Last night I tried a podcast called "How we survive," it was some bullshit I heard about on NPR (back when I still listened to that crap) that I bookmarked because it billed itself as an optimistic jolly little look at the people who're working on the energy transition. Within the first ten […]

Remember when a “legitimate argument” peddled against #evs was the power grid would fail? Too much strain? Oh WOE be to the power lines! Grandma will DIE in her home in August because YOU plugged in! Yet suddenly we are full steam ahead building #datacenters the size of Manhattan to make banana […]

Has anyone noticed how Daniel Craig, having completely redefined Bond, goes on to casually dominate the entire genre of iconoclastic genius detectives in Knives Out? The man absolutely owns whatever he's in, in a way that makes it difficult to even conceive of who might better fill that role […]

In Ep. 264, we kick off a new miniseries on South Africa’s energy transition with one of its key progenitors, Professor Emeritus Anton Eberhard of the University of Cape Town, who has been agitating for power sector reforms there for over 35 years […]

The first renewable day! With solar, wind and battery installations ramping rapidly, it won't be long before we see a town or region or perhaps even a country, run on 100% renewables for a 24 hour period. In tihs blog post I look at isolated examples of towns or regions hitting 100% renewables […]

Guys. Save up your dollars and buy a fully electric car. Not Hybrid. Not PHEV. Electric. They're so freaking cheap. You never go to the gas station. That's it. That's the toot! #ev #electric #car

Brilliant new ad campaign I just spotted at the Southwark tube station in London.

Further explanation needed? Modern strawbuilding is super safe.

Australians to get at least three hours a day of free solar power - even if they don’t have solar panels https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/03/australians-to-get-at-least-three-hours-a-day-of-free-solar-power-even-if-they-dont-have-solar-panels Clever. Congrats to Labor. I […]

the straw panels are prefabricated to fasba.de strawbale building guidelines (download: english and german) spec 🧵2

Let's look inside. #biobased #renewablematerial #strawhouse #carbonstorage 🧵 1/ of a lot, be sure to like and share this post so others can see that climate adaptive building is in the pipeline for elderly people, child care and social housing e.g.

I have a #sleepnumber bed problem and I hope the tinkerers can help. The [old] remotes don't connect to the pump any more. There are some diagnostic steps which I've taken, but they eventually lose connection again. I want to make an inflator that exposes a REST API. The internet-wifi-api […]

What are they up to? The motivations for stockpiling oil at a time when there seems to be an oversupply is hard to fathom. Unlike pure capitalist economies, the central planning style of governance in China makes long-term planning possible, even preferable. What kind of long game play could […]

Tomorrow is a big day. Our Demand Reduction Group is going to extend expts done in UCL's chemistry building to tweak the operation of a subset of buildings to reduce #energy #waste. The changes me made were so extreme, radical, and brave, that no one, aside from the three people looking at the […]

@jonshell I actually HAVE tried, and I assure you that is in fact very difficult. Usually it takes an act of Congress (literally) to make anything happen (like EnergyStar ratings)

Battery-backed appliances can lubricate the transition to an all-electric future. I've been thinking about Impulse Labs' induction cooktop and their ability to deliver high power cooking off a 120v15A circuit. While not cheap (~6K) the actual installation is an easy upgrade for most homes […]

Panel Fever - An overview of recent acitivities around straw structural insulated panels, straw SIP in the US. #strawbuilding www.thelaststraw.org/panel-fever/

90F in the shade. A man attempts to sew pajama pants. He is attached by a large black dog, while sweat drips from his brow and obscures his vision. A hallucination of an oasis appears in his brain as he lacks his cracking, dehydrated lips, just as the dog decides […] [Original post on ai6yr.org]

Seeing a recent post about H2Clipper's autonomous drone swarm, I was fascinated by their idea of using airships to transport generated H2. I've long been enamoured with their efforts to bring airships back as transportation. The idea of lighter than air, heavy lift vessels floating around at […]

And if you missed it, you can find the whole miniseries here: http://www.energytransitionshow.com/Australia2024 https://mastodon.energy/@jonshell/114948729899893589

The Transition Show is essential listening if you want to understand the Global energy situation. I cannot recommend it enough. As a long time subscriber I am happy to provide guest links for full show listens for anyone interested. This is not just a podcast, it’s quality information presented […]

I was impressed enough with Australia's #energytransition progress to create a 6-part miniseries on it: http://www.energytransitionshow.com/Australia2024 Now climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen (see Ep. 246) has increased the capacity investment scheme by 25%! […]

China continues to go at it hammer and tongs. It seems that barely a week goes by without an announcement along the lines of "World's largest flow battery connects to Chinese Grid", or "Cheapest battery auction to date closes with record-low prices". While the headline achievements are […]

I've written an article discussing some likely short-term developments in the EV and renewable energy space on my blog "Hit and Run on the Energy Transition Highway" This latest post explores the world we might find ourselves in once BEVs become the dominant drivetrain, along with a discussion […]

In light of the #wildfire smoke blanketing huge swaths of North America and elsewhere, I’m reposting these instructions on how to build your own #corsirosenthal air filter. During the peak of the pandemic a number of designs were developed for low-cost, high efficiency air filters and the CR was […]

@chrisnelder The developing Spanish/Portuguese/French outage may be a perfect opportunity to post about the utility of the grid-forming infrastructure being deployed in the UK. Seems like many people are starting to understand the need for grid stability services like inertia, frequency […]

Proposal for #hgtv #renovation crossover: Tom Selleck and his Blue Bloods posse flip run down properties in Hawai’i

Unwinding yesterday after a long day of cabinetry, I was watching Roku Channel's Crime Channel, which features Kojak in the early evenings. In one of those enigmatic endings that are the trademark of this show, Savalas saves a woman from taking her own life, and he briefly shows how his job as […]

This is an absolutely fascinating deep dive into a font that has many names and none, and a history far more human and complicated than you might ever suspect. Plus, it uses the web page in ways that showcase the best of how the web can enhance understanding […]

Dismantle public safety → Cause tragic loss of life → Blame scapegoat → Seek greater authoritarian power DOGE is a central part of this playbook. Call it what it is: a threat against public safety.

Before I was fired tonight, I was in charge of information security for VA.gov, which has millions of users per month and stores and processes huge amounts of veterans' personal information. I've been told by people I've worked with that I'm the best at what I do of anyone they've ever worked […]

Exactly. The web wasn’t made by or for billionaires. Social media sucked the life out of many viable ideas. A nonprofit building the tech and operating the pipes has been my dream for 15 yrs. Now we can focus on building quality content that flows thru them. Thanks, Robin, et al!

Why EVs are such a great opportunity for a renewables-based power system (or any power system, for that matter), and why we need universal charging while parked: cars, and even heavy-duty vehicles, are parked most of the time: demand flexibility! (This NREL […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Reminder to those impacted by wildfire smoke -- Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are excellent solutions for indoor filtration, good for smoke, not just airborne pathogens. A $20 box fan, $50 worth of MERV13 filters and a roll of duct tape from your box store will get you an easy-to-build air cleaner […]

Interesting visualization plotting the trajectories of various outlooks for the energy system, such as Oxford's Doyne Farmer and colleagues (see @TransitionShow Ep. 159 and 239), as well as degrowthers like Nate Hagens https://bernardmccarty.substack.com/p/civilization-trajectories-mapping

Interesting to see the emerging critiques of the Tesla model line up. People starting to comment on the “dated” nature of the product offerings. Over at http://electrek.co (@electrek), commenters hint at longer product development cycles. What’s interesting about out this (to me) is that […]

Want to know what’s really happening with UK energy? The latest episode of the Energy Transition Show @TransitionShow with guest Adam Berman from Energy UK is essential listening. Here’s a 20 minute preview: https://energytransitionshow.com/episode-240-evolving-the-uk-energy-system-part-1 (If […]

On a long drive today, passed a #kia dealership, idea occurred to me. Why do dealerships not install fast chargers? It seems so obvious — if I have a Kia #EV and I need #evcharging, I roll in to a Kia dealership. It’s immediately home turf advantage for the dealership — you have me on your […]

Some disturbance in the zeitgeist today has people talking about Kojak , Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. The Roku Channel has been giving these shows some solid airtime. For those of us raised on these classics, it’s an interesting exercise to re-watch them, some of us with the benefit of the […]