Seems like this'll be a bfd if it happens. 🔌💡

EIA has posted electricity generation data for 2025, so I've updated these charts. Solar and coal are up from 2024, gas is down, other sources are pretty flat. The upward trend in total demand is now unmistakable. 🔌💡

I admire this attempt to address a real problem with energy reporting and discourse. And I do think it's helpful to focus more on the consumer end, and on electricity. But the details here seem too complex for most audiences, and "useful energy" seems too hard to define and measure. 🔌💡

When I see these headlines I pull up BloombergNEF's solar exports from China tool, and yeah, Cuba was the destination for $117 million (about 1.3GW) of Chinese solar panels in 2025.

Plenty of folks interested in operating the IPP coal units if the state of Utah will pay them enough to do it! 🔌💡

I remain doubtful that Valar Atomics will ever produce a commercial product—whether or not they manage to turn on this 250kW (thermal?) test reactor by 7/4. It's telling that they're talking about niche off-grid applications rather than competing in the grid business. www.sltrib.com/news/politic...

Was there ever a consensus in the US that we should regulate vehicle efficiency for the sake of climate (or for other environmental reasons)? Or was it merely a fragile alliance of environmental interests and "energy independence" hawks, the latter having vanished now that we're a net oil exporter?

There's a wide spread in energy use per person across the world, but charts like this exaggerate it. Some small countries just happen to have energy-intensive export industries. Meanwhile these data exclude traditional biomass, the main energy source in poor countries. 🔌💡

Without discounting the importance of politics, I have to wonder what Iowa would even do with more wind power. Surely the bigger obstacle must be getting the power out of the middle of the country and to the distant population centers that can use it (also made difficult by politics). 🔌💡

Have fun with that, Elon. A city on the Moon in ten years is somewhat less absurd than a city on Mars in twenty, but neither one is going to happen. The tone here is interesting, though. Almost as if he heard someone criticizing his Mars plans recently…I wonder how that might have happened? 😁

Finally Utah begins to realize that all that talk about nuclear and geothermal power was a fantasy (and of course solar and batteries are off the table because that would be too woke). What they're actually gonna build is a load of new fossil gas power plants—and maybe restart the IPP coal units.

Fusion (with PV) will surpass fission this year, then go on to surpass hydropower in a few more years, then... It's fun to watch this race, even though the ranking isn't what really matters. The "losers" can still contribute to the global energy mix.

The people who "claimed the grid would not be able to function with more than 10%—and definitely not more than 20%—electricity coming from solar and wind" won't actually look foolish unless someone names them. Who were they? I'd sincerely like to know! 🔌💡 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

5 for 5

I agree with the final sentence here, though I'd say it's fine to keep doing lit searches—with or without help from chatbots—after you've begun writing up your work. It's never too late to seek out related work and make sure you're citing whatever references your readers will find most helpful.

40 years ago this morning. “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”

They make it sound like this might actually happen! 🔌💡

Confusing situation. Centralia coal plant in WA has not been restarted, though it's in "cold standby" mode, able to be restarted. It's unclear to me whether the DOE order requires it to actually run or just be available to run, so I'm not sure whether this is "noncompliance". 🔌💡

Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind gets injunction against December 22 stop-work order, allowing construction to resume. That's now 3 for 3 of those projects that have had their day in court; 2 are still pending (gift link). 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/c...

Trump-appointed judge allows New York's 810 MW Empire Wind offshore project to resume construction, pausing the Trump administration's December 22 order to stop work (gift link). 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/c...

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

The tide seems to be finally turning on global coal, as both China and India are now adding enough clean energy to reduce their coal generation: www.carbonbrief.org/...

The increase in emissions was driven by a rise in coal electricity generation due to higher natural gas prices and growing power demand. Colder winter temperatures also drove higher space heating demand in buildings, pushing up direct emissions from fuel use in buildings.

This is a nice try. I have quibbles. But rather than go into them, I oughta just take a crack at it myself. All on one page, eh? ... #iTeachPhysics

More from the NYTimes on the Trump administration's order to stop work on all five under-construction offshore wind farms. $25 billion in investments is at stake. Court hearings start Monday and rulings could come soon (gift link). 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/c...

Old windmill, new windmill. Whiteside, NM.

Maybe this is a good time to remember that data on "proven oil reserves"—while not totally meaningless—can be misleading. The definition isn't very consistent from one country to another. Also, in 1980, US proven oil reserves were 5 billion tons and since then we've produced 21 billion tons. 🔌💡

Developers of Revolution Wind and Empire Wind join Dominion (developer of CVOW) in suing Trump Administration over December 22 order to stop construction work (gift link). 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/c...

Dominion is now the 3rd developer to file suit against the Trump Regime's attempts to revoke federal leases for #offshorewind projects. The industry is not backing down. Nor are we. #YestoWind www.offshorewind.biz/2025/12/29/u...

A List of Predictions Made in 1926 About 2026 🧵

So that's Washington, Michigan, Indiana, and Colorado at least with zombie coal plants forced to stay open

Peak oil! 🔌💡

If you see this post a random fact about yourself: I rebuilt a player piano when I was 15.

There's been speculation that the active #offshorewind turbines at the Vineyard Wind 1 project were turned off following the #TrumpRegime's Monday order. The data say otherwise. Last night #wind output on the @iso-ne.com grid peaked at 1.54 GW - close to a record. You need Vineyard Wind for that.

Merry Christmas from the amazing @acapellascience.bsky.social! www.patreon.com/posts/seven-...

I finally read the op ed. Matt Yglesias is right. (98% right at least, which is an A+ for a NYT op ed). Don't @ me. It's the holidays and I don't have the appetite. But Matty's position is pragmatic, substantively sound, and the only way we have a chance of making progress on climate in this moment.

If offshore wind farms pose a security threat, China is a sitting duck.

Hmm. This didn't hold up very well! Still true that Trump did almost nothing to stop plants from coming online in 2025. No telling, though, how things will play out going forward. 😬 Predictions are difficult, especially about the future!

The global EV race is on: many emerging economies are leapfrogging advanced markets in EV penetration. In Latin America, Uruguay (27%) and Costa Rica (17%) lead in EV share, while Brazil and Colombia are now close to overtaking the United States. https://loom.ly/pMmY5Y8

This is a fantastic short doc on what is the world's greatest engineering project. It's awe-inspiring and dangerous. Bloomberg spent months on it and you can see the result in the efforts. youtu.be/SaJCsDlHOGc...

The BNEF PV new build estimate for 2025 is now just 655GW(DC) after downward revisions for the China market, with a small decline expected in 2026 as China, Brazil, Europe contract. There is just a lot of solar in the major markets now, and negative feedback is kicking in.

Good run-down of the data megacenter proposals being floated around the western states. 🔌💡

Here's a gift link to the NYTimes article on today's order to stop work on all US offshore wind farm construction. 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/c...

This kind of rhetoric seems unconstructive. Yes, of course, solar+batteries are "limiting" the amount of gas burned in CA and TX, but both states still burn enormous amounts of gas. Both @sammyroth.bsky.social and @mattyglesias.bsky.social know all this so what exactly is the disagreement here?

Some interesting details here about TAE and the Trump Media merger. (I still have many questions!) 🔌💡 www.theverge.com/report/84820...

Merry Christmas from the amazing @acapellascience.bsky.social! www.patreon.com/posts/seven-...

Glad to see this substantive rebuttal of Yglesias from Rep. Casten. Many good points. Also some that aren't so good. And an angry tone that I think will polarize rather than educate. I'll offer a few quick thoughts below. 🔌💡