Welcome new Intelligent Energy editor Kirsten Korosec

Energy: it's huge. It's all around us. It permeates our daily lives -- and when it doesn't, it's a major modern catastrophe.

(Just ask any of the hundreds of thousands of people who lost their power this weekend in the wake of Hurricane Irene.)

But there's got to be a better way of going about it. In the future, fossil fuels just won't cut it.

That's why we're happy to welcome to the Intelligent Energy blog Kirsten Korosec, who will focus on the venture capital-funded cleantech startup sector, with a particular focus on Silicon Valley. We think she'll be a nice complement to Melissa Mahony's environmental edge, David Worthington's policy focus and Mark Halper's reports from abroad.

Kirsten joins us from our sister site BNET, as well as MIT's Technology Review and Bloomberg News. She's written about a lot of topics over the years -- politics, education, urban issues -- but she'll be focusing on the business of energy for SmartPlanet.

An alumna of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Kirsten is originally from the Midwest but is now based in the dry, hot, sunny climate of Tucson, Arizona.

You might say we're looking forward to seeing the, um, "energy" she brings to the beat. You should be, too.

Here are some of her recent posts:

• Why Lighting Science's cheap, new LED bulb stands out
• No market fears here: a peek at the IPOs of Genomatica and Ambient
• IBM: Consumers in desperate need of energy education

Please welcome her!

-- The Editors

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com