Greenlight America, featured on the pod Jan 8th, 2025 is hiring. Multiple positions but I wanted to highlight the post for the Midwest (aka North-Central).
Iowa is the leading state for wind energy and needs help maintaining that position
California is undergrounding lines to get around the pesky forest fire problem. I would be interested to hear about pros and cons of underground vs overhead transmission, especially around efficiency and maintenance, short term and long term.
What's the scuttlebutt on Chinese electric vehicles? It's in the news a lot with the Canada-China trade talks and Trump's tariff threats. How dominant really are Chinese EVs, and does the end of IRA provisions mean doom for American EV manufacturers amid global competition?
1) would love to hear a discussion of how to drive down costs of housing (such as making multi family more possible through removal of land development restrictions, codes “mandating” expensive/excessive requirements not supported by “outcomes-based safety evidence”, parking, coops, etc to drive out/reduce profiteers - UCLA housing leadership would be a good guest)
2) Similarly, evidence that European economies are adopting Passive House standards, at little to no cost premium (albeit much more emphasis on training/apprenticeships to facilitate). This topic could explore “total costs of living” (PH promises 90% lower utilities, and healthier interior air).. it also could include a discussion of how this could reduce cost of build (smaller, minimalist HVAC), opportunities to go net-zero more easily - becoming a potential contributor to our energy grid issues (not to mention housing problems) Leadership at Zurich housing authority, or possibly Cairn homes in Dublin would be good, and eye-opening guests.
Not to over-sell it, but reducing/eliminating need for massive subsidies is one way to build alternative means to solve community problems- without “permission” or federal support.
Thanks Samuel and David- love the work you’re doing!
Hey Voltians! I write a weekly newsletter about clean energy, climate solutions, and politics. It's called Green Juice (www.greenjuice.wtf). Our fun and funny posts feature custom illustrations from an awesome doctor artist. Lately I've been writing about Ecosocialism and DSA, public power, and e-viation. Hope you'll check it out.
I live in Minneapolis - thank you for highlighting ways to help. We're feeling a bit isolated here. I second the recommendation to donate to Unidos MN. Not only have they been instrumental to fighting for (and winning!) state level immigrant rights, they've also been a big part of the climate successes we've had here in Minneapolis. I've volunteered with them for a few years at this point and can say that any dollar you send them is a dollar well spent.
Finally - it may be a tough read for some, but I've been sharing this article with folks who don't live in Minneapolis and therefore aren't experiencing the on-the-ground situation:
I hesitate to mention his name in polite company, but it's recently been reported from Davos that : "For Elon Musk, the solution is solar energy, both here on earth and in space. He singles out China as the one country that gets it: “Later this year we will produce more [AI] chips than we can turn on, except for China. China’s growth of electricity is tremendous.” He rebuffs Larry Fink (Blackrock CEO) that nuclear is the solution: “Actually solar is the biggest thing in China. I believe China’s production capacity for solar is 1,500 GW a year and they’re deploying over 1,000 GW a year of solar. For continuous solar load you divide that by roughly 4 or 5, that’s around 250 GW of steady state power paired with batteries. That’s a very big number. That’s half of the average power usage in the U.S. The U.S. power usage on average is 500 GW. China – just in solar – can provide steady state power and batteries can do half of the U.S. electricity output per year”.
Three more years, and we'll be over a decade behind.
To put China’s solar deployment in perspective. They are installing around 3 GW every day, thats about 10 MILLION PANELS EVERY DAY! They realized the obvious - an energy source within infinite, free fuel and almost no maintenance will be the winner, full stop. With batteries and LDES they will pull ahead and be the next world dominant power. I don’t want that, but its clear where this is headed.
Can you help me identify the IL bill number? I'd like to share it with my representative and have been sending them information to educate themselves on the topic. I can't seem to find it.
Something hit me about VPPs, I'm hoping someone can clarify.
David keeps talking about how the data center dudes need to get "already available" energy by providing heatpumps and the like to residences, and then sucking up the newly available leftover electrons.
This ONLY works for those moving to heat pumps from electric resistance heating, right? Moving from gas to heat pumps will INCREASE electrical demand, not lower it. Overall it's a good move, but it doesn't free up electrons.
IF the territory is a summer-peaking utility, and IF the high performance heat pumps have significantly better AC efficiency, that would actually free up grid capacity, even though not energy. And I think there are still a lot of homes out there with leaky ducts in hot attics, and other leaks that could be fixed.
BUT, there may be more peak load savings available from converting old single-stage HPs w/strip heat backup, that resistance electric typically handling 100% below sometimes 40 or 45F, to modern, modulating, HPs with less, or even no backup, some maybe cold climate, because a lot of these homes are in the south and south-ish parts of the country.
A panel of manufacturers discussed this on the Heat Pump Pod. They would love to just ban AC only. And have higher nationwide standards w/o loopholes so they could reduce the number of variations they need to make, test, document, stock, sell....
You’re partially correct. Just remember, there are many other components to VPPs (or whatever you want to call them). Probably the best example is solar and storage. For the cost of retrofitting a house with an old electric furnace to a modern heat pump (roughly $30K), you could cover the roof with panels and install batteries. From personal experience, my home solar offset 20-25 MWh/year of electricity consumption and that does not include my fossil fuel conversions (i.e. gas furnace, gas water heater, gas dryer, gas vehicles). My hunch is solar is so cheap now that it is the best bang for the buck for the “data center dudes.” If only we had Australia’s regulatory and interconnection frameworks, it’d be even better.
To defend democracy, I recommend doing two things simultaneously: First, show up and speak out in organized protests as the people in Minneapolis and other parts of the country are doing. Two, get engaged in doing democracy with a specific goal. By "doing democracy," I mean making it work for you at the local or state level through climate change projects, education projects, health care projects, and other ways to improve the structures and substance of our government. By doing projects that change ordinances and laws or strengthen non-governmental organizations, you are helping to weave the institutional fabric of self-government and not only improving lives but making it much harder for the autocrats to wield power. So, keep participating in protests of the unaccountable, thuggish acts of the ICE and Border Patrol brown shirts, but also join with other to make democracy work for all. (And become a paid member of Volts.)
David often says that using the spare capacity on the grid, e.g., via VPPs, is the quickest way to get new power. This has a great deal of surface plausibility, but in other contexts we bemoan the multiplication of soft costs, the challenges of customer acquisition, and the difficulty of scaling anything involving millions of individual decision-makers. How do you reconcile this conflict, and is there any proof of concept showing that it really *can* be done quickly?
I want to learn more about the cost of electricity for the average consumer, as the monopolistic tech companies increase their demand for local power. SImply, how can we get these tech monopolies to pay for their electricty infrastructure costs, as well as their monthly bill. Neither me nor the government should be on the hook for this. That's not to much to ask!
New to this forum, hope I’m posting in the right place. I’m interested in investing in the massive secular electrification trend. I really want to position myself between generation and end use. Switching, control, infrastructure, etc. The best idea I’ve found is The GRID etf. I’d be grateful for the thoughts of others.
For all I know you're sitting on a diversified portfolio of many millions of dollars already and know exactly what you're doing...
But for anyone with more moderate amounts of money thinking of this kind of investing...the standard advice to speak to a qualified financial adviser before investing exists for a reason.
NextEra would be a good choice as they are a developer and a transmission owner as well as utility. You may be able to find a transformer manufacturer to invest in.
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
https://www.greenlightamerica.org/careers/regional-campaign-manager-north-central
Greenlight America, featured on the pod Jan 8th, 2025 is hiring. Multiple positions but I wanted to highlight the post for the Midwest (aka North-Central).
Iowa is the leading state for wind energy and needs help maintaining that position
--- QUESTIONS ---
California is undergrounding lines to get around the pesky forest fire problem. I would be interested to hear about pros and cons of underground vs overhead transmission, especially around efficiency and maintenance, short term and long term.
Not to discount the value of a broader discussion but overwhelmingly the reason why it’s not done more widely is cost.
Check out the company https://earthgrid.io/ that's trying to solve this!
What's the scuttlebutt on Chinese electric vehicles? It's in the news a lot with the Canada-China trade talks and Trump's tariff threats. How dominant really are Chinese EVs, and does the end of IRA provisions mean doom for American EV manufacturers amid global competition?
Question/topic for future pods?
1) would love to hear a discussion of how to drive down costs of housing (such as making multi family more possible through removal of land development restrictions, codes “mandating” expensive/excessive requirements not supported by “outcomes-based safety evidence”, parking, coops, etc to drive out/reduce profiteers - UCLA housing leadership would be a good guest)
2) Similarly, evidence that European economies are adopting Passive House standards, at little to no cost premium (albeit much more emphasis on training/apprenticeships to facilitate). This topic could explore “total costs of living” (PH promises 90% lower utilities, and healthier interior air).. it also could include a discussion of how this could reduce cost of build (smaller, minimalist HVAC), opportunities to go net-zero more easily - becoming a potential contributor to our energy grid issues (not to mention housing problems) Leadership at Zurich housing authority, or possibly Cairn homes in Dublin would be good, and eye-opening guests.
Not to over-sell it, but reducing/eliminating need for massive subsidies is one way to build alternative means to solve community problems- without “permission” or federal support.
Thanks Samuel and David- love the work you’re doing!
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
Hey Voltians! I write a weekly newsletter about clean energy, climate solutions, and politics. It's called Green Juice (www.greenjuice.wtf). Our fun and funny posts feature custom illustrations from an awesome doctor artist. Lately I've been writing about Ecosocialism and DSA, public power, and e-viation. Hope you'll check it out.
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
I live in Minneapolis - thank you for highlighting ways to help. We're feeling a bit isolated here. I second the recommendation to donate to Unidos MN. Not only have they been instrumental to fighting for (and winning!) state level immigrant rights, they've also been a big part of the climate successes we've had here in Minneapolis. I've volunteered with them for a few years at this point and can say that any dollar you send them is a dollar well spent.
Finally - it may be a tough read for some, but I've been sharing this article with folks who don't live in Minneapolis and therefore aren't experiencing the on-the-ground situation:
https://racketmn.com/voices-of-the-occupation-of-mn-ice-trump?giftLink=bc4a08621094c6ae55b08a1a8eeda8c3
Build relationships with your communities now. ICE won't stop here.
Having lived through it already in Chicago, I empathize with your plight. We're all in this together. Stand strong.
I hesitate to mention his name in polite company, but it's recently been reported from Davos that : "For Elon Musk, the solution is solar energy, both here on earth and in space. He singles out China as the one country that gets it: “Later this year we will produce more [AI] chips than we can turn on, except for China. China’s growth of electricity is tremendous.” He rebuffs Larry Fink (Blackrock CEO) that nuclear is the solution: “Actually solar is the biggest thing in China. I believe China’s production capacity for solar is 1,500 GW a year and they’re deploying over 1,000 GW a year of solar. For continuous solar load you divide that by roughly 4 or 5, that’s around 250 GW of steady state power paired with batteries. That’s a very big number. That’s half of the average power usage in the U.S. The U.S. power usage on average is 500 GW. China – just in solar – can provide steady state power and batteries can do half of the U.S. electricity output per year”.
Three more years, and we'll be over a decade behind.
To put China’s solar deployment in perspective. They are installing around 3 GW every day, thats about 10 MILLION PANELS EVERY DAY! They realized the obvious - an energy source within infinite, free fuel and almost no maintenance will be the winner, full stop. With batteries and LDES they will pull ahead and be the next world dominant power. I don’t want that, but its clear where this is headed.
My sources are saying 21 states have now introduced plug-in solar bills.
Can you help me identify the IL bill number? I'd like to share it with my representative and have been sending them information to educate themselves on the topic. I can't seem to find it.
Illinois — HB 4371 (sponsored by Rep. Delgado)
Hat tip to Kevin Chou, Brightsaver.
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
Something hit me about VPPs, I'm hoping someone can clarify.
David keeps talking about how the data center dudes need to get "already available" energy by providing heatpumps and the like to residences, and then sucking up the newly available leftover electrons.
This ONLY works for those moving to heat pumps from electric resistance heating, right? Moving from gas to heat pumps will INCREASE electrical demand, not lower it. Overall it's a good move, but it doesn't free up electrons.
What am I missing?
IF the territory is a summer-peaking utility, and IF the high performance heat pumps have significantly better AC efficiency, that would actually free up grid capacity, even though not energy. And I think there are still a lot of homes out there with leaky ducts in hot attics, and other leaks that could be fixed.
BUT, there may be more peak load savings available from converting old single-stage HPs w/strip heat backup, that resistance electric typically handling 100% below sometimes 40 or 45F, to modern, modulating, HPs with less, or even no backup, some maybe cold climate, because a lot of these homes are in the south and south-ish parts of the country.
A panel of manufacturers discussed this on the Heat Pump Pod. They would love to just ban AC only. And have higher nationwide standards w/o loopholes so they could reduce the number of variations they need to make, test, document, stock, sell....
You’re partially correct. Just remember, there are many other components to VPPs (or whatever you want to call them). Probably the best example is solar and storage. For the cost of retrofitting a house with an old electric furnace to a modern heat pump (roughly $30K), you could cover the roof with panels and install batteries. From personal experience, my home solar offset 20-25 MWh/year of electricity consumption and that does not include my fossil fuel conversions (i.e. gas furnace, gas water heater, gas dryer, gas vehicles). My hunch is solar is so cheap now that it is the best bang for the buck for the “data center dudes.” If only we had Australia’s regulatory and interconnection frameworks, it’d be even better.
To defend democracy, I recommend doing two things simultaneously: First, show up and speak out in organized protests as the people in Minneapolis and other parts of the country are doing. Two, get engaged in doing democracy with a specific goal. By "doing democracy," I mean making it work for you at the local or state level through climate change projects, education projects, health care projects, and other ways to improve the structures and substance of our government. By doing projects that change ordinances and laws or strengthen non-governmental organizations, you are helping to weave the institutional fabric of self-government and not only improving lives but making it much harder for the autocrats to wield power. So, keep participating in protests of the unaccountable, thuggish acts of the ICE and Border Patrol brown shirts, but also join with other to make democracy work for all. (And become a paid member of Volts.)
David often says that using the spare capacity on the grid, e.g., via VPPs, is the quickest way to get new power. This has a great deal of surface plausibility, but in other contexts we bemoan the multiplication of soft costs, the challenges of customer acquisition, and the difficulty of scaling anything involving millions of individual decision-makers. How do you reconcile this conflict, and is there any proof of concept showing that it really *can* be done quickly?
David, thank you for the link on directory of ways to help the people of Minnesota. Have not seen it elsewhere.
I want to learn more about the cost of electricity for the average consumer, as the monopolistic tech companies increase their demand for local power. SImply, how can we get these tech monopolies to pay for their electricty infrastructure costs, as well as their monthly bill. Neither me nor the government should be on the hook for this. That's not to much to ask!
New to this forum, hope I’m posting in the right place. I’m interested in investing in the massive secular electrification trend. I really want to position myself between generation and end use. Switching, control, infrastructure, etc. The best idea I’ve found is The GRID etf. I’d be grateful for the thoughts of others.
For all I know you're sitting on a diversified portfolio of many millions of dollars already and know exactly what you're doing...
But for anyone with more moderate amounts of money thinking of this kind of investing...the standard advice to speak to a qualified financial adviser before investing exists for a reason.
NextEra would be a good choice as they are a developer and a transmission owner as well as utility. You may be able to find a transformer manufacturer to invest in.