Reflections on a Boom hubs.la/Q042JDJ70

Five tech companies are on track to spend $700B on AI infrastructure in 2026 — a one-year commitment bigger (relative to U.S. GDP) than anything except the Louisiana Purchase. In this week’s blog, @nathanielbullard.com steps back to ask what endures after the boom. Read more 👇 hubs.la/Q042JF640

Final EIA-860 is out, and 2025 really did it: 54 GW of new U.S. electric capacity, 96% clean. Solar again carries the offense, and we built more storage in 2025 than the cumulative total through 2023. More and more and more additions... but also record low retirements.

Had to screencap this @shastingssimon.bsky.social @raviam.bsky.social @laughlax.bsky.social @costasamaras.com @shannonosaka.bsky.social Super Bowl moment

Singapore new car sales by country of origin. Japan now sells about 1/4 the number of new cars that it did in 2016; China sells almost the same number as Japan (up from 5 in 2015).

Singapore new car sales by country of origin. Japan now sells about 1/4 the number of new cars that it did in 2016; China sells almost the same number as Japan (up from 5 in 2015).

Asia just puked Silver. Yikes

BREAKING: Tesla is ending the Model S and Model X programs, Elon Musk just announced on Tesla's earnings call techcrunch.com/2026/01/28/t...

So we have a new record peak demand for Vic tonight (and still climbing!)

Do you like charts? Oh yes you do. I've just published hundreds of them, as I do every year. www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations

US emissions in 2025 were not meaningfully impacted by the federal policy changes in 2025, but we project that those policy changes could have increasing effects in the years to come. Read more in our new note: rhg.com/research/us-...

We’re pleased to announce that @newautomotive.org, a leading think tank working on the transition to electric vehicles, is joining Ember. Find out more 👉 https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/ember-and-new-automotive-join-forces-to-accelerate-electrification

Water your tree.

Any hard SF writers out there in search of a truly challenging new locale? arxiv.org/abs/2509.04558

Requiescat in Pace, Claude

Introduce yourself with 5 concerts you've seen: - Pink Floyd - The Indigo Girls - Dave Brubeck - Explosions in the Sky - Morcheeba

Watching cooking shows with the child, engaging in my favorite temperature rubric 0° Fahrenheit: cold 100° Fahrenheit: hot 0° Celsius: cold 100° Celsius: dead 0° Kelvin: dead 100° Kelvin: dead

"One geothermal-startup founder spoke of receiving a call from a potential investor’s adviser, who said, Sorry, the managing partner wants to invest in a blimp company instead." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Did you wake up the day before Thanksgiving and think "you know, my working hours aren't complete without a thorough explainer on the weirdest electrical load day of the year in the US?" Well then, I've got you covered! Happy reading from me and @halcyonai.bsky.social hubs.la/Q03VT-v20

By Monday, Australia will have surpassed 100,000 small battery systems installed and registered since 1 July when household batteries became eligible for rebates.

Once every 18 months or so I end up re-surfacing this article for reasons, and then laughing when I realize that @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social is the author www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

One guess (OK, two guesses) at what's behind the forecast growth in industrial power demand in Idaho www.linkedin.com/posts/natbul...

This is why trends are more important to pay attention to than a blanket "but fossil fuel use is rising". That's the only way to anticipate the turning points. Falling fossil fuel use in the power sector and the WHOLE economy is now possible in China 🇨🇳

NEW | China’s clean energy boom and rapid electrification are creating the conditions for a FOSSIL DECLINE at home and abroad⚡ Fossil use in end-use sectors plateaued in 2015--while electricity use grew 65%, becoming central to 🇨🇳’s energy system. https://loom.ly/psjqvhE

Consumers Energy has 54 data center load interconnection requests. The smallest is 4 megawatts. The larges is 2,200 megawatts. Total capacity: more than 22 gigawatts. halcyon.io/blog/machine...

Energy markets move fast ⚡️ Introducing new market intelligence so you can gain an edge: Large Load Tariff Tracker → 50 tariffs (market leading coverage) Gas Power Plant Tracker → 146 assets / 72GW (up from 65GW in July) Here’s @nathanielbullard.com on how we do it: hubs.la/Q03DMqcr0 #energysky

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).

@conorsen.bsky.social "Perhaps inevitably, there now exists a Dubai chocolate bar in the shape of a Labubu" @amandamull.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

DENNING: ".. We are in year one of a Trump administration that is determined to crush what he has called the EV 'hoax.'" Ford's plan "must surely trouble even the most committed ideologues to see their anti-EV onslaught hasn’t .. changed the direction of travel." www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The current ~$350bn run rate for tariff revenues is roughly 0.4% on core PCE (without second-round effects) or a 1.2%-pt hit to aggregate corporate sector margins. So far it looks like most of that is going to inflation.

EVs in America: The ruling party tries to kill them but Detroit keeps trying to build them @opinion.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Mark your calendars: AOL is discontinuing dial-up internet service on September 30 help.aol.com/articles/dia...

A weekly log of mastication activity in Nevada. IYKYK halcyon.io/blog/whatsha...

Great short series from @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social on China solar (and wind) in the first half of 2025

Important data drop that I've been waiting for on China's massive solar installations in H1: 🌞 solar power capacity additions doubled year-on-year to 212 gigawatts, with total capacity at the end of H1 increasing a whopping 54% year on year

Important details from this story: 1) Yet another news-break by student journalists (this time @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025... 2) Harvard saying "see you in court," not "let's make a deal." 3) Per Garber, WH/MAGA leaked news of a "deal." NYT then ran with it.

At the top, universities changed from engines of upward mobility to zero-sum knife fights among the top 20% of Americans. It does feel like a metaphor for some other areas of American life.

Nice to see this now-canonical @ember-energy.org chart rebuilt by GS, and in @alphaville.ft.com (thanks @robinwigglesworth.ft.com). www.ft.com/content/5a97...

Bunnings launches zero up-front offer for home batteries and rooftop PV #energysky -- via Renew Economy: reneweconomy.com.au/...

I've been reading everything that @mliebreich.bsky.social writes for nearly two decades. His latest doesn't disappoint. about.bnef.com/insights/cle...

This year, India will beat the US on renewables deployment. Its goal to reach 500 GW in carbon-free power capacity by 2030 now looks achievable. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Whatever could have caused this

Great reporting of late from @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social on electricity rate hikes. I found another very concrete example just now, in Missouri. A minimum 30% hike, and proportionally more for those at the lowest tiers of consumption. Direct from the @halcyonai.bsky.social feed today...

I wrote something about information products and capturing change. It’s both abstract and technical. Happy reading. halcyon.io/blog/machine...

Diesel market crunch coming *despite* weakening diesel demand in China First natural gas-substitution, now electric. "Electric-powered heavy trucks are rapidly gaining market share in China, driven by subsidies and the quick rollout of chargers, further curbing diesel usage"

A brief observation on data center energy and capacity growth. For years, electricity consumption growth YoY lagged capacity growth. Now, it's nearly 1:1.

I had fun as always on @catalyst-pod.bsky.social this week. There's just so much power sector information to wrassle with these days, some of it deeply useful, some of it silly, all of it public and accessible if you can apply technology to it. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...

Every week I look into thousands of US regulatory filings on electricity, gas, and water. Sometimes, they contain gems such as Cutie Pie halcyon.io/blog/whatsha...

Fossil gas really is a big source of energy in the US. www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/