Kind of Ironic that we lost power over the holiday and had a great dry run. Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. As we had company, a storm rolled in on us, and only 900 people in our county were without power. As you have heard me say, it is better to prepare […]
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However, it only captures part of the story. It does not fully capture system-level costs, weather extremes in places like Germany, consumer price outcomes in the West, or end-of-life realities. Those gaps matter when the claim is that firm renewables are already cheaper than new fossil generation and insulated from fuel shocks. Renewable Wind, Solar, […]
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Australia’s official grid planner has rewritten the script. The Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2026 Integrated System Plan still describes renewables, storage, transmission and gas backup as the “least-cost” path to 2050. The same documents show coal staying until 2049, wind delivery falling well short of earlier ambition, transmission scaled back after cost blowouts of up […]
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American electricity customers are facing sticker shock that goes far beyond ordinary inflation. In the nation’s largest grid region, PJM Interconnection—serving 65 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C.—capacity prices have risen from roughly $29 per MW-day in the 2024/2025 auction to $270, then $329–$333 per MW-day in subsequent auctions. That is an increase […]
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Energy News Beat — The question is no longer whether Winter Storm Uri was a one-off. The question is whether the United States is still pricing electricity as if kilowatt-hours were interchangeable, when what grids actually sell is energy that shows up when people need it. A widely circulated Electroverse post this weekend put the […]
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The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) aims to finish Governor Greg Abbott’s comprehensive verification and audit of data center and large-load projects by December 2026. The review, ordered on August 3, pauses advancement of new data center interconnections until projects demonstrate compliance with state law, Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) rules, and ERCOT […]
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Hat tip to Claire Coutinho (then Energy Secretary, now Shadow Secretary of State for Energy) and the think tank Onward with modeling by Transira Energy. This article was first published on the Energy News Beat Substack. Britain’s electricity prices rank among the highest in the developed world—frequently the highest for industrial users among IEA countries […]
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As electricity demand surges from electrification, data centers, and extreme weather, utilities and regulators are turning to customer-owned resources—electric vehicles (EVs) and home battery storage—to balance the grid. This involves “load balancing” or demand flexibility: shifting or reducing consumption (or discharging stored energy) during peak times, often through virtual power plants (VPPs) or demand response […]
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A wild day on the Energy Realities Podcast with Dr. Tammy Nemeth, David Blackmon and Stu Turley. In this episode of the Energy Realities Podcast, host David Blackmon and panelists Dr. Joseph Fournier, Dr. Tammy Nemeth, and Stu Turley challenge the prevailing Western narrative around energy transition and expose a stark geopolitical reality: while North […]
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A recent post by Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) on X captured a growing reality that policymakers and industry advocates have long downplayed: the coming wave of wind turbine and solar panel retirements will expose a physical and financial nightmare of continuous renewal. The fleet average in wind is 19 years, and they are rapidly approaching the […]
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