What impacts does the budget reconciliation bill have on heat pump incentives? Heat pumps were one of the many winners in the IRA, and I am nervous that the incentives may have been gutted. Given so many last minute changes in the senate bill, I would love to know what impacts were actually signed into law with regards to heating.
If solar + battery (or will soon be) cost competitive with new gas plants, then why is cutting the tax credits for solar expected to have a big impact on emissions? How big is the impact?
I'm curious about this as well. Could it be that the price drop curve for solar + storage is so dramatic that it obviates this federal price wrangling?
This is sort of a follow-up to the "Theory of Change" discussion with Jane Flegal and Jesse Jenkins:
The conventional wisdom for many years was that while climate change is politically polarized, renewable energy was not. And so a major recommendation for Democrats to try to build broad support for climate policies was to emphasize the benefits of clean energy while minimizing talk of climate change (at least around moderates/conservatives). Now with the OBBB obliterating the IRA, and more and more rural communities coming out against renewable energy, should Democrats/climate advocates just drop the whole trying to build a broad coalition of support and just admit that these issues are going to be partisan going forward? Or are Donald Trump and his disciples such an anomaly that, assuming we can get past his presidency, there are opportunities for reasoned, bipartisan support?
Given the IRA solar tax credit will only be allowed for leasing - Could you 'lease' a solar system and take the tax credit, then after 3 years buy out the equipment? It works for cars...why not solar?
What is the status of vehicle to grid deployment in the US? Leveraging EV as massive batteries on wheels could breathe life into the pat tax credit market reality
I'd guess it's pretty minimal. Given that EVs aren't guaranteed to be plugged in at the time needed, you'd need a very large base of participants to ensure you have enough available. The biggest obstacle is likely to be people's perceptions - do you trust the gubmint to run such a program well - lots of US peeps won't say yes to that.
Texas is doing a similar thing but with house batteries - company installs a house battery for extremely cheap. You get outage power and they get an installed base to create the DER (Distributed Energy Resource)
For years I have had a back of the napkin idea about a crypto currency backed for solar project development. Each token would represent one kWh of future production. This would serve as collateral for financing, payment for equipment, and or install labor. Does this already exist? Any other feedback?
I've been thinking about the balcony solar concept in Germany, and recent video on my YT feed started turning some gears in my head.
"JerryRigEverything", a Utah-based tech youtuber, documented his installation of a PV setup [1] in compliance with the state's recently passed Balcony Solar bill. [2]
What made my ears perk up is that the input limit is 1200W (coincidentally about equal with average home power demand when integrating over the course of a year). And furthermore, that it's not the limit of the solar array, but the limit what you can inject into the outlet.
This makes for a surprisingly high ceiling for how much solar you can install. If panels are cheap enough, you could oversize your PV installation, or add panels to complement different times of day. If batteries get cheap enough, you could bank excess power and discharge as the sun starts to set.
Of course, expanding this system stateside will require revisions to NEC to make sure things stay safe. (For example, maybe a dedicated circuit will be required)
But I'm thinking that there's lots of potential here, especially if you can get around the soft costs of installation. If installing solar looks more like a weekend IKEA project and less like a permitting and contracting headache, I could see this concept gaining a lot of momentum.
That Jerry is one slick Youtuber. EcoFlow sponsored the video, but bless them for getting product out. I didn't expect things to move so quickly. There is at least one other product that is a bit more complicated, and it is getting installed outside of Utah with local regulators' blessing
Al Gore is definitely under-rated. It drove me up the wall, in the period when the media was being credulous about DOGE, that virtually nobody talked about the fact that Al Gore led a _highly successful_ government efficiency initiative for Bill Clinton, which cut costs, simplified processes, and raised "customer satisfaction" scores for government agencies.
Practically the only comment I saw about it was a Doonesbury cartoon.
Slate's Slow Burn season about the Clinton impeachment persuaded me that he should've resigned and let Gore take over. Possibly running as the incumbent, and being able to take credit for good stuff from the '90s while disclaiming and criticizing some bad stuff, would've put him over the top in a couple states (especially Florida).
David, Sam & VOLTs team, I often reference the podcast archives for examples of innovative organizations and people, but scrolling through the substack archives is hardly an efficient way to remember all the great episodes especially as there are many years worth now. I'd love if a simple table or excel existed that show that listed every show with its guests and maybe a general topic area ie grid, solar, policy, storage, etc.
If I have downtime this might be a personal project and I would love to share out to the community when completed, but if it already exists in some accessible format that would be even better!
Would you like me to create a google sheet of all the podcast episodes (either public or including the episodes on the private feed) for easier sorting and filtering.
Re: EIU livable cities: Just moved to Portland, Oregon from San Mateo, California. Portland has transportation, walkability, good food to eat out and cook at home, soothing nature just steps away and so much more. San Mateo had cars and houses. I'm OK with our list position in the 40s.
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
I am a residential solar project manager that got laid off after liberation day tariffs. Anyone have any leads on some remote jobs?
https://elephantenergy.com/elephant-careers/
--- QUESTIONS ---
What impacts does the budget reconciliation bill have on heat pump incentives? Heat pumps were one of the many winners in the IRA, and I am nervous that the incentives may have been gutted. Given so many last minute changes in the senate bill, I would love to know what impacts were actually signed into law with regards to heating.
If solar + battery (or will soon be) cost competitive with new gas plants, then why is cutting the tax credits for solar expected to have a big impact on emissions? How big is the impact?
I'm curious about this as well. Could it be that the price drop curve for solar + storage is so dramatic that it obviates this federal price wrangling?
This is sort of a follow-up to the "Theory of Change" discussion with Jane Flegal and Jesse Jenkins:
The conventional wisdom for many years was that while climate change is politically polarized, renewable energy was not. And so a major recommendation for Democrats to try to build broad support for climate policies was to emphasize the benefits of clean energy while minimizing talk of climate change (at least around moderates/conservatives). Now with the OBBB obliterating the IRA, and more and more rural communities coming out against renewable energy, should Democrats/climate advocates just drop the whole trying to build a broad coalition of support and just admit that these issues are going to be partisan going forward? Or are Donald Trump and his disciples such an anomaly that, assuming we can get past his presidency, there are opportunities for reasoned, bipartisan support?
Given the IRA solar tax credit will only be allowed for leasing - Could you 'lease' a solar system and take the tax credit, then after 3 years buy out the equipment? It works for cars...why not solar?
What is the status of vehicle to grid deployment in the US? Leveraging EV as massive batteries on wheels could breathe life into the pat tax credit market reality
I'd guess it's pretty minimal. Given that EVs aren't guaranteed to be plugged in at the time needed, you'd need a very large base of participants to ensure you have enough available. The biggest obstacle is likely to be people's perceptions - do you trust the gubmint to run such a program well - lots of US peeps won't say yes to that.
Texas is doing a similar thing but with house batteries - company installs a house battery for extremely cheap. You get outage power and they get an installed base to create the DER (Distributed Energy Resource)
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
For years I have had a back of the napkin idea about a crypto currency backed for solar project development. Each token would represent one kWh of future production. This would serve as collateral for financing, payment for equipment, and or install labor. Does this already exist? Any other feedback?
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
I've been thinking about the balcony solar concept in Germany, and recent video on my YT feed started turning some gears in my head.
"JerryRigEverything", a Utah-based tech youtuber, documented his installation of a PV setup [1] in compliance with the state's recently passed Balcony Solar bill. [2]
What made my ears perk up is that the input limit is 1200W (coincidentally about equal with average home power demand when integrating over the course of a year). And furthermore, that it's not the limit of the solar array, but the limit what you can inject into the outlet.
This makes for a surprisingly high ceiling for how much solar you can install. If panels are cheap enough, you could oversize your PV installation, or add panels to complement different times of day. If batteries get cheap enough, you could bank excess power and discharge as the sun starts to set.
Of course, expanding this system stateside will require revisions to NEC to make sure things stay safe. (For example, maybe a dedicated circuit will be required)
But I'm thinking that there's lots of potential here, especially if you can get around the soft costs of installation. If installing solar looks more like a weekend IKEA project and less like a permitting and contracting headache, I could see this concept gaining a lot of momentum.
[1] https://youtu.be/tSnYETHGpIU?si=DFOxDfT2pC_jsKqz
[2] https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2025/03/05/balcony-solar-gains-unanimous-bipartisan-support-in-utah/
That Jerry is one slick Youtuber. EcoFlow sponsored the video, but bless them for getting product out. I didn't expect things to move so quickly. There is at least one other product that is a bit more complicated, and it is getting installed outside of Utah with local regulators' blessing
Al Gore is definitely under-rated. It drove me up the wall, in the period when the media was being credulous about DOGE, that virtually nobody talked about the fact that Al Gore led a _highly successful_ government efficiency initiative for Bill Clinton, which cut costs, simplified processes, and raised "customer satisfaction" scores for government agencies.
Practically the only comment I saw about it was a Doonesbury cartoon.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/doonesbury/strip/archive/2025/03/16
Best president we never had. :-(
Slate's Slow Burn season about the Clinton impeachment persuaded me that he should've resigned and let Gore take over. Possibly running as the incumbent, and being able to take credit for good stuff from the '90s while disclaiming and criticizing some bad stuff, would've put him over the top in a couple states (especially Florida).
Re: Tennessee, we have a huge family Reunion in Sunshine. My dad's mom was a full blooded McCoy
When is Dave going to get around to running for president already?
David, Sam & VOLTs team, I often reference the podcast archives for examples of innovative organizations and people, but scrolling through the substack archives is hardly an efficient way to remember all the great episodes especially as there are many years worth now. I'd love if a simple table or excel existed that show that listed every show with its guests and maybe a general topic area ie grid, solar, policy, storage, etc.
If I have downtime this might be a personal project and I would love to share out to the community when completed, but if it already exists in some accessible format that would be even better!
Would you like me to create a google sheet of all the podcast episodes (either public or including the episodes on the private feed) for easier sorting and filtering.
Potential columns:
Title
Description
Length
Guest(s)
Date
That would be incredible!
David, thanks for keeping on keeping on. I appreciated all of these updates.
Re: EIU livable cities: Just moved to Portland, Oregon from San Mateo, California. Portland has transportation, walkability, good food to eat out and cook at home, soothing nature just steps away and so much more. San Mateo had cars and houses. I'm OK with our list position in the 40s.
Information Resources:
Energy (and Other) Events Monthly
http://hubevents.blogspot.com
August edition coming out in a day or two
City Agriculture links list
http://cityag.blogspot.com
Net Zero Energy links list
http://zeronetenrg.blogspot.com
Years of links on those topics at the respective websites.
All are also free listservs
I love putting information together and would like to see my work used more widely