In terms of other countries to cover, I'd be most interested in India. Japan would be my second recommendation. Based on reading Ember's Global Energy Review, these seem to be the big countries (in terms of electricity demand & population) where decarbonization isn't going as fast. Understanding the gaps between them and Pakistan/Australia which you've already covered would be interesting.
I was coming here to mention both Japan and India, but you beat me to it! And Africa would be great to cover as well, either as a whole (perhaps too much?) or by region/country. I imagine some of the dynamics we heard about in Pakistan apply in places in Africa as well, but the continent seems like an undercovered but important subject, especially for longer-term projections.
Yeah, in terms of current power sector emissions, Africa is not a major contributor. The whole continent is 3.6% of global emissions which is only slightly higher than Japan's 3.4%. However, the forward trajectory (what is getting built) matters quite a lot. If Africa followed a trajectory like India in terms of building a lot of coal, that would be a very negative development vs. alternatives.
I'd really love to have a pod about canada's climate context -- we just got rid of the consumer carbon tax and it's hard to know how much of an effect it will have, and there is a new high speed rail iniative
I've heard a bit about rewording federal funding requests to "fit the frame" of this admin's priorities. Are there energy descriptions or framings that seem within the realm of possibility?
I saw you reference "Abundance" in your last post. I was curious to know what you thought about it. I've been really appreciating Ezra's columns on the subject but felt duped when buying the book. It feels like the real substance was already covered in Ezra's pods and that it got "fluffed up" to become something you can sell...
When David talked with Mustafa Amjad of Renewables First and Waqas Moosa of the Pakistan Solar Association end of February, they mentioned that an increasing number of solar installation add batteries.
It would be very interesting to know what median size of these home batteries are, and what they cost in Pakistan.
Eager to hear David's thoughts on the abundance agenda. I don't feel competent to judge the political aspects of the subject--probably if I don't like it, that means it would be popular--but on the merits, I think abundance is the wrong goal. To me it seems clear that sufficient supply and more equitable distribution should be the twin goals, not abundance. Even clean energy has costs, most notably in materials and in valuable land taken from other uses (food production, homes for our fellow species, etc.), and the optimal approach would weigh benefits against costs, not simply maximize energy production. I know Klein and Thompson are more nuanced thinkers than their detractors often pretend, but I worry that nuance doesn't survive contact with the American political system, and that in practice they are simply offering cover to those who want rollback of environmental regulation, not its thoughtful modernization.
I would put this as a Mailbag question but I actually already emailed David about it...
I was listening to the recent pod about the Blatchford development in Edmonton, AB, and there was a bit where they were discussing distributed solar, and I had the thought, maybe in winter they'd do better with some kind of distributed wind? Over the years I have looked around online at small-scale wind turbines, and in the last few years, I have started seeing products that are shockingly cheap for their claimed peak power output. (For instance: https://tesup.com/row/products/tesup-vertical-wind-turbines-for-homes ) But I'm not sure if these are mostly vaporware. Like, they don't really produce nearly what they claim, or they'll break down in a year, or whatever.
The street my home is on is something of a wind tunnel. Like when people post political signs, if they don't zip-tie the frame to a street sign or similar, the sign will almost immediately blow away. In theory it seems like it should be possible to capture some of that energy, and it would be super useful since the winter depression in our solar production is exactly when the wind gets most consistent.
The Department of Energy _had_ some stuff about small-scale wind systems on their site -- presumably it's no longer up because of some MAGA purge.
I was pretty excited about the product from Aeromine Technologies, Inc. But, I don't hear much news.
Seems like David has a good filter for this stuff. I get excited about a lot of things where more diligent people do the math and find it doesn't work.
I'm very much inspired by (and indebted to) Volts. But I wanted to create a resource that's a little more accessible -- something that starts from first principles, written specifically for the energy transition newbies.
If you're reading this, my guess is you're already more advanced than my target audience. But if you've got friends and family who never know what you're talking about when you ramble on about heat pumps and advanced geothermal -- I hope you'll consider sending them my way.
Hi all! I am a student at Duke working with some other clean-energy minded folks on a campaign called Students for American Jobs. Check out our website here (https://www.studentsforamericanjobs.org) and would love to be connected to folks who are interested in helping out and spreading the word!
I liked “Abundance” by Klein and Thompson. We have tried, especially on climate, to solve problems without a pro-building/innovation agenda and have got basically nowhere. The only tries successes in housing and climate have come from abundance-type movements and projects. I think what they lack in the book is how to synthesize abundance with democracy and ensure its benefits don’t accumulate with the rich and powerful. I wrote a deeper review here:
Tbh when it comes to the idea of energy abundance I think all the average person cares about are two things: first, does the power go out? (this is largely a distribution infrastructure problem not a generation or transmission problem) and second, how high are my rates? I think for most people who aren't already into climate/energy, the most important thing is "don't have a rate increase"
The Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) is a funky education/state/nonprofit partnership working in the clean energy mines for 21 years. See our stories --all in Creative Commons, so feel free to use!-- here: https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/stories
tl;dr: Nuclear energy conference on May 22 in Berlin, Germany. Please tell your German friends.
The conference theme is the restart of Germany's nuclear power plants, based on the report by Radiant Energy Group, who are co-hosting the conference along with Nuklearia, Germany's pro-nuclear grassroots advocacy group.
Conference languages are German and English. Confirmed speakers include former Minister Dr. Kristina Schröder, historian Dr. Anna Veronika Wendland, and nuclear influencer Isabelle Boemeke.
Thank you for spreading the word, and go to https://Anschalt-Konferenz.de for tickets. Early bird €80 ends on April 27.
Would David have Quico Toro on Volts to talk about “ocean photosynthesis”? I know it’s not about renewable energy per se, but it’s quite relevant to the effort to combat climate change.
Hey, how about switching book links from Amazon to a non Broligarch book sales site? I always love your work. And let's all think about where every dollar goes- it can go into the hands of the Authoritarian oligarchs or if possible-
In response to David's #3 about more international progress on renewables, I wonder if he could do pods on renewables growth in India and Mongolia (as a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia, it has a soft spot for me!). I thought the Pakistan episode to be one of his best to date and can imagine similar things happening in India and Mongolia (lots of cheap Chinese panels, abundant sunlight, poor air quality in major cities that needs to be dealt with, etc.). Thank you, love the pod!
In trying to talking to people about kitchen table issues, one that would appear to be fairly visceral is that it appears fossil fuels contribute to 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. This is much larger than I had thought, but it also probably has some nuances and caveats that are important, and then understanding the localization of who this is and how they would be helped by all the stuff you talk about would be great. Physicians from the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility show up at energy code meetings and talk about air pollution's effect especially on children and general population as one example. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/537978-study-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-linked-to-1-in-5-deaths-worldwide/
--- MAILBAG QUESTIONS ---
In terms of other countries to cover, I'd be most interested in India. Japan would be my second recommendation. Based on reading Ember's Global Energy Review, these seem to be the big countries (in terms of electricity demand & population) where decarbonization isn't going as fast. Understanding the gaps between them and Pakistan/Australia which you've already covered would be interesting.
I was coming here to mention both Japan and India, but you beat me to it! And Africa would be great to cover as well, either as a whole (perhaps too much?) or by region/country. I imagine some of the dynamics we heard about in Pakistan apply in places in Africa as well, but the continent seems like an undercovered but important subject, especially for longer-term projections.
Yeah, in terms of current power sector emissions, Africa is not a major contributor. The whole continent is 3.6% of global emissions which is only slightly higher than Japan's 3.4%. However, the forward trajectory (what is getting built) matters quite a lot. If Africa followed a trajectory like India in terms of building a lot of coal, that would be a very negative development vs. alternatives.
I'd really love to have a pod about canada's climate context -- we just got rid of the consumer carbon tax and it's hard to know how much of an effect it will have, and there is a new high speed rail iniative
I've heard a bit about rewording federal funding requests to "fit the frame" of this admin's priorities. Are there energy descriptions or framings that seem within the realm of possibility?
Hi Dave,
I saw you reference "Abundance" in your last post. I was curious to know what you thought about it. I've been really appreciating Ezra's columns on the subject but felt duped when buying the book. It feels like the real substance was already covered in Ezra's pods and that it got "fluffed up" to become something you can sell...
When David talked with Mustafa Amjad of Renewables First and Waqas Moosa of the Pakistan Solar Association end of February, they mentioned that an increasing number of solar installation add batteries.
It would be very interesting to know what median size of these home batteries are, and what they cost in Pakistan.
Eager to hear David's thoughts on the abundance agenda. I don't feel competent to judge the political aspects of the subject--probably if I don't like it, that means it would be popular--but on the merits, I think abundance is the wrong goal. To me it seems clear that sufficient supply and more equitable distribution should be the twin goals, not abundance. Even clean energy has costs, most notably in materials and in valuable land taken from other uses (food production, homes for our fellow species, etc.), and the optimal approach would weigh benefits against costs, not simply maximize energy production. I know Klein and Thompson are more nuanced thinkers than their detractors often pretend, but I worry that nuance doesn't survive contact with the American political system, and that in practice they are simply offering cover to those who want rollback of environmental regulation, not its thoughtful modernization.
“What’s the deal with carbon credits?” is a pod I’d like to hear to get a better understanding on thinks like additionality and greenwashing.
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/job-board Minnesota wants YOU!!! This job board is updated weekly, sometimes more than once!
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
I would put this as a Mailbag question but I actually already emailed David about it...
I was listening to the recent pod about the Blatchford development in Edmonton, AB, and there was a bit where they were discussing distributed solar, and I had the thought, maybe in winter they'd do better with some kind of distributed wind? Over the years I have looked around online at small-scale wind turbines, and in the last few years, I have started seeing products that are shockingly cheap for their claimed peak power output. (For instance: https://tesup.com/row/products/tesup-vertical-wind-turbines-for-homes ) But I'm not sure if these are mostly vaporware. Like, they don't really produce nearly what they claim, or they'll break down in a year, or whatever.
The street my home is on is something of a wind tunnel. Like when people post political signs, if they don't zip-tie the frame to a street sign or similar, the sign will almost immediately blow away. In theory it seems like it should be possible to capture some of that energy, and it would be super useful since the winter depression in our solar production is exactly when the wind gets most consistent.
The Department of Energy _had_ some stuff about small-scale wind systems on their site -- presumably it's no longer up because of some MAGA purge.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240627180524/https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/installing-and-maintaining-small-wind-electric-system
Anyways I asked David if he's looked into this topic, potentially for an episode, and he said he has the impression that this mostly _is_ vaporware.
I wondered if anyone else in the community has some deep expertise on this, or any experience installing something with good results?
I was pretty excited about the product from Aeromine Technologies, Inc. But, I don't hear much news.
Seems like David has a good filter for this stuff. I get excited about a lot of things where more diligent people do the math and find it doesn't work.
Hey folks, I just launched a weekly newsletter about clean energy technology. It's called Green Juice -- I hope you'll check it out :)
www.greenjuice.wtf
I'm very much inspired by (and indebted to) Volts. But I wanted to create a resource that's a little more accessible -- something that starts from first principles, written specifically for the energy transition newbies.
If you're reading this, my guess is you're already more advanced than my target audience. But if you've got friends and family who never know what you're talking about when you ramble on about heat pumps and advanced geothermal -- I hope you'll consider sending them my way.
Hi all! I am a student at Duke working with some other clean-energy minded folks on a campaign called Students for American Jobs. Check out our website here (https://www.studentsforamericanjobs.org) and would love to be connected to folks who are interested in helping out and spreading the word!
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
I liked “Abundance” by Klein and Thompson. We have tried, especially on climate, to solve problems without a pro-building/innovation agenda and have got basically nowhere. The only tries successes in housing and climate have come from abundance-type movements and projects. I think what they lack in the book is how to synthesize abundance with democracy and ensure its benefits don’t accumulate with the rich and powerful. I wrote a deeper review here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/scetchesinthedirt/p/on-abundance?r=4shey&utm_medium=ios
Tbh when it comes to the idea of energy abundance I think all the average person cares about are two things: first, does the power go out? (this is largely a distribution infrastructure problem not a generation or transmission problem) and second, how high are my rates? I think for most people who aren't already into climate/energy, the most important thing is "don't have a rate increase"
I find it interesting that Elon Musk has also been talking about abundance as well.
3. 🌎What other countries are you curious about?
I would love to hear about Germany and Spain.
Maybe also India and Hungary would be interesting.
The Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) is a funky education/state/nonprofit partnership working in the clean energy mines for 21 years. See our stories --all in Creative Commons, so feel free to use!-- here: https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/stories
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
https://Anschalt-Konferenz.de
tl;dr: Nuclear energy conference on May 22 in Berlin, Germany. Please tell your German friends.
The conference theme is the restart of Germany's nuclear power plants, based on the report by Radiant Energy Group, who are co-hosting the conference along with Nuklearia, Germany's pro-nuclear grassroots advocacy group.
Conference languages are German and English. Confirmed speakers include former Minister Dr. Kristina Schröder, historian Dr. Anna Veronika Wendland, and nuclear influencer Isabelle Boemeke.
Thank you for spreading the word, and go to https://Anschalt-Konferenz.de for tickets. Early bird €80 ends on April 27.
Report: https://www.radiantenergygroup.com/reports/restarting-germanys-reactors-feasibility-and-schedule
Welp, Minnesota specific, but I'm on a roll sending you stuff, so: https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/events
Would David have Quico Toro on Volts to talk about “ocean photosynthesis”? I know it’s not about renewable energy per se, but it’s quite relevant to the effort to combat climate change.
Hey, how about switching book links from Amazon to a non Broligarch book sales site? I always love your work. And let's all think about where every dollar goes- it can go into the hands of the Authoritarian oligarchs or if possible-
somewhere else!
Even giving a bookshop.org link in addition to the zon would be great!
In response to David's #3 about more international progress on renewables, I wonder if he could do pods on renewables growth in India and Mongolia (as a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia, it has a soft spot for me!). I thought the Pakistan episode to be one of his best to date and can imagine similar things happening in India and Mongolia (lots of cheap Chinese panels, abundant sunlight, poor air quality in major cities that needs to be dealt with, etc.). Thank you, love the pod!
In trying to talking to people about kitchen table issues, one that would appear to be fairly visceral is that it appears fossil fuels contribute to 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. This is much larger than I had thought, but it also probably has some nuances and caveats that are important, and then understanding the localization of who this is and how they would be helped by all the stuff you talk about would be great. Physicians from the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility show up at energy code meetings and talk about air pollution's effect especially on children and general population as one example. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/537978-study-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-linked-to-1-in-5-deaths-worldwide/