Update on NERC’s Large Loads Task Force = tackling AI/data center integration by stressing the need for reliability, certainty + clear “rules of the road.” Details matter especially when MWs show up before plans do. Identified risks ↓ 🔌💡 www.nerc.com/comm/RSTC/LL...

This week on @cleaninguppod.bsky.social, @worthingtonbry.bsky.social spoke with Kate Brandt, Google's Chief Sustainability Officer. Google has promised net zero in 2030, but their emissions are soaring. Bryony asks the right questions - does Brandt give convincing answers? youtu.be/Es6xJvfYs_8?...

Haven't seen any posts about it, but this CEQA categorical exclusion for geothermal exploration in California seems like a big deal! legiscan.com/CA/text/AB52... 🔌💡

Vibe-coding is to me the single largest change to the internet economy in a while and compresses the cost of writing code, along with barriers to entry. It's a different (and spectacularly fast) workflow that still requires knowledge, but it's already changing my daily work.

24/7 clean procurement catalyses learning for long-duration energy storage and clean dispatchable power - new op-ed in @latitudemedia.bsky.social! 🔌💡 www.latitudemedia.com/news/how-24-...

www.latitudemedia.com/news/how-24-... If you aim for the finish line with hourly/regional constraints, the need for innovative energy technologies is quite clear. This kind of procurement can support the tools required to get low carbon, energy abundant grids. Let's finish the drill.

You take the annual pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe the LCOE is the end of the story. You take the hourly pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes (anti-correlated 20 yr weather profiles and varying storage capacity values).

Also, AI training is not exactly "base load" due to all-reduce operation training. Minute basis oscillations in power are just arbitrage opportunities waiting to be realized! (this is part of why xAI has a megapack on site, to smooth out these oscillations)

1/ Treasury has released the final 45V clean hydrogen tax credit regulations. Here's what you need to know about the key provisions and requirements:

We really need something like a FERC but with a mandate across *all* real-time energy flows...

DAMMIT NPR. I spent nine months upgrading over TEN THOUSAND desktops at a F500 client. The grand total was over SEVENTY THOUSAND applications upgraded. Y2K "didn't live up to the hype" because the industry busted ass to duct tape everything first.

This is what I call the "Default Plan". Build W+S and if cheap enough, some storage in a NG based firm capacity system until "cannibalization" means there isn't enough revenue to build more or system costs rise. It looks to be a very sticky local minima.

If we are satisfied with a 100-200g/kWh electrical system the 'default plan' gives us nice cheap power, and we can carry on. But to get below 50g/kWh, a system with a lot of nuclear becomes much more palatable. And to get rid of NG for the power sector entirely, it's much nicer.

I was at an Austrian Christmas market and I swear I heard AI slop and flagged it, I’ve played with it enough to be able to sniff it out.

The more likely form of grid defection for data centers increasingly appears to be behind-the-meter gas generation. A must-read by @ariellesamuel.bsky.social: 🔌💡 heated.world/p/ai-is-guzz...

Fascinating experiment about to happen in Australia with a floor and ceiling revenue schema for clean energy. wattclarity.com.au/articles/202...

The Loan Program Office has signed a deal with PG&E. Key Recipients of EIR loans will have to make sure that ​“the financial benefits received from the DOE loan guarantee will be passed on to the customers of, or communities served by, that utility #energysky www.canarymedia.com/articles/uti...

Only a few years ago there were almost no electric vehicles being sold. This year China is approaching 50% share of electric vehicles in total sales. But Europe is not doing too badly either with 25% outperforming the US. Source RMI

Hey friends, did you miss me in the last few years? How do I get plugged into the old #energytwitter? Am I allowed to just reproduce some of my old popular threads from twitter?

How many ppl really know how electricity markets work. I still feel like it’s facing the abyss every time I try to wrap my brain around the short run dispatch/ long run capacity game and all the different markets and abstractions.

Cool, we’ve been adding on average 260,000 nuclear bombs worth of energy per day in the biosphere for the past 60 years. No chance it could do any damage tho, just a little heat right?

Interesting! Holding onto some tail risk in my mental model here that a cascade ends up screwing us

CT or mid-merit CCGT- which way modern grid? #energysky

PJM's Board letter is a must-read for those interested in clean energy policy. The specific roadmap is important, but more relevant is the PJM's assertion that there is simply not enough clean energy to maintain reliability without new (likely gas) generation. 🔌💡 www.pjm.com/-/media/DotC...

The annual BloombergNEF battery survey is out. Quick hits: pack prices now $115 per kWh (and below $100 for cars in China) Almost 2/3 of China's EV models are priced lower than their internal combustion equivalents Great work @colinmckerracher.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

We are so back

The @arnabdatta.bsky.social article definitely got some attention, worth also noting he is one of the most creative policy entrepreneurs out there on how to actually achieve the high level goals. The one place I do think the conversation needs to go is how to reengage the people. /1

The “fossil fuels are hard to beat” (complementary) and “fossil fuels are hard to beat” (derogatory) battles have begun again, we’re so back.

"It’s more appropriate to think of the lithium-ion battery not as a single invention, but as a steady accumulation of many inventions that were needed to both make a battery practical and to unlock its full potential." This is true of all innovation. www.construction-physics.com/p/how-we-got...

Worth considering. The fact that API and the vehicle industry and the utility industry and the labor unions are not united in opposition to kill ambitious climate provisions is unique, vs the Kyoto and Waxman eras.

I agree with @arnabdatta.bsky.social. This is not 2016. We cannot just abandon federal efforts and “pivot to states”—it’s both/&. Clean energy cost and enabling infrastructure (Tx) are critical, and we need new clean firm resources to enable massive amounts of RE: 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/o...

The defecto solar/wind bans imo are a critical trend to watch. Looks like there will be a big push in the states next year to do anti-renewables “permitting reform”

Lanfear voice: Finally

I don't know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases) projects.propublica.org/claimfile/

Today Treasury issued final regulations on the section 48 ITC, which provides a 30%+ credit to deploy wind, solar, storage (batteries, thermal (heat pumps say what?!), hydrogen), biogas, geothermal, hydro, etc. home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...

Me talking about clean firm at Deploy24 all day:

How one condo complex installed EV charging for just $405 per parking spot

a surprising little anecdote from the construction of America's first nuclear power plant at Shippingport

How could we actually structure a market system that is actually capable of deep decarbonization? Energy only markets are going to get stuck on cannibalization and undervaluing reliability. Vertical utilities tend to be slow and under capitalized...

9 energy-climate starter packs: 1)Power go.bsky.app/RwCBCab 2)Media go.bsky.app/2TNd1Ya 3)Solutions go.bsky.app/Aa1sErQ 4)Science go.bsky.app/7Mbnoge 5)Legal go.bsky.app/R4ZUdPE 6)Women go.bsky.app/AGCURBf 7)Nuclear go.bsky.app/5EJY58V 8)EVs go.bsky.app/R4ZUdPE 9)Southeast go.bsky.app/AZ6Xw1U

If I have learned anything from lifecycle analysis it is that people will mold their methods to benefit their preferred outcomes, however inconsistent it needs to get. So there’s hope!

Kirby Smart calling timeout like it's a Georgia defense attorney

At 5th overtime it goes to a dance off

TRIPLE OVERTIME

Double overtime, lesgo dawgs

What a game Georgia

Key point is that China has been investing in EVs for over a decade to reduce its dependence on imported oil. No country wants to be dependent on imports for key energy or security needs. And that's a big reason why it is unlikely that projections of high LNG demand growth in Asia will be realized.

Excellent reporting on China's affordable EVs that are as robust as US made cars. No amount of $7500 rebates or ridiculous tariffs will match the hubris of Detroit automakers whose only solution to competition is protectionism. If they can't compete in a global market, they should get out.

Really darkly funny, that diversification in this case isn’t about “diversity”, but the extreme concentration of graphite supply and refining by China and “diversifying” our supply chain via our equivalent belt and road institution.