Always worthwhile, this YouTuber, Inside China Business, today focusing on China’s emerging generational leadership in offshore wind, compliments of the Trump administration.
China Will Take Global Wind Leadership
The Rise of the EVs Now Supercharged
China a huge winner.
The price of gasoline has spiked amid a U.S.-led war with Iran. It’s not uncommon for the fossil fuel economy to be disrupted by geopolitical conflicts, but now consumers have more options than ever to protect themselves from price hikes.
EVs are already putting a dent into oil consumption worldwide, and as gas prices climb higher, the simple efficiency of an EV could become all the more appealing. In all 50 states, the cost of home-charging an EV is considerably cheaper than fueling a car with gasoline.
The map above shows the cost of charging an EV at home. The price is expressed in “eGallons,” which is the cost of charging an EV by an amount equivalent to one gallon of gasoline.
I wrote about the math behind the eGallon and plotted a similar map of prices in early 2024, when gas was relatively cheap. And even then, EVs were much more economical to drive. But now, consumers have even more incentive to make the switch.
Continue reading “The Rise of the EVs Now Supercharged”Trump Threatens Genocide. For Fossil Fuel Barons, a “Joyous” mood
Above, an editor from The Economist relates his experience at the recent CERAWeek conference in Houston – basically Burning Man for energy tycoons.
Participants, especially in the Gas industry, were “joyous” in their belief that they were big winners in the current war in the Middle East.
Meanwhile…
Below, if Alex Jones thinks it’s time for the 25th Amendment, it might be time.
Continue reading “Trump Threatens Genocide. For Fossil Fuel Barons, a “Joyous” mood”Israeli Strike Another Major Blow to Hormuz LNG
Who exactly is in charge here?
Along with another strike on one of Iran’s key natural gas processing areas, the Israelis are exacerbating the energy crunch that is pushing the global economy to the brink, and, by the way, pushing the global economic trajectory in a way that will not favor Donald Trump’s fossil fuel donors in coming years.
For the second time, Israel has attacked Iran’s South Pars natural gas and its associated petrochemical complex – an energy lifeline for Iran that both helps keep the lights on for civilians and provides a key source of export earnings.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday that Israel attacked a key petrochemical plant at Asaluyeh, the onshore industrial aspect of the gas field, which lies under the Persian Gulf.
Katz said the “powerful strike” hit what he called “the largest petrochemical facility in Iran … responsible for about 50% of the country’s petrochemical production.” Combined with an earlier attack, two facilities responsible for 85% of Iran’s petrochemical exports have been taken out of service, he said.
Attacks on South Pars are sufficiently provocative to Iran that an earlier Israeli attack on March 18 prompted Iran to target energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries in response, an escalation of the war that sent new shockwaves across the region and beyond.
Continue reading “Israeli Strike Another Major Blow to Hormuz LNG”Iran War Accelerates Renewables, Even in Trump’s America
Above, Automakers deliver new EV models amidst signs of new interest among price-conscious consumers.
Below, Bloomberg posting adds details.
Just weeks ago, the US electric car market looked moribund. Amid plummeting EV sales, dealers were offering discounts as Detroit automakers scrapped electric lineups to make more gas-guzzling SUVs.Then oil prices surged after the US and Israel attacked Iran.
Now, a used electric car showroom in San Francisco suggests the tide is turning again. As gasoline prices climb — hitting $6.81 a gallon at a nearby station on Wednesday — a flurry of drivers are making appointments to check out Ever’s lightly used EVs, many priced under $30,000.
“Gas prices are coming up in almost every customer conversation,” said Maximilian Quertermous, Ever’s co-founder and chief operating officer. “The momentum of the last few weeks is among the strongest we’ve seen.”
Ever is just one dealership, but signs of a shift are playing out across the world. In Southeast Asia, buyers are flocking to Chinese EV giant BYD Co.’s stores, while electric rickshaws are selling out in Pakistan. A shortage of cooking oil in India is driving a run on electric stoves. From Germany to Nigeria, interest in rooftop solar is surging. And in the UK, some homeowners are taking the plunge on expensive heat pumps.
Continue reading “Iran War Accelerates Renewables, Even in Trump’s America”Take a Chill Pill on Data Centers
If you are reading this, you are using a data center somewhere.
Likewise if you are a user of YouTube, Netflix, Google, Facebook, email, Slack, or if you share pictures of your pets on your iPhone – you’re a Data center user – so consider before you join that Zoom meeting to ban Data Centers – Zoom operates 17 of them.
The workings of markets have not been repealed.
If the graphs of power consumption projection look incredible and preposterous, well, they might be just that.
For those projects that assume unlimited ability to build “behind the meter” gas generation, there are barriers to the availability of gas.
As one of Jigar Shah’s podcast guests explains, below, building your own generation is easier said than done. Other reporting cautions on the availability of sufficient key components to meet requirements.
For those that do not know Jigar Shah, he is an engineer, an early pioneer in founding a solar company, SunEdison, in 2003. He’s been an investor and leader in the clean energy space, a tireless advocate of climate action, and for 4 years, Director of the (then) powerful Loan Programs Office at the Department of Energy under Joe Biden. So he knows the space.
I’ve posted a couple of his important takes on the the popular concept of Data center development that we are hearing so much about, the projections that Hyperscalers are going to build endless “behind the meter” gas generation that will blow up climate initiatives and ruin communities around the country.
I’m still working my way up the learning curve on these issues, but everything I’m seeing suggests panic is unwarranted, and opportunities for clean energy wins exist.
As the global AI race heats up, there is a huge rush to build data centers fast. There’s no lack of money chasing these projects, with tech giants Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com, Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. committed to spending more than $650 billion this year alone. Yet neither ambition nor capital is enough to materialize all the necessary components.
Almost half of the US data centers planned for this year are expected to be delayed or canceled. One big reason is the shortage of electrical equipment, such as transformers, switchgear and batteries. They are needed not just for powering AI, but also for building out the grid that is seeing increased consumption from electric cars and heat pumps. US manufacturing capacity for these devices cannot keep up with demand, and the scarcity has caused data center builders to rely on imports.
Continue reading “Take a Chill Pill on Data Centers”PBS Newshour on Small Modular Reactors
I wish them all the luck in the world.
Batteries Buttressing Case for Optimism
Will Donald Trump turn out to be the Environmental President?
So let me take an optimism break and talk about why batteries may save the world.
The decline in battery prices has been incredible. It’s like nothing anyone has ever seen before. Big, strong men with tears in their eyes come up to me and say, “Sir, have you seen the progress in batteries?”:
Why does this matter?
First, cheap battery storage of electricity greatly mitigates the problem of intermittency — the sun doesn’t always shine, the wind doesn’t always blow. This was a major concern early in the renewable revolution. Some energy economists scolded me for my naïve optimism when I first wrote about solar technology way back in 2011. But solar + batteries provides round-the-clock power.
Here’s a graph of California’s electricity supply generated by renewables and batteries over the course of 24 hours on April 1 that illustrates my point:
Helping Trees Flee Climate Change
See elsewhere on this page – another round of ice storms is hitting the Upper Midwest this week, following similar events from last year.
Extreme events and changes in seasons and hydrology are provoking concerns about the composition of forests, how they may be changing, and whether humans can mitigate or assist in adaptations.
As humans continue to heat the planet with greenhouse gases, potentially locking the Earth into a “hothouse” trajectory, according to new research, scientists worry that nature won’t be able to keep up with climate change.
“Forests have migrated and adapted to long-term changes in climate over thousands to millions of years; however, natural migration rates and adaptive responses of tree populations cannot match the rapid pace of current climate change,” according to a U.S. Forest Service study published in 2024. Relying on locally sourced trees for planting “may no longer be adequate.”
In Louisville, assisted migration involves planting tree species native to the area, such as the mighty bur oak, which can grow to over 100 feet tall, but sourcing them from further south and west in their North American range. Some species are different there, more suited to a hotter and harsher environment.
Assisted migration in Louisville can also mean planting tree species that are not native locally, such as the smaller but beautiful Lacey oak, with its delicate bluish-green foliage, from seed sources in Texas.
In either example, the idea is that these Southern-sourced trees from hundreds of miles away are likely to be better suited to the climate conditions anticipated in Louisville’s Ohio River Valley in 50 to 100 years.
Experts have said that Louisville by 2100 could be much more like today’s northeast Texas.
Pounding Ice Storms A Sign of Change in Upper Midwest
I watched weather radar as yet another ice storm raked the Upper Great Lakes Region last night. More coming this weekend.
I’ve posted about the long term impact on forests and infrastructure. Each new event underlines to increasing costs of global change, even in this “climate haven”.
Interlochen Public Radio (Michigan):
As climate change warms the Great Lakes region, one scientist thinks Michigan could be at a higher risk for more freezing rain events like the one experienced this past weekend.
“We see evidence that suggests that the Great Lakes region as a whole is in the middle of pretty fast warming,” said Richard Rood, a professor emeritus of climate and space sciences and engineering at the University of Michigan.
Rood currently has a paper in the peer-review process that analyzes freezing rain data in the Great Lakes over the past several decades.
“What we would call the average location of the freezing line is moving further and further north, which means that in places where it used to snow quite reliably, we’re now more likely to see freezing rain,” Rood said.
And in places further south, freezing rain is more often giving way to regular rain. On top of that, Rood said freezing rain is changing.
“It’s becoming very erratic,” he said. “You’re likely to see a very large freezing rain event, because there’s just more water available.”
Marty Baxter, a professor of meteorology with Central Michigan University, said the link between ice storms and climate change isn’t totally clear yet.
“In [the] future climate, you’ll have more available water vapor that could lead to more rain,” Baxter said. “But the real issue is, will you see ground temperatures cold enough to make freezing rain?”
Rood said northern Michigan’s recent ice storm checks all the boxes for a weather event that could’ve been influenced by climate change, but it’s too soon to tell.
Continue reading “Pounding Ice Storms A Sign of Change in Upper Midwest”