New solar project details: The utility has entered into a power purchase agreement with Sandhills Energy for the Burt County Solar Project, a 250 MW solar facility in Burt County. Expected to be in service in 2029, the project will generate enough electricity to power approximately 50,000 homes.

Very glad to have more solar coming online to meet rapidly growing demand. Much appreciation to the dedicated staff at OPPD and Sandhills Energy who made this happen. #CleanEnergy #LocalPower New solar project helps OPPD expand, diversify its generation portfolio oppdthewire.com/burt-county-...

I’ve listened to @theenergygang.bsky.social podcast for years but find it less useful and informative recently. Specifically, episode 573 with the CEO of EEI, where a 50 minute discussion had zero mentions of, - solar, wind - anything non-fossil - batteries www.woodmac.com/podcasts/ene...

As a nation we can and should have updated laws to protect our environment, specifically including our climate, due to the intentional undermining, rollback, and repeal of the precedent and laws which led to so much progress and improvement in quality of live over the past several decades.

Charging over night maximized wind energy from SPP, and my car is ready to go in the morning. Better for me the grid, the climate. This isn't revolutionary, impressive, difficult. With all of these benefits it is *shocking* how many utilities don't have EV managed charging. Sadly, including my own.

EV managed charging reduces strain and cost on the grid. And it’s easy. Took a trip from Omaha to KC, used a DCFC on the way down, arrived home with ~30 miles range. Instead of charging this afternoon, I waited until now. Utilities should incentivize this extremely simple, beneficial behavior.

This #EarthDay I'm running an off-grid test of my solar and battery. Disconnected last Thursday and now approaching 6 days on 100% solar power. This learning will help inform policy updates at OPPD going forward. I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful spring day! #CleanEnergy #LocalPower 🌎☀️🔋🔌⚡🏠

More and more people keep showing up. Seems like about 5,000 are here and getting ready for the march at 3pm. #NoKings ❌🤴

#NoKings Omaha, NE

Many (most) discussions about geothermal and nuclear completely ignore the downsides of a hyper-concentrated ownership model. They are owned by a few, with sale (at profit) to everyone else. Distributed renewable energy is democratized power, both electric and societal. Clean energy. Local power.

ERCOT, CAISO, and SPP all currently have negative LMP with majority sources being solar and wind. SPP is curtailing (wasting) free clean energy because it is not deliverable to load. Meanwhile, NYISO: $115/mWh Build. More. Transmission.

This morning I successfully tested #BalconySolar at my home so I can understand what policies are needed to provide clean energy, local power, and lower costs, while keeping people and our grid safe and secure. Chart and story from @michael-thomas.bsky.social www.distilled.earth/p/balcony-so...

#Electrify #Solar

As the #Olympics wrap up, I'm celebrating our Gold Medallion Home, "Live Better Electrically" Solar - 2014 EV - 2015 Heat Pump Water Heater - 2023 Whole home battery - 2024 Induction Stove - 2025 One step left for Total Electric Award, replace the furnace. Cheaper, Cleaner, Better - Together

Even with snow as deep as the 6" we got last night, by exposing the bottom to heat from the sun, the #solar panels warm and the snow will melt and slide off. You can see where I used a "roof rake" this morning. Monitoring software is tracking blobs of snow sliding away in the afternoon sun. ❄️🌞🔌⚡

Maybe if we just don't talk about fossil fuels causing damage to the stable and habitable environment, it will just go away. #DontLookUp Yes, it will. www.epa.gov/newsreleases...

Looking forward to vigorous opposition from all of the extremely principled “We shouldn’t pick winners and losers” crowd.

@jortsthecat.bsky.social It is halftime, tell all your friends!

Don’t threaten me with a good time

No, economic development doesn’t “need fossil fuels.” Projections about future demand for oil, gas, and coal that misunderstand or ignore the clean energy transition must not be used to justify investments in future-sunk-cost infrastructure.

The climate change denial science from this administration was illegally bad and wrong. This type of nonsense has no business in policy making at the federal, state, or local level.

The New North Initiative is a collaborative approach by elected leaders to align around a shared vision. I appreciate Sen. Ashlei Spivey leading this work, and I am energized by what this will mean for our community. ericwilliams.substack.com/p/north-omah...

It has been a year of simple choices for when/where I charge my EV to provide the most benefit to me and the grid. Sadly, I have no way to track what % of my charging was during during surplus clean energy hours. My guess is >80% of my kWh were during curtailment on SPP. Happening again right now.

Some day I’ll have to explain to future generations that I remember when we invaded a country, used our military to steal oil, so we could move people and goods short distances. And this was about a decade after we had EVs and cheap solar. No one will believe we were that foolish and shortsighted.

Neat, and I’m glad this tech will exist for edge cases. Important to remember that for most trips, with most cars, for most people a standard Level 2 charger is more than sufficient at a tiny fraction of the cost. Everyone who can charge at home or work should.

Happy New Year 🎉 Celebrating with black eyes peas to bring good luck. The cooking this year was even more enjoyable after upgrading from the plug-in cooktop to a full size induction stove last year. It has knobs 😍 I’m excited to continue my home electrification and clean energy projects in 2026.

There tragically little solar deployed across SPP, and even that paltry amount is now frequently being wasted.

There are few more clear indicators of regional policy and planning being insufficient than watching curtailment across SPP as visualized by @gridstatus.io Storage, transmission, and flexibility of demand are DESPERATELY needed. www.gridstatus.io/live/spp

I am excited about this, #PublicPower is doing distributed capacity procurement. #DERs #DCP "However, he said he is glad the resolution moves the utility toward more distributed energy resources, which typically include measures such as rooftop solar and battery storage." oppd.com/media/321255...

I want coal out of my district. OPPD needs to be supporting, encouraging, and installing clean energy on homes and businesses. This will increase reliability, decrease costs, and provide resilience during service interruptions. I'll continue this work immediately in January. photo credit: OWH

Solar light show over my solar panels #NorthernLights not still so northern, all the way down here in Omaha.

During a policy breakdown at the federal level, our community is dedicated to supporting one another. The fresh food drive this afternoon distributed over 400 boxes of healthy fruits and vegetables. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. #TogetherWeCan #OmahaLeads #OmahaFeeds

Happy Opinions About Solar Day, to all who celebrate. ☀️🔋🔌⚡️ Thanks as always to @solarchase.bsky.social for providing thoughtful and understandable analysis of the current situation, and views looking forward.

if you see this quote with the energy u bring to blue sky #EV #RipIt

Talking about 300x more miles per acre on Solar + EV than ethanol + ICE… is my love language. Calculations vary slightly, but the conclusion is the same: solar is better on all measurable metrics than corn ethanol. No matter how “prime” the farmland is.

"We are, quite suddenly, living in a world-changing moment" 380 GW of solar deployed in the first half of the year. No other technology can deliver speed to market or anchor the load growth coming the next few years. The US can add 100GW of rooftop solar+ storage in record time.

An exciting time at OPPD as AMI meter deployment is about to begin. Great to have something as helpful and critical to the clean energy transition on the on cover of our local paper.

The Trump Administration just issued a new order trying to kill solar and wind because they allegedly use too much land. But somehow this new fervor for "capacity density" won't apply to ethanol, which uses 100X as much land as solar per unit of energy. www.eenews.net/articles/ano...

NEW: i spoke to nine (!) scientists across several disciplines whose work was cited in the new Department of Energy report that downplays the severity of climate change. all of them say their work was misrepresented, cherry picked, and/or lacked context —

Additional reminder that for a given land area needed to drive 1 mile in an ICE vehicle fueled by ethanol you can drive *_300_* miles in an EV powered by solar For more, check any of the great recent podcasts where @mikegrunwald.bsky.social has discussed his book "We Are Eating the Earth."

Heading for my return trip. The L2 charger where I was staying had a problem so I am fast charging before hitting the interstate. ChargePoint: out of service 😒😡 Tesla: parked every other, in a way I couldn’t access a charger, eventually was able to nose in. Some process improvements are needed.

Back on the road to continue my electric adventure. Having driven an EV every day for ~10 years, I don’t have any range anxiety even on this trip. I know where I’m headed, I know there is a charger available, and I’ll make it there very easily. Driving range estimates in my Mach E are very accurate.

I am on my first EV roadtrip in my MachE. Started from home with a full charge (extended range battery, 91 kWh). Let’s see how this goes…

Reminder that there will be *NO* credibility for anyone who pretends they didn't know the severe damages from #OBBBA when it was written, voted, and signed. Literally everyone knew it meant: - higher energy prices for families - to fund tax cuts for the wealthy www.npr.org/2025/07/15/n...

Meanwhile in the US:

This is essentially a playbook for how to make our energy system more expensive and less reliable as customer demand for increasing demand / consumption strain utilities and our entire grid.

I very strongly disagree with the priorities of this administration as shown in the reconciliation bill. The consequences of the spending cuts are devastating, all to give tax cuts to the rich. Now is the time to contact your Representative in the House. ericwilliams.substack.com/p/higher-ele...

Out to dinner and a movie to stay cool during a massive #HeatDome which will be increasingly common due to climate change from fossil fuel emissions. #ShowYourStripes

Very weird and disappointing to watch the US fall farther and farther behind through intentional policy choices.

I'm glad so many people showed up to protest on June 14th. I wanted to suggest one thing motivated people can do that will help with the long term structural changes we need: If you have fossil fueled equipment that is approaching the end of its life, replace it with an electric version.