fusion power, current status.
Nuclear Fusion
When, if ever, will nuclear fusion reach sustained, commercial electricity generation?
Open Nuclear Fusion
Why It Is Open Fusion research has produced real breakthroughs, but every credible timeline for commercial deployment has slipped for decades; World Nuclear Association itself notes the field's own standing joke that commercial fusion has been "about 40 years away" since the 1970s. Current flagship projects target a demonstration of net electricity in the early 2030s to 2040, which is still a prototype, not proof that fusion can be operated economically and continuously at grid scale over decades the way a fission or gas plant is.
What Would Settle It A named fusion plant delivering sustained electricity to a public grid on ordinary commercial terms (not a subsidized one-off demonstration), or an authoritative body such as the IAEA or a national fusion program concluding commercial fusion is or is not achievable within a stated decade.
Expertise Needed Plasma physics and fusion engineering
Question posed in
World Nuclear Association Information Library, Nuclear fusion power, Fusion research section.
Methane Hydrates
When, if ever, will methane hydrates become an economically viable commercial energy source?
Open Methane Hydrates
Why It Is Open Field trials in Japan (2013, 2017), a joint US-Japan trial in Alaska, and a South China Sea trial (2020) have all proven that gas CAN be produced from methane hydrate deposits, but none has run at commercial scale or duration. The US Department of Energy's own account of its Alaska field trial calls the result "proof-of-concept" and "just the beginning," explicitly comparing the remaining path to how long shale gas took to become commercial after its own 1970s-1980s research phase.
What Would Settle It A named methane hydrate operation delivering gas to market on ordinary commercial terms over a sustained period (not a short field trial), or an authoritative body such as the USGS or a national energy department concluding commercial methane hydrate production is or is not achievable within a stated decade.
Expertise Needed Petroleum and gas-hydrate engineering
Question posed in
United States Department of Energy Official Site, US and Japan Complete Successful Field Trial of Methane Hydrate Production Technologies.