Month: October 2025

So Climate Change isn’t all bad, right?

Bloomberg:

More than 1,000 miles away from traditional wine districts in Provence or Tuscany, business is booming in the Swedish region. As vineyards have recently won the right to sell directly to consumers, Kullabergs Chief Executive Officer Victor Dahl says sales are up about 15% to 20% from last summer. The Swedish industry is growing despite the challenges besetting winemakers all over the world—declining rates of consumption, increasing costs of production and, of course, the changing climate. Indeed, as climate change affects conventional areas, Sweden is the latest outpost to offer what’s called “cool climate wines,” joining the ranks of Oregon, Germany and New Zealand. 

“It’s easy to look down on wine from Sweden, so the producers have a big job to do, showing that you can actually make interesting and complex wines with a different flavor profile,” says Lindberg, a winemaker. “Maybe you have to open your eyes and broaden the horizons. Everything doesn’t have to taste like a Bourgogne or a Bordeaux.”

The Nordic region has long had a reputation for its gastronomy, with renowned restaurants in Denmark and Sweden. But until recently, the wine wasn’t considered high-quality enough to pair with the world-class cuisine. 

“When I moved to Sweden in 2011 and tried a wine from Klagshamn, I thought it was incredibly sour, too much acidity. Several years later I had it again, and it was really good,” says André Bekker, a South African who is head sommelier at Frantzén, Sweden’s only three-Michelin-star restaurant. Recently, he added a “fresh, elegant” white wine from Kullabergs to Frantzén’s list. While it’s gotten a positive reception from guests, it’s not in any of the wine pairings.“People expect to see wines from classic wine regions and top producers. We serve it more as an interesting feature,” Bekker says.

Continue reading “Newest Wine Country is in Far North”

Climate change is the ultimate human rights issue.

Reuters:

Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg arrived in Greece to a cheering pro-Palestinian crowd on Monday after she and hundreds of other activists captured by Israel on the high seas were deported following an attempt to bring aid to Gaza.

Israel said it expelled 171 activists on Monday including Thunberg, bringing the total deported over so far to 341, out of 479 people it detained when it captured the flotilla attempting to break its naval blockade of Gaza.

Guardian:

The environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg has told Swedish officials she is being subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody after her detention and removal from a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian.

According to the correspondence, Israeli forces are also reported by another detainee to have taken photographs where Thunberg was allegedly forced to hold flags. The identity of the flags is unknown.

In an email sent by the Swedish foreign ministry to people close to Thunberg, and seen by the Guardian, an official who has visited the activist in prison said she claimed she was detained in a cell infested with bedbugs, with too little food and water.

“The embassy has been able to meet with Greta,” reads the email. “She informed of dehydration. She has received insufficient amounts of both water and food. She also stated that she had developed rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”

Continue reading “Report: Greta Thunberg Held, Released from Israeli Prison”

Kyiv Independent:

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) remains disconnected from the Ukrainian electricity grid and without external power for the 10th consecutive day, creating an increasingly “risky” situation,  experts told the Kyiv Independent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin referenced the crisis at the ZNPP, which is under Russian control, in his Oct. 2 remarks at the Valdai International Discussion Club,  again blaming Ukraine for the outage, despite evidence to the contrary, and threateningretaliatory strikes on Ukrainian nuclear power plants. 

Beyond the escalating rhetoric, experts indicate that the danger at the plant, the largest nuclear power station in Europe, is real. 

Ukraine’s state nuclear operator Energoatom warned that the diesel generators powering the plant are designed only for short-term emergency use and are not meant to sustain the plant’s operational needs for an extended period. A shutdown of these generators could result in a loss of control over the facility’s nuclear safety systems. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant as “critical” on Sept. 30. Diesel generators are now supplying power to the plant, but one has already failed, he said.

Continue reading “Situation Critical at Mammoth Ukraine Nuclear Plant”

Scientific American:

 Renewable energy doesn’t need subsidies to compete with fossil fuels when it comes to building new power plants.

That’s a key takeaway in Lazard’s annual report on electricity generation costs. The investment bank’s report measures the levelized cost of energy for various forms of electricity generation. The report is closely watched, and often criticized, in the energy industry, where it helps guide investment decisions.

This year’s edition, which was released Monday, is notable because it comes as President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to eliminate tax credits for wind and solar. The political debate is playing out at a time when energy forecasters are projecting a rapid increase in electricity demand due to data centers and artificial intelligence.

Lazard calculates an energy resource’s levelized cost, or LCOE, by dividing a project’s lifetime energy production by its cost. This year’s report concludes that renewables are the “most cost-competitive form of generation,” even without subsidies.

“As such, renewable energy will continue to play a key role in the buildout of new power generation in the U.S,” the bank wrote. “This is particularly true in the current high power demand environment, where renewables stand out as both the lowest-cost and quickest-to-deploy generation resource.”

Continue reading “MAGA or Markets? Who Will Win the War on Solar ?”

This is kind of a bookend post for the one I recently did on the coming train wreck for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).

Michael Liebrich, founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, from his “Cleaning Up” podcast, speaks about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) as a climate solution. (above)

Tyler Norris is a researcher at Duke University. His X” post below is what got me started on this one.

Emphasis mine below-

Duke Energy Integrated Resource Plan:

Duke Energy operates the largest regulated nuclear fleet in the U.S., producing
10,819 megawatts of safe, reliable, and clean energy from 11 reactors at six sites in the Carolinas. In 2024, the nuclear fleet achieved a 94.8% capacity factor, marking the 26th consecutive year with a capacity factor greater than 90%.

The U.S. DOE has allocated significant funding to bolster the domestic uranium fuel cycle, aiming to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, support domestic fuel production, promote the development of HALEU,(High Assay Low Enrichment Uranium – the fuel not currently available in the US –most of global supply comes from Russia) and foster innovation.

The U.S. DOE has earmarked up to $3.4 billion for key funding initiatives, including the selection of multiple companies to participate in LEU and HALEU capacity building programs, support domestic uranium enrichment, and reduce U.S. reliance on Russian imports.
Given current geopolitical developments with Russia during the past few years, Duke Energy advocates for advanced nuclear fuel production capacity in the Western world, particularly in the U.S. For the U.S. and Western allies to maintain self-sufficiency from China and Russia for nuclear
fuel needs, primary producers need funding and regulatory support, most imminently for conversion and enrichment services to be built in the U.S.

Continue reading “Weekend Wonk: The Small Modular Mirage”

When we ask our AI how it all went wrong, this will be the answer. We chose 19th century technology in a 21st century world.

Wall Street Journal:

An empty, 1.3-million-square-foot warehouse north of Denver was supposed to be an emblem of cutting-edge manufacturing. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis heralded a California company’s plan to build a battery factory on-site as a push to “power the future.”

But an already weakening growth outlook for electric vehicles deteriorated as President Trump’s tax bill wound its way through Congress. Amprius Technologiesdidn’t wait for the legislation to pass and pulled out of Colorado earlier this year.

The technical know-how for such work is “still developing in the U.S.,” Amprius Chief Executive Kang Sun said. “Meanwhile, other countries have spent years building mature, cost-efficient battery industries, giving them a significant head start.” 

Three of the four manufacturers Amprius contracts to pump out its batteries for drones, bikes and maybe one day cars are in China. 

The company’s U-turn underscores a new reality: America has given up its effort to challenge China in the renewable-energy industries that increasingly power the global economy. 

As Trump doubles down on fossil fuels, the U.S. and China are offering competing visions for the future of energy, representing the next dimension in the showdown between two superpowers vying for global influence and artificial intelligence supremacy.

Continue reading “Wall Street Journal: US Forfeiting Future to China”

You think they haven’t been taking notes while watching our stupid, expensive, murderous, and destructive wars for oil?

Bloomberg:

I noticed is that the BNEF forecast has typically become more optimistic over time. So in your 2019 forecast, you were expecting 130 million electric cars to be on the road by 2030. Your 2025 forecast expects 230 million. If we take the long view, why has the optimism grown?

Colin McKerracher 3:15 

There’s a few reasons for that, and I think it is really important to say you need to do retrospectives on forecasts, otherwise they’re kind of useless. You need to see what you got right and wrong, and also you should tell people what you got right and wrong. That’s why we publish that section every year, it’s to say, ‘here’s what we were right about, here’s what we were wrong about.’

And so I think just general credibility, you should do that. And also, I will say I have seen a lot of very optimistic forecasts that weren’t reviewed and weren’t revisited and are now all sort of comically wrong.

So you go back six, seven years, there’s all these people saying 100% of car sales are gonna be electric by 2025 or 2030, including by Elon Musk, by the way. He said, ‘we think we can get to 50% of sales by 2026.’ It’s 2025 now, and we’re not there, and we’re not gonna be close.

Continue reading “EVs Taking Off in Developing World”

Utility Dive:

The U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday announced it has terminated $7.56 billion in financial awards to 223 clean energy projects — all in states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

“Following a thorough, individualized financial review, DOE determined that these projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars,” the agency said in a statement. 

A list of impacted projects was not immediately available. DOE said award recipients have 30 days to appeal a termination decision and “some of the projects included in this announcement have already begun that process.”

In total, DOE said it terminated 321 financial awards issued by the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Grid Deployment, Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and Fossil Energy.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said DOE has been working to review “billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard.”

Continue reading “Trump Green Energy Cuts Hit Blue States”

Above, interview with Kingsmill Bond, a strategist with the highly respected energy-focused think tank Ember.

Within the first few minutes of the interview above, Bond explains there is an emerging glut in both solar manufacturing and LNG (liquified Natural Gas) supply, coming in later in this decade and early next.
“There’s a lot more LNG export capacity being put in place than demand that is likely to materialize, so the world is set up in the second half of this decade, and the 2030s, for a massive fight between overcapacity for solar and overcapacity for LNG, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that solar is going to win this battle hands down, LNG doesn’t have a chance.”

Bond explains that Solar is much quicker to deploy, continues to get cheaper, is local, and cannot be cut off for political considerations.
This resonates, because currently the Trump administration is encouraging a massive build up of LNG export capacity, which the industry hopes European customers will choose over booming renewable energy sources. But to Bond’s point, the biggest driver behind Europe’s rush to renewables was the shock to supplies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and subsequent curtailment of Russian gas supplies.

Continue reading “The Coming LNG Trainwreck”

CNBC:

Farley on Tuesday said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if sales of EVs fell from a market share of around 10% to 12% this month — which is expected to be a record — to 5% after the incentive program ends.

“I think it’s going to be a vibrant industry, but it’s going to be smaller, way smaller than we thought, especially with the policy change in the tailpipe emissions, plus the $7,500 consumer incentive going away,” he said during a Ford event about promoting skilled trades and workers in Detroit. “We’re going to find out in a month. I wouldn’t be surprised that the EV sales in the U.S. go down to 5%.”

Farley said the industry learned that “partial electrification,” such as hybrids, are easier for customers to accept for the time being.

Farley said his Model e EV team is analyzing the demand for non-gas-powered vehicles each day. The company currently offers a handful of all-electric vehicles, including the F-150 Lightning pickup, which can top $90,000, and Mustang Mach-E crossover in the U.S.

Continue reading “Ford CEO: Tariffs are 2 Billion $ Headwind”