Ruben Cortez

Ruben Cortez covers green tech and clean energy for BitsFromBytes from Phoenix, where he drives a Hyundai Ioniq 5 he has owned since 2023 and runs an 8 kW residential solar installation on his own home that he installed with a local Arizona cooperative in 2024. Before becoming a journalist he spent four years at a US environmental think tank analyzing state-level clean energy policy, which gives him an unusual ability to explain why the gap between federal climate targets and on-the-ground adoption in the desert Southwest is not what the headlines suggest. Ruben reviews EVs from the perspective of a working parent who needs the car to actually survive 115-degree Phoenix summers and the Interstate 10 commute, not from the perspective of a track-day enthusiast. His solar and home energy content is built on his own electric bills, his own inverter data, and his own mistakes rather than on manufacturer brochures. Outside work he restores vintage Schwinn road bicycles with his older brother and teaches a weekly community cooking class.

Electric vehicles, residential solar, home batteries, e-bikes, heat pumps, EV charging infrastructure

Green Tech