This is Not Cool

Purportedly, not a science project anymore – an actual plan with a deadline.

I’m putting this in the same category as a colony on Mars. Do-able, I guess, but you’ll have to show me.
That said, the video above is very well done and informative.

Scientific American:

Commonwealth Fusion Systems is looking to join a power grid that is operated by PJM Interconnection and provides 182,000 megawatts of power to more than 67 million people living in 13 states and Washington, D.C. But technical hurdles to bringing fusion online remain—one major obstacle is actually producing a stable fusion reaction that generates more energy than it consumes.

The application process requires a potential energy provider to provide extensive technical information to the grid operator, including descriptions of the planned fuel type. In Commonwealth’s case, the company is developing a tokamak reactor design that uses powerful magnetic fields to create and insulate a highly energetic cloud of particles called a plasma until it’s hot enough for those particles to fuse. It’s a process that mimics the nuclear reactions in the sun, including the particles involved: isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and tritium. The promise of the device is that a fusion reaction could feasibly generate limitless clean energy. That energy, in the form of heat, is used to boil water into steam, which then pushes a turbine to produce electricity.*

Continue reading “Is Fusion Ready?”

Description:

Comedians Christopher Titus and Rachel Bradley go scorched earth on the ongoing debate surrounding renewable energy. This clip dives into the absurd claims about wind power and the critical role of solar energy in our future, also highlighting the importance of batteries in modern electricity grids. It’s a blistering commentary on the intersection of technology, politics, and climate change.

Continue reading “Comedian Clobbers Trump on Clean Energy”

Grist:

Rather than replacing the privately-owned utility that serves Ann Arbor, the plan is for this city agency to run in tandem, offering a supplemental service that residents can opt into. 

If they do, they’ll stay connected to the regular grid, but will be outfitted with solar panels, battery backup systems, or other infrastructure, drawing on that power for their home use and opening up the prospect of selling any excess. The city, meanwhile, would pay for the installation and maintenance of these systems, which Ann Arbor would continue to own — a vision of energy generation and storage distributed across the city.

The plan begins in the coming months in Bryant, a 1970s-era community with about 260 homes, many of which are officially considered “energy burdened.” A quarter of residents pay more than a third of their incomes on utilities, in a neighborhood that is one of Ann Arbor’s only areas of unsubsidized affordable housing, according to Derrick Miller, Community Action Network’s executive director.

Continue reading “In Ann Arbor, a First of a Kind Utility”

Shit’s getting real, and Big Dogs in Trump’s sponsoring industry are speaking up.
I posted the remarks by Chevron’s CEO earlier.
The Exxon official’s comments are below.

“New” research confirming what Kevin Trenberth (above) and others were telling me 10 years ago.
I find its good to review these Q and As from time to time as I pick up on more insights that I might not have heard at the time.
Worth considering as we head into an El Niño summer.

USAToday:

Another one for the weird science file.

New research shows that although the world is seeing more rain overall, it’s also getting drier at the same time.

How can that be? In simple terms, the world’s rainfall is increasingly packed into bigger storms with longer dry spells in between. And a lot of rain all at once causes problems for overwhelmed soil.

The findings say the study is the first to demonstrate that a year’s worth of rainfall packed into bigger and wetter storms means less water for aquifers and ecosystems, even if total precipitation increases. Because soil can absorb only so much water at once, what is not soaked up collects on the surface where it’s more readily evaporated.

Study lead author Corey Lesk, who led the study while a fellow at Dartmouth College, explained it in an email to USA TODAY: “Regardless of how much precipitation falls, when rain and snow come in stronger bursts separated by longer dry spells, less water tends to remain on the land (in soils, lakes, and groundwater) for use by people and nature.”

Continue reading “How Heavier Rain Makes Dryer Soil”

Econ 101. As one interviewer says, “a clinic.”

A view into the very sharp but highly geo-fenced mind of a fossil CEO, Chevron’s Mike Wirth.

He confirms right at the top that current pricing for oil reflects more wishful thinking than reality.

What clicked was when he said “..the US has come to the rescue of some of our allies around the world, we’re exporting crude at record levels, we’re exporting products to Europe, in particular..and so what that means is that products that might otherwise be used in the US are being highly valued elsewhere, so we’re seeing flows in that direction…”.

Translation: “The war our boy started in the Middle East is a catastrophe for our friends and allies, but we are willing to sell our product to them at higher prices, while stiffing the Americans who we spent billions convincing to vote against their own interests, resulting in record earnings for us.”

“So, no sweat, it’s all good. We make money no matter what happens.”

He notes that supplies are tight and refineries are running at full capacity, peak demand season is coming. Shortages could begin to show up soon.
Indicators flashing red.

RMI:

As electricity demand in the United States continues to grow — from data centers, electric vehicles, and other large loads — utilities are struggling to keep up. Instead of building more traditional power plants, utilities can meet that demand in a cleaner and cheaper way by also turning to virtual power plants (VPPs).

VPPs are aggregations of distributed energy resources such as batteries, electric vehicles, smart thermostats, and other connected devices that can provide utility-scale and utility-grade services. Designing VPP Programs to meet utilities’ needs, however, requires planning. Just as traditional grid resources are weighed in utilities’ plans, VPPs should also be considered, modeled, and included in the utility planning process.

Today, existing and proposed VPPs are approaching and exceeding the scale of traditional power plants. In 2024, the average combustion gas turbine in the United States was 180 megawatts (MW). Meanwhile, several VPP programs across the country have met or exceeded this capacity:

• In Massachusetts, National Grid launched ConnectedSolutions in 2016, which has grown to 227 MW and includes residential thermostats, residential batteries, and commercial and industrial demand response. Beyond Massachusetts, ConnectedSolutions’ region-wide, open-access VPP shaved 375 MW of demand from the New England grid during a multi-day heat wave in June 2024.
• In California, the Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) and Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) programs were launched in 2021 and 2022 respectively, to shore up near-term reliability quickly in response to rolling blackouts. The ELRP reached nearly 800 MW as of 2023 and DSGS has reached 1,145 MW as of October 2025 with a majority of the program’s capacity — 768 MW — stemming from the market-aware storage pilot program.

Continue reading “Virtual Power Plant’s Time has Come”

Power crisis in Cuba, due to US blockade of the island.
China swoops in with solar panels, winning hearts, minds and markets.
Good job, team.

First, fire the Ebola police.

Now nuclear waste.
There is a cost to hollowing out a government that was built for a reason – supposedly to support the solutions to nuclear waste that the industry has always told us was easy, and right around the corner.

Government Accountability Office:

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management’s federal staff oversee nuclear cleanup work across the U.S. In 2024, we reported that the office was understaffed, with a 17% vacancy rate—and that workforce challenges had caused delays, cost overruns, and accidents.

At the end of FY 2025, it had even fewer staff, with vacancy rate of 45%. Almost half of its vacancies were in mission-critical positions, such as nuclear safety specialists. Many in the remaining workforce are or will soon be eligible for retirement.

We maintain that the office should implement the recommendations from our 2024 report as it’s rebuilding its workforce.

Continue reading “First, We Fire the Ebola Police. Now, Nuclear Waste.”

This is going to tick you off.

Pronounced “chicken – gun-ya”. Never heard of it till my daughter went to India last year and had to get the shot.
I looked it up. It ain’t Ebola, but not a day at the beach either.

Euro News:

As climate change drives mosquitoes north, Europe and North America are emerging as hotspots for chikungunya virus, a new study warns.

Warmer temperatures may expand mosquito habitats, increasing chikungunya risk areas globally, a new study has found.

The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiologyand carried out by scientists in China, found that 139 countries or regions are risk zones for chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral disease. This accounts for 21.3% of the world’s land mass.

“But we show that under climate change models, the virus will further expand northward into temperate regions, especially northeastern North America, central Europe, and East Asia,” said Dr Ye Xu, co-author of the study.

Chikungunya has been mainly transmitted by the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti, a species that thrives in human settlements in the tropics.

Continue reading “Chikungunya is the New Climate Virus to Watch”