Job, project-based: Zoom tech assistant. I'll be teaching a series of courses in Oct-Dec. I need someone with experience running events on Zoom to assist during each class. Familiarity with home energy efficiency, electrification, and solar would be ideal.
Do you know the fate of the home energy rebate programs that were part of the inflation reduction act? I believe a few states satisfied all of the department of energy's requirements and actually received funds prior to january twentieth. Supposedly, here in maryland we had final approval from the DOE prior to january twentieth, but no funds have ever become available here.
Please do more episodes on new technology like the new geothermal heat pumps episode. I find the episodes with government involvement just too depressing to listen to at the moment. I'm not saying they're not important but it's really hard with the current climate. Also perhaps do catch up episodes on tech you've already covered. I would love to hear a follow up on Boston Metal, Form Energy, etc.
I wanted to be sure energy transition nerds are aware well in advance of SUN DAY (https://www.sunday.earth/), a hopefully massive climate & energy global day of action coming up September 20-21. It's a celebration of the fact that the sun's energy, instead of cooking us, can save us. A wake-up call to the world that we no longer need fossil fuels. We can make this transition, and fast. Involving art, music, protest, organizing, new solar installations, EV parades, and whatever else creative communities come up with, it will hopefully be among the largest global days of action for anything, ever. So I encourage you to begin thinking what SUN DAY action(s) might look like for your community, your start up, etc.
Bill McKibben is one of the prime organizers of SUN DAY, and I'm secretly hoping David will interview Bill sometime between now & September. It'll be the Ali-Foreman of energy transition nerd vs. climate activist (only nicer).
Yes on both. First can be a tad confusing. $1.00 CAD = $0.75ish USD. Also, the "first" SMR is listed as about $6+B CAD, after adjusting for "shared infrastructure," then adjusting to $15,000/kW USD and a capital recovery of 7.5% and an O&M of about $0.02 gets us to about $0.16/kWh+ before T&D&Etc. And that existing nuke station, it sits on the shore of a big cold lake and uses direct cooling so figure most other places would add $1000/kW for a giant cooling tower.
And as far as I know it's not at all innovative. It's a design Westinghouse has been building for years. I've been at a 300 MW coal steam powerplant "module." Not very small or modular.
Here in CO, folks are agitated about retail $0.13/kWh.
My somewhat biased takeaway from Down Under. The Labor Party clearly stated a plan to stay the course with solar, wind, storage, efficiency and electrification. Closing coal and using some gas during longer VRE "droughts." They clearly pointed out the failings of the LNP nuke plan. As opposed to the Harris Dems and their capture by the vague "clean" energy narrative and "oh gee, maybe I was wrong about fracking back then."
Yes, the Aussies have more land, but still are running into all the std. conflicts caused by wind and solar and transmission development in the countryside. Helpfully, they figured out how to make rooftop solar 1/3 the price here. "Deregulate Solar!"
Maybe the folks in Connecticut will be OK paying $0.16/kWh for nuke power. Sorry, blathering on.
Speaking of baugruppen/cohousing and David's 2015 Vox article in the mailbag: Bosque Cohousing is breaking ground next month in sunny Albuquerque, where it's cooler than Tucson and weirder than Austin. Two of our larger units (3 and 4 bedrooms) are still available, but will be spoken for soon. Bonus points for families with kids 10 or older. https://www.cohousingabq.org/
Hi there, It would be great if Volts could do a full episode deep dive on the topic of restructuring utility incentives to better align them with the interests of ratepayers and the climate. Ideally the episode wouldn't spend too much time on the obvious reforms (multi-year rate plans, decoupling) which work pretty well for routine operating expenses, but rather tackle the harder, unsolved issues like effective capital cost recovery mechanisms (since prudence reviews are often not very effective for a variety of reasons) and figuring out how to rein in ROR without triggering a downgrade in the utility's credit rating (as happened to Eversource in CT recently). Many PUC chairs are grappling with these challenging issues. Let's get the experts together and figure it out! Thanks for considering.
I write a blog called Green Juice (www.greenjuice.wtf) that breaks down clean energy concepts in a way that even seasoned Volts fans can appreciate. This month, we're contextualizing clean energy metrics and going deep (like, to the center of the earth) on geothermal.
I have a question about renewable electricity. I have read in multiple sources that renewable electricty is the cheapest there is. At the same time, in so many cases, renewable electricity seems associated with *higher* prices. For example, when my town (in NJ) sought to negotiate community energy aggregation using more renewable electricity, they found it was more expensive than less renewable electricity. California uses a lot of renewable electricity (my impression) and yet their electricity rates are high (again, my impression). I've heard the same thing about Germany (again, just an impression). Is it just that my impressions are wrong? (though I'm sure about the NJ energy aggregation data) Are there different explanations for different places? Is there a unified theory for what's going on? As a climate activist out here pushing electrification, the (apparent) paradox I describe above makes it harder for me to get people to electrify. Hard to push heat pumps when electricity prices are rising 20% (as they are in NJ in this year) and rates for methane gas are going down (at least for my utility, PSE&G).
I am a supporter of Make Polluters Pay laws and am hoping California can successfully pass a law this year similar to New York and Vermont’s already passed laws. We have been experiencing increasing damaging and expensive climate exacerbated disasters here in California and it’s appropriate that Big Oil pay for the damage their product produced.
One concern of voters is if these laws raise the price of gas at the pump. Is there any good research available or efforts underway to better understand if this is true or not?
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
Energy data nonprofit seeks a State Policy Manager! Covered on Volts in August '24.
Job posting here:
https://www.missiondata.io/about-us
Volts episode: https://www.volts.wtf/p/free-the-smart-meter-data
Job, project-based: Zoom tech assistant. I'll be teaching a series of courses in Oct-Dec. I need someone with experience running events on Zoom to assist during each class. Familiarity with home energy efficiency, electrification, and solar would be ideal.
--- MAILBAG QUESTIONS ---
Is it time for a transformer pod?
Everyone's favorite grain-oriented steel monopolist, Cleveland Cliffs, recently announced it won't be building that new transformer plant in WV after all - https://www.tdworld.com/utility-business/article/55289293/cleveland-cliffs-pulls-plug-on-plan-to-build-west-virginia-transformer-plant - because its "unnamed partner" pulled out. Why? Apparently the mystery company is still planning to build a plant alone?
Semi-relatedly, DG Matrix, recently raised $20M - https://chargedevs.com/newswire/dg-matrix-raises-20-million-to-commercialize-its-multi-port-solid-state-transformer-solutions/ - to commercialize its multi-port solid-state transformer solution. Is solid-state ready for primetime?
How big of a bottleneck are transformers for the energy transition? Will lead times every come down? And what about... tariffs?
Do you know the fate of the home energy rebate programs that were part of the inflation reduction act? I believe a few states satisfied all of the department of energy's requirements and actually received funds prior to january twentieth. Supposedly, here in maryland we had final approval from the DOE prior to january twentieth, but no funds have ever become available here.
Please do more episodes on new technology like the new geothermal heat pumps episode. I find the episodes with government involvement just too depressing to listen to at the moment. I'm not saying they're not important but it's really hard with the current climate. Also perhaps do catch up episodes on tech you've already covered. I would love to hear a follow up on Boston Metal, Form Energy, etc.
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
Hello Volts Community!
I wanted to be sure energy transition nerds are aware well in advance of SUN DAY (https://www.sunday.earth/), a hopefully massive climate & energy global day of action coming up September 20-21. It's a celebration of the fact that the sun's energy, instead of cooking us, can save us. A wake-up call to the world that we no longer need fossil fuels. We can make this transition, and fast. Involving art, music, protest, organizing, new solar installations, EV parades, and whatever else creative communities come up with, it will hopefully be among the largest global days of action for anything, ever. So I encourage you to begin thinking what SUN DAY action(s) might look like for your community, your start up, etc.
Bill McKibben is one of the prime organizers of SUN DAY, and I'm secretly hoping David will interview Bill sometime between now & September. It'll be the Ali-Foreman of energy transition nerd vs. climate activist (only nicer).
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
+1 on the Comment of the Week. And, somewhat related, I found the Australian election results reassuring.
Yes on both. First can be a tad confusing. $1.00 CAD = $0.75ish USD. Also, the "first" SMR is listed as about $6+B CAD, after adjusting for "shared infrastructure," then adjusting to $15,000/kW USD and a capital recovery of 7.5% and an O&M of about $0.02 gets us to about $0.16/kWh+ before T&D&Etc. And that existing nuke station, it sits on the shore of a big cold lake and uses direct cooling so figure most other places would add $1000/kW for a giant cooling tower.
And as far as I know it's not at all innovative. It's a design Westinghouse has been building for years. I've been at a 300 MW coal steam powerplant "module." Not very small or modular.
Here in CO, folks are agitated about retail $0.13/kWh.
My somewhat biased takeaway from Down Under. The Labor Party clearly stated a plan to stay the course with solar, wind, storage, efficiency and electrification. Closing coal and using some gas during longer VRE "droughts." They clearly pointed out the failings of the LNP nuke plan. As opposed to the Harris Dems and their capture by the vague "clean" energy narrative and "oh gee, maybe I was wrong about fracking back then."
Yes, the Aussies have more land, but still are running into all the std. conflicts caused by wind and solar and transmission development in the countryside. Helpfully, they figured out how to make rooftop solar 1/3 the price here. "Deregulate Solar!"
Maybe the folks in Connecticut will be OK paying $0.16/kWh for nuke power. Sorry, blathering on.
Speaking of baugruppen/cohousing and David's 2015 Vox article in the mailbag: Bosque Cohousing is breaking ground next month in sunny Albuquerque, where it's cooler than Tucson and weirder than Austin. Two of our larger units (3 and 4 bedrooms) are still available, but will be spoken for soon. Bonus points for families with kids 10 or older. https://www.cohousingabq.org/
Hi there, It would be great if Volts could do a full episode deep dive on the topic of restructuring utility incentives to better align them with the interests of ratepayers and the climate. Ideally the episode wouldn't spend too much time on the obvious reforms (multi-year rate plans, decoupling) which work pretty well for routine operating expenses, but rather tackle the harder, unsolved issues like effective capital cost recovery mechanisms (since prudence reviews are often not very effective for a variety of reasons) and figuring out how to rein in ROR without triggering a downgrade in the utility's credit rating (as happened to Eversource in CT recently). Many PUC chairs are grappling with these challenging issues. Let's get the experts together and figure it out! Thanks for considering.
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
I write a blog called Green Juice (www.greenjuice.wtf) that breaks down clean energy concepts in a way that even seasoned Volts fans can appreciate. This month, we're contextualizing clean energy metrics and going deep (like, to the center of the earth) on geothermal.
I have a question about renewable electricity. I have read in multiple sources that renewable electricty is the cheapest there is. At the same time, in so many cases, renewable electricity seems associated with *higher* prices. For example, when my town (in NJ) sought to negotiate community energy aggregation using more renewable electricity, they found it was more expensive than less renewable electricity. California uses a lot of renewable electricity (my impression) and yet their electricity rates are high (again, my impression). I've heard the same thing about Germany (again, just an impression). Is it just that my impressions are wrong? (though I'm sure about the NJ energy aggregation data) Are there different explanations for different places? Is there a unified theory for what's going on? As a climate activist out here pushing electrification, the (apparent) paradox I describe above makes it harder for me to get people to electrify. Hard to push heat pumps when electricity prices are rising 20% (as they are in NJ in this year) and rates for methane gas are going down (at least for my utility, PSE&G).
A couple of episodes of the "Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins" podcast I found manageable:
1) How to Fix Electricity Bills in America ( June 12, 2024 )
2) How California Broke Its Electricity Bills ( June 5, 2024 )
(Assuming evidence and data actually matter in today's media landscape 😄)
2 different price inputs: supply & distribution.
I am a supporter of Make Polluters Pay laws and am hoping California can successfully pass a law this year similar to New York and Vermont’s already passed laws. We have been experiencing increasing damaging and expensive climate exacerbated disasters here in California and it’s appropriate that Big Oil pay for the damage their product produced.
One concern of voters is if these laws raise the price of gas at the pump. Is there any good research available or efforts underway to better understand if this is true or not?