Reminder that 1) we need to cut fossil fuel emissions immediately and sharply and 2) even if fossil emissions were eliminated immediately, food system emissions could still prevent the world from keeping warming below 1.5-2C. So big changes to food production and consumption are also necessary.

Hmm, I have run a year's 15-minute solar production and house consumption through a very simple dispatch model to calculate whether we should buy a battery and if so, what size. (Only a year's data, because we have only had the electric car for a year).

The problem is that it's very hard to make money from a hype bubble bursting (short selling is limited in scope), so the incentives are all in the direction of keeping it going. (It's a good article whether you agree with the central premise or not).

This is a phenomenal long read. The sort of article it's incredibly difficult to get permission and resources to write nowadays.

This is the Marktecke in Olten, where one can buy unpackaged lentils, olive oil etc if you bring your own container. I love this shop and if I bought Halloween treats here I would be the worst parent ever, even worse than the time I made flapjacks for summer camp.

The baby (now 12 weeks) is the least trouble of my family, but sometimes he gets angry that he was offered milk when it wasn't wanted. Then he remains angry until he gets hungry, which makes him angrier. Then he is too angry to eat. This state of impasse takes some time and screaming to resolve.

Saudi Arabia has had big solar targets for a while (technically solar thermal and PV, but we always expected the solar thermal to end up being PV). The build slowed down in 2022 when PV prices ticked up, and has now kicked off again 'cos PV panels got cheap.

A thread from 2021 in which I explained our solar build forecasts and why we have a buffer. Our actual forecast is much higher now, but many of the problems are the same.

This is a cool research project and all knowledge is worth having. But as it says, land is plentiful there, so the benefits for the crops would have to be meaningful for it to make sense on a larger scale. (It's currently a research project subsidising kale giveaways...)

Time for 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of November 2025. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...

BNEF estimates that silver use in PV averages 8.96mg/W in 2025, compared with 11.2mg/W in 2024. This aligns directionally with The Silver Institute's estimate of PV silver demand being 195.7 million ounces in 2025 vs 197.6 in 2024. www.bnef.com/insights/37529

Good morning! The sun is shining, I have only one child to look after, and I fear nothing except climate change, physical and mental deterioration, social situations, and paperwork in German.

It has been three weeks of Swiss school holidays, I have a 7-year-old child and a new baby (hence parental leave) and I admit I saw @mliebreich.bsky.social 's email "My Favourite Slide" and thought immediately of a different sort of slide. open.substack.com/pub/mliebrei...

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand: Project has no PPA.

Still on maternity leave. Baby fat? Yes, baby very fat.

This article is just bollocks, isn't it? There are lots of good reasons not to eat many Doritos, but the carbon footprint of the corn going into them isn't one of them, because eating almost anything else would be worse. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

... I mean, that's still not very much money per year. But Zurich is a prime example of a modern city where it makes sense for rich people to take public transport - for most journeys, just massively more convenient. (This is somewhat true for the rest of Switzerland).

On Sunday, #Zürich residents voted 52.8% in favor of increasing parking fees for cars according to weight. The owner of a BMW X2 (Diesel), which weighs 1,675 kilograms, will now pay equivalent of €717 Euros per year to park on a public street. (Before, about €321.) Direct democracy!

Get a heat pump, get a job installing insulation or selling EVs, go to local council meetings in support of bike lanes or solar parks or dense housing near public transport. Run for political office, or at least vote. Recommend flight-free holiday destinations to others. (Delete as applicable).

NEW STARTER PACK! This time I’m hoping to encourage and support global urbanists from OUTSIDE North America here on Bluesky, so hopefully this will help! Who’ve I missed? Just joined? Let me know! I’ll keep updating, so please keep checking & sharing this pack! And let’s try using #GlobalUrbanists.

Going to work on an update to my annual solar opinions thread over the next few weeks, when the baby isn't complaining to management. Any particular topics you'd like me to comment on? No promises, but I'll consider questions.

The best book I have read on maternity leave so far is Adrian Tchaikovsky's 'Service Model'. It's funny at first, and then cold fingers start to play down your spine. The AI does not hate you. The AI just has pre-set priorities completely inappropriate to the situation. Which is lethal.

Seeds that have been buried in mud for a thousand years can still grow?!

"The line between optimism and delusion is fine one"😂... we should have used that as a subtitle for our latest report;)... bsky.app/profile/clea...

It's important to celebrate even quite small reasons for climate optimism, because otherwise you will succumb to despair, and that will help nobody. Sure, the line between optimism and delusion is a fine one, but you have to get out of bed in the morning and sometimes for that you need delusion.

I love the local public swimming pool, in Roggwil. Sadly as the days get cooler it is more and more like a private swimming pool, and it closes for the season on Saturday.

Solar panels now cost peanuts (under 10 cents per W) in most of the world. Carbon dioxide emissions in high-income countries are now falling, and there's reason to believe other countries will be able to develop much more sustainably than those did. ourworldindata.org/grapher/annu...

Child when we have a day completely free: Mama I'm BORED what shall I DOOO... Child when we have a fairly busy day planned and are scrambling to get ready: Mama can I go to the garden to collect sunflower seeds to save for the birds in winter?

lolol I WFH today but I did find some old pics so here it is in its rickety glory (yes, I used light-up bricks for the boiler)

India has a better chance of building a significant domestic solar supply chain than the US by 2035. Though it's a boom right now and will go through a bust.

To be fair, greentech deployment and climate action was never a race, it was a fitness program. Nobody has to win, everyone should want to improve. Perfectly valid to say "well done China! Can I get a quote for some solar panels and batteries?"

Thread is accurate and worth reading.

nice thing about walking roughly 4 miles to buy a bike is that it's erased any "should i REALLY buy a bike right now" cuz i'm not walking four miles back

1. Capex. Unless you are unlucky enough to be in the US you shouldn't be paying more than $2/W for PV (anyone want to benchmark battery capex?) 2. Are they bullshitting you about payback period by, eg, assuming power prices will rise dramatically? Bad sign.

This seems like progress, now to see what it means in practice. My village, Fulenbach, is an exporter of power on a sunny day - a difficult situation for the village (!!) utility.

I am currently quiet on clean energy because this household is in the trenches of having a new baby. So. Much. Pee. So much laundry. So much trying to tell if a grumpy noise means the strange little creature wants something, or something is wrong, or if he's just trying to fart.

I’d forgotten about this! One for the ages

This is progress. (Though some of it is driven by a slowdown in construction. And in the past, emissions from the power sector have been substantially determined by rainfall and therefore hydro generation over the summer in southern provinces).

Aussie chiming in: it's more of a pet name. It definitely gets used, but I don't think it's quite as ubiquitous as Maccas is for McDonalds. Probably hear AC/DC and Acca Dacca in equal amounts.

TIL: While most of the world pronounces AC/DC as “A-C-D-C”, in their native Australia, they go by “Acca Dacca”.

Can also recommend Inventing the Renaissance. It is, for starters, very funny. Just re-read Terra Ignota in hospital and I would only recommend it to some, but it is a very interesting bash (ha) at exploring a phenomenally complex world without gender, scarcity, or borders.

Been busy this week. My clean energy work is going to be essentially nonexistent for the rest of the year, though sure I will get bored and be back intermittently. Child 2 is reassuringly normal, I am much better for being home from hospital and having aircon.

This is excellent. Yes, it will still need to draw from the grid, especially in winter. But having planned and integrated EV charging and local batteries, operating in combination as demand flexibility to prevent power use spikes, is the way forward to integrate local renewables.

We use nearly 40M acres of cornfields to grow ethanol. Nearly 40M acres of solar farms (with some batteries) could easily power the country, even if we all drove EVs and used AI. www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/o...

When they tell you about Chinese demand problems: "Cutting the other way, BNEF’s early outlooks projected that China’s EV demand would remain policy-led until 2025. Instead, organic consumer demand took over around 2022." 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳 #alwaysbecharging @colinmckerracher.bsky.social ✍️ for #bloombergnef

This by @sammyroth.bsky.social is a really good example of mainstream coverage of my sector - a generally positive tone but lots of interesting details about LA's power situation (eg the planned hydrogen co-firing plants). Also $39.64/MWh for 2019 solar + storage! www.latimes.com/environment/...

Just saying: we don't talk about this trend enough.

This is the US National Energy Laboratory (NREL)'s 1Q 2025 update on the US and global PV market, with some great data points. (California generated 32% of electricity from PV in 2024 though iirc some nuance in generation vs consumption due to imports). docs.nrel.gov/docs/fy25ost...

This feels like a silly false dichotomy. Of course we're building renewables to displace fossil fuel consumption. And it's working in many OECD economies, getting there in others! With cheap RE we finally have a great answer to "hur hur if we close the coal plants what does your computer run on".

Me calling the avian vet: please I need an appointment, my goose is sick Vet's receptionist: what are the symptoms? Me: she's quiet VR: ok but what are the symptoms Me: you don't understand, she is going to DIE