05.06.25- "We Are At A Tipping Point": Shale Giant Diamonback Says US Oil Output Has Peaked, Slashes CapEx Amid OPEC Price War
Tyler Durden

The OPEC price war has made landfall in the US.

Following our report earlier that Saudi Arabia has declared a new price war on OPEC+ quota-busters such as Kazakhstan, and non OPEC+ members such as US shale producers, today after the close Diamondback Energy, the largest independent oil producer in the Permian Basin, made a historic pronouncement today when it said that production has likely peaked in America’s prolific shale fields (something we also mentioned earlier in the day) and will decline in the months and years ahead after crude prices plummeted. Read More

05.05.25- The Global Race for White Hydrogen
Felicity Bradstock

As companies worldwide race to increase their green hydrogen production capacity to power heavy industry and transport in support of a green transition, others are looking to naturally occurring hydrogen, also known as white, gold or geologic hydrogen, as the solution. Since the energy source was discovered in Mali in 2012, interest in its development has been slow due to the lack of knowledge about how much white hydrogen there is around the globe and exactly where to find it. However, the development of several new projects, in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, has raised hopes among energy producers.  Read More

05.03.25- Next Generation Solar Panels Are Revolutionizing Clean Energy
Haley Zaremba

Researchers around the world are competing to design and scale next generation solar panels. While current photovoltaic solar panels are generally cost-effective and efficient, the sector is always looking to advance, and find even better ways of converting sunlight into clean energy. Read More

05.02.25- Europe’s Grid Buckles
Under Its Own Future
Tsvetana Paraskova

Monday’s massive power outage in Spain and Portugal, Europe’s worst blackout, triggered a lot of questions, concerns, and a blame game of who done it.

On Monday midday, a sudden massive outage hit the electricity transmission systems of Spain and Portugal, and briefly parts of France, in a very rare blackout in Europe, whose causes are yet to be determined. Read More

05.01.25- Raindrops Power New Renewable Energy Breakthrough
Haley Zaremba

Raindrops could hold the key to next generation renewable energy. Scientists in Singapore recently managed to generate electricity from rain-like water droplets with a surprisingly promising amount of efficiency. If this scientific breakthrough proves to be scalable and, eventually, commercially viable, this could have major implications for the global decarbonization movement, and could provide a new form of residential clean energy production. Read More

04.30.25- White Hydrogen Hype Heats Up as Green Dreams Fade
Tsvetana Paraskova

First it was grey, then it was blue, later it was green, now it’s white—these color codes for types of hydrogen depending on sourcing have seen a lot of hype in recent years.

Grey hydrogen produced from fossil fuels and blue hydrogen produced from natural gas with accompanying carbon capture and storage (CCS) are by no means clean energy sources. Read More

04.29.25- Renewables Emerge as Key to Meet AI-Driven Energy Demand
Tsvetana Paraskova

The operator of the largest gas-fired electricity generation fleet in America believes that renewables will be vital to meet the rise in power demand driven by AI and the reshoring of manufacturing.  

NextEra Energy – whose 72 gigawatts (GW) operating portfolio consists of 55% renewables, 36% gas, and 8% nuclear power generation – says that America will need all forms of energy to meet the expected surge in demand. And wind, solar, and battery storage can act as the “bridge” energy source until new natural gas and nuclear capacity comes online. Read More

04.28.25- Oil priced in gold is near all-time lows
Alasdair Macleod

Crude oil priced in gold has reached the second lowest levels in history. This is mainly due to record high gold prices rather than low oil prices. In our view, gold is more efficiently pricing in future dollar devaluation than oil prices as oil prices remain bound to near-term supply and demand dynamics of a potential global recession. But also other asset classes such as real estate appear “cheap” on a historical basis when priced in gold. We believe that this is the result of the market realizing that further currency devaluation is inevitable and gold prices that in better than any other asset. Read More

04.26.25- Shale Slowdown? Halliburton Sounds the Alarm
Tsvetana Paraskova

The heightened oil market and macroeconomic uncertainties in recent weeks are baffling not only analysts. Halliburton, the oilfield services giant with the highest exposure to the U.S. fracking market, has just warned investors that its U.S. customers are re-evaluating drilling activity plans for 2025.

“Looking forward, many of our customers are in the midst of evaluating their activity scenarios and plans for 2025,” Halliburton’s chairman, president, and CEO, Jeff Miller, said on the first-quarter earnings call this week. Read More

04.25.25- Whatever Happened To The
Green New Deal?
William Anderson

Fresh off her 2018 upset New York Democratic congressional primary win, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (better known as AOC) and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey announced they were launching an ambitious legislative plan called the Green New Deal. 

While people who had a grounding in economic thought found this new initiative to be naïve at best and destructive at worst, nonetheless it has energized American progressives and other environmental true believers. Read More

Vision 2030 Fuels Saudi Shift to Natural Gas
Rystad Energy

Crude burn—the direct use of crude oil in power plants and industrial facilities, primarily for electricity generation—has long been a staple in Saudi Arabia’s energy mix. The kingdom burns significant volumes of oil to meet domestic electricity demand, which hovers around 171 terawatt-hours (TWh). However, analysis from Rystad Energy shows the upcoming Jafurah shale gas field, set to start production in 2025 and the largest of its kind globally, could dramatically shift this dynamic. By tapping into unconventional gas, Saudi Arabia stands to displace up to 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude burn by 2030. The increased gas supply would not only curb domestic crude use but also free up more oil and refined products for export, strengthening the country’s position in energy markets. Read More

04.23.25- Drill, Baby, Drill... But for Water
Leonard Hyman and William Tilles

A while ago, in a article about investment opportunities, we concluded that water was the new oil, the commodity that would provide one of the the best returns in the future. A bit hyperbolic, maybe? But there is another aspect of water relevant to resource industries, namely that its scarcity will inhibit or raise costs of resource development, including that of oil and gas.  Read More

04.22.25- China Unveils World’s 1st ‘Meltdown Proof’ Thorium Reactor
Alex Kimani

Chinese scientists have achieved a significant milestone in clean energy tech after successfully adding fresh fuel to an operational thorium molten salt reactor, Chinese state media has reported. According to Guangming Daily, the 2-megawatt experimental reactor is located in the Gobi Desert, and the latest milestone puts China at the forefront in the race to build a practical thorium reactor–long considered a more abundant and safer alternative to uranium.  More significantly, China has relied heavily on long-abandoned American research in the field. In the 1960s, American scientists built and tested molten salt reactors, but Washington eventually shelved the program in favor of uranium-based technology. “The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor,” project chief scientist Xu Hongjie said. “Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That’s when the tortoise seizes its chance,” he added. Read More

04.21.25- Firms Cancel $8 Billion in Renewables Investment on Trump Policies
Tsvetana Paraskova

Rising market and policy uncertainties forced companies to cancel $8 billion in investments in U.S. clean energy projects in the first quarter of the year.

In a dramatic surge in cancellations of projects amid the chilling effects of the Trump Administration’s trade policy and attempts to repeal part of the green energy incentives, companies have withdrawn $7.9 billion in investments since January, clean energy business group E2 said in a monthly update this week. Read More

04.19.25- Middle East Eyes Clean Energy Trade, But Markets Lag Behind
Alan Mammoser

The energy transition through the perspective of the power sector came into view last week at the annual Middle East Energy conference and exhibition in Dubai.

What appeared was a region ready to think about leveraging its growing array of renewable energy resources to maintain its role as a leading energy exporter. Exports of power from the Gulf’s thriving renewables sector, to countries needing more clean power to meet climate goals, could become an important driver of the region’s economic growth. Read More

04.18.25- Iran Faces Tough Decisions in Nuclear Negotiations
Rasio Free Europe

Nuclear talks in Oman marked the first formal engagement between Iran and the United States in years, and though progress may have been slight, it was enough to signal a willingness to temper tensions through diplomacy rather than military action.

Iranian and US negotiators agreed on April 12 to continue their high-level talks over Tehran's nuclear program on April 19, with the venue likely moving to Europe from the Middle East. Read More

04.17.25- Electricity from rainwater: New method shows promise
Michael Franco

Tiny drops of water might not seem like powerhouse energy producers, but a new method shows how simple tubes might be able to turn falling rain into an energy source. In tests, the method was able to power up 12 LED lights.

When it comes to generating clean energy from water, hydroelectric would certainly be the first thing to come to mind. But the issue with utility-level turbines is that they need large flows of water to operate, so their installation locations are limited. Wave energy is steadily coming on board as well, but again, that type of power generation is very site specific. Read More

04.16.25- New fuel switches US nuclear reactor from Regular to Premium
David Szondy

A US nuclear reactor has switched from Regular to Premium fuel with Southern Nuclear inserting four Lead Test Assemblies (LTAs) into the Vogtle Unit 2 reactor in Waynesboro, Georgia that contains uranium enriched above 5% – a US commercial first.

Nuclear fuel is one of those things that we tend to pretty much take for granted. You have a nuclear reactor, it needs fuel, you put fuel in. QED. The general assumption is that filling a reactor with uranium and plutonium is like shoveling coal into a boiler furnace – a straightforward operation that, in the case of nuclear, is just a bit more involved. Read More

04.15.25- Space solar startup preps
laser-beamed power demo for 2026
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Space solar power, or what I like to call Starlink for electricity, is at once a ludicrous idea and a bit of a pipe dream. None of that is stopping Baiju Bhatt from giving it a go.

The billionaire co-founder of financial services app Robinhood has a new startup called Aetherflux focused purely on beaming solar power from satellites to receivers on Earth. Having announced it last year, Bhatt has now raised US$50 million in Series A funding from a clutch of Silicon Valley investors, and aims to launch a test next year. Read More

04.14.25- Geothermal Energy Poised for Significant Growth in the US
Haley Zaremba

“It’s going to be the decade of geothermal.” That’s according to Cindy Taff, chief executive of geothermal company Sage Geosystems, in an interview in The Hill earlier this year. While Trump is making clean energy cuts left and right, the administration has stayed surprisingly bullish on geothermal, causing bullish outlooks for the burgeoning sector across the United States. While geothermal currently represents only a sliver of renewable energy capacity in the country and lags “10 to 15 years” behind wind and solar, momentum – and investments – are sharply on the rise. Read More

04.12.25- The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved
Joe Salas

China has approved what is set to become the biggest hydropower dam complex in the world, capable of producing nearly three times as much power as the current record-holder, the Three Gorges Dam. 

The project is slated to be built on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet near the border of India at a cost of US$137 billion. It's part of China's 14th "Five-Year Plan," which includes environmental goals to accelerate renewable energy and fight pollution. The location of the proposed dam looks to take advantage of the river's steep geography to harness more hydropower than ever before: 300 billion kilowatt-hours per year. Read More

04.11.25- Nuclear’s Back—
but Uranium Supply Isn’t
Tsvetana Paraskova

The nuclear power industry will need additional uranium supply in the medium and long term to ensure adequate supply for the new era of nuclear energy.

Therefore, efforts must begin immediately to secure the supply of the key nuclear fuel, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in their Red Book report prepared jointly every two years. Read More

04.10.25- Oil Prices Drop to Lowest Level Since Pandemic as Trade War Accelerates
Irina Slav

Crude oil prices slumped to their lowest level since 2021 after the U.S. announced a fresh 50% tariff for Chinese imports following Beijing’s refusal to withdraw its retaliatory 34% tariffs announced in response to Washington’s imposition of a 34% tariff rate on top of already existing levies.

At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $60.36 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $57.04 per barrel, both down by close to 4% from Tuesday’s close. Since the start of the year, the benchmarks have shed lover $10 per barrel and most analysts expect the rout to deepen as tariffs would sap oil demand. Read More

04.09.25- Renewable energy now handles 40% of our global electricity needs
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

A report from UK-based climate and energy think tank Ember notes that clean energy sources accounted for 40.9% percent of electricity produced around the world in 2024.

The finding comes from data and estimates culled from 215 countries. The 118-page Global Electricity Review 2025 analyzes trends underlying the changes and the likely implications for energy sources and power sector emissions in the near future. Read More

04.08.25- US Uranium Production Hits Highest Level In 6 Years
Naveen Athrappully

The production of uranium in the United States registered a gain last year following several years of subdued output, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

“Companies in the United States produced more uranium concentrate in 2024 than in any year since 2018 after a sustained period of higher uranium prices spurred production,” the agency said in an April 2 statement.

“Production in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone was higher than the total annual production for each of the years in 2019–23.”  Read More

04.07.25- Demand for Lithium Strains Water Resources
Haley Zaremba

While lithium has a starring role in the global clean energy transition thanks to its fundamental importance in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage, the “white gold” may be as much of an environmental threat as it is a savior. Extraction processes for the metal are associated with significant negative environmental externalities and public health risks, and now scientists are questioning whether the world can spare the vast amount of fresh water lithium production consumes. Read More

04.05.25- U.S. Natural Gas Prices Drop 6% as WTI Oil Craters by Nearly 9%
Charles Kennedy

U.S. natural gas prices fell by 6% on Friday morning amid the overall panic market selling, but the benchmark Henry Hub price was declining less than the WTI Crude prices, which sank by more than 8% to hit a low of $61 per barrel.

The benchmark price for U.S. natural gas delivered at Henry Hub was plunging by 6.26% to $3.877 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) as of 10:35 a.m. EDT. At the same time, the WTI Crude futures were tumbling by as much as 8.59% to $61.14. Read More

04.04.25- Oil Executives Voice Concern Over Trump Energy Policies as Prices Plummet
Felicity Bradstock

As U.S. President Donald Trump looks increasingly likely to shift away from the Biden-era acceleration of renewable energy deployment in favour of the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, oil executives are calling on the government to create greater market stability. The U.S. energy market has boomed in recent years, largely due to the introduction of former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which attracted high levels of green financing, and the increase of domestic oil and gas production. Favourable federal policies have allowed oil and gas majors to expand production to meet the high international demand while investing revenues in the development of renewable energy and clean tech. Read More

04.03.25- U.S. Uranium Market Goes Radio Silent on Tariff Shock
Irina Slav

Uranium purchases in the United States have slowed considerably as power utilities process the effect of President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive in the market—and that offensive may yet transform that same market.

Bloomberg reported this week that uranium purchases by U.S. power utilities had dropped by 50% ahead of the 10% import tariff that Trump imposed on Canadian energy exports. The publication noted that those power utilities source more than a quarter of their uranium from Canada, which makes the potential impact of the tariffs rather palpable. If the tariffs do come into effect as scheduled and stay in place long enough, U.S. power utilities may have to replace their top source of nuclear fuel if they are to take full advantage of what many have called a nuclear Renaissance.Read More

04.02.25- Sodium-iron battery startup to challenge Li-ion for extended storage
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

We've long relied on lithium-ion batteries for long-term energy storage, but they can be expensive to produce and maintain over the years. California-based startup Inlyte wants to offer a scalable alternative with its sodium-iron battery tech, and it'll soon manufacture cells to showcase its benefits. Read More

04.01.25- Peak Permian? Geology and Water Say We’re Close
Tsvetana Paraskova

After more than a decade of relentless drilling in the top U.S. oil-producing basin, the Permian, some areas have hit geological limits while others, yet to be drilled, are not expected to be as prolific as the prime Tier 1 acreage that producers have started to exhaust.

Top executives at major shale firms have already expressed opinions that Permian oil production could hit its peak as early as the end of this decade. Read More

03.31.25- BP, Shell, and Exxon Signal One Thing: Oil Isn’t Going Anywhere
Irina Slav

Ever since BP admitted that its attempt to go green had ended in a disaster, the flow of news from the energy industry has been in one single direction: back to oil and gas, which make money. Indeed, Big Oil has finally accepted it will not transform into Big Green Power and has gone back to what it does best: hydrocarbons. Read More

03.29.25- Future of Biofuels Hinges on Industry Agreement
Haley Zaremba

Last month, U.S. oil and biofuel groups banded together in an unlikely alliance to protest chaos and uncertainty in the nation’s biofuels policy. As anxieties have mounted over how a trade war with Canada would impact the sector, actors have become increasingly vocal about the need to establish rules for biofuel waivers and quotas under the current administration.  Read More

03.28.25- Palisades Nuclear Plant Revival Sparks Industry Interest
Felicity Bradstock

In recent years, interest in developing the U.S. nuclear power capacity has grown. Under the Biden administration’s push for a green transition, more companies were encouraged to invest in clean energy. In addition, the power demand is expected to grow much more rapidly than previously thought, as the tech sector drives demand with plans to construct huge data centres. This, and efforts to improve the public perception of the safety standards of nuclear facilities, have revitalised support for nuclear power. Read More

Tiny nuclear battery could power devices for decades
Joe Salas

Researchers at Korea's Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology have created a nuclear battery that could turn radiation directly into electricity for decades – but without all the scary stuff associated with nuclear radiation.

Called a dye-sensitized betavoltaic cell, this battery uses beta particles, which are just high-energy electrons. The magic in this battery is the material carbon-14, a radioactive isotope that emits beta particles. These particles strike a titanium dioxide semiconductor coated with a ruthenium-based dye, which knocks electrons loose in the dye, generating an electrical current. Read More

03.26.25- And Now, for Something Entirely Different:This looks like a divorce. And it’s going to be a messy one
James Hickman

“I think we are making a mistake,” said the Vice President, in what the media is criticizing as an unclassified text message discussion.

The administration was discussing if, when, and how to strike against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, which has been menacing commercial ships in the Red Sea since late 2023. Read More

03.25.25- AI, Crypto Data Could Soon Use Over 10% of All U.S. Electricity
William Upton

The increasing power demands required for advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems and cryptocurrency could see United States-based data centers consume upwards of 12 percent of all total domestic electricity by 2028, according to a Department of Energy (DOE) report. This would be a significant increase from the estimated 4.4 percent of total electricity supply consumption attributed to data centers in 2023. Read More

03.24.25- Hedge Funds Struggle as
Green Stocks Crash
Irina Slav

Donald Trump’s second presidency has unquestionably upended the energy world—and the energy investment world. With the IRA in deep freeze and rollbacks of various climate change-related regulation, some of the biggest players in financial markets are feeling the heat. Hedge funds with a focus on energy have found themselves in a juggling act on a tightrope.

Bloomberg wrote this week that a lot of money managers were scrambling to strike the right balance between investors who were still insistent that emission-cutting commitments were priority number one and those who are accepting energy reality for what it is and seeking to replace those commitments with profits. Read More

03.22.25- Big Oil Shrugs at $50 Crude
Irina Slav

Exxon is planning to boost its oil production regardless of where international oil prices are heading. This comes from a senior company executive who spoke to Semafor this week. It also likely reflects the sentiment across the supermajor segment of the energy industry. After all, that’s what the consolidation drive was all about. Read More

03.21.25- Report Shows Geothermal Can Meet 64% of AI Energy Demand Boom
Haley Zaremba

An independent research body says that geothermal energy could almost single-handedly solve the AI energy demand boom. A new report from the Rhodium Group says that “geothermal could economically meet up to 64% of expected demand growth by the early 2030s” as long as their baseline assumptions hold true. Read More

03.20.25- World's first long-life sodium-ion power bank launched
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Japanese hardware brand Elecom has just launched what it claims is the world's first power bank to feature a sodium-ion battery inside. It promises significantly longer cycle life than traditional lithium-ion batteries, as well as the ability to operate in extremely hot and cold climes.

On the outside, the affectionately named DE-C55L-9000 looks similar to the vast majority of power banks on the market, with a rounded brick shape housing its 9,000-mAh battery, a 45-W USB Type-C and an 18-W Type-A port, and charging indicator LEDs. Read More

03.19.25- Harold Hamm: ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’
Needs $80 Oil
Tsvetana Paraskova

U.S. shale needs much higher oil prices than $50 per barrel, and even higher than the current WTI Crude price in the high $60s, for a “drill, baby, drill” boom, oil tycoon and Trump campaign donor Harold Hamm says.

American producers, especially those pumping crude outside the Tier 1 inventory in the best Permian locations, would need an oil price of around $80 per barrel to cover the cost of drilling wells. Read More

03.17.25- Nuclear Fusion Race Intensifies With Chinese Breakthrough
Haley Zaremba

China just achieved another milestone breakthrough for nuclear fusion technology, bringing the country closer to achieving its goal of commercial nuclear fusion by 2050. This week scientists announced that the nation’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), achieved a sustained temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, shattering previous records and bringing nuclear fusion closer to reality. Read More

03.15.25- Reality Check: Towns And States Don't Want Green Energy
Steve Goreham

Trump Administration actions to scale back renewable energy capture headlines, but citizens are also pushing back. Efforts to deploy wind and solar systems face a rising tide of opposition in towns, counties, and states. Mandates for electric vehicles and electric home appliances are being challenged. The combination of rising local opposition and Trump funding cuts threatens to end the transition to green energy. Read More

03.14.25- Green steel plant glugs out first ton of molten metal
Michael Franco

MIT spinout Boston Metal has powered up its electricity driven steel production reactor and made over a ton of metal in a crucial step toward commercializing its process. With clean electricity, the process could make steel with zero CO2 emissions.

According to the World Steel Association, steel production releases almost twice its weight in carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution. Specifically, it says, for every one metric tonne of the metal produced, 1.92 metric tonnes of the greenhouse gas is released. That accounts for between seven and nine percent of global CO2 emissions. Read More

03.13.25- EV-Critical Battery Metal Cobalt Soars As Congo's Export Ban Disrupts Supply Chains
Tyler Durden

The Democratic Republic of Congo's four-month suspension of cobalt exports has driven up prices of the critical metal, which is heavily used in lithium-ion batteries—the backbone of the renewable energy industry. 

New Fastmarkets data shows that a pound of cobalt hydroxide—the main product exported from the DRC, the world's top producer—has surged 84% since the DRC suspended exports last month to counter a market glut that had pressured prices to multi-year lows. Prices reached $10.50 per pound on Tuesday, the highest level since July 2023. The price of cobalt metal has also soared 43% Read More

03.12.25- Trade Wars Spark Uncertainty
in Oil Markets
Charles Kennedy

Uncertainty has been rife in oil markets of late as Trump's trade wars threaten global demand just as OPEC+ is set to boost supply and Ukraine peace talks get underway.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that he plans to work with the Congress to cancel the mandated sales of 100 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves in 2026-2031 to refill SPR stock. Read More

03.11.25- Record Nuclear Power Production
Expected in 2025
Felicity Bradstock

The world is re-embracing nuclear energy after decades of decline, driven by technological advances and the need to keep pace with growing energy demand fueled by the tech sector without compromising climate goals. The world is now on track to produce more nuclear energy than ever before in 2025, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts an all-out nuclear renaissance. But will the future of nuclear power be dominated by emerging technologies like modular reactors, new mega-projects like Plant Vogtle, or the revitalization of old and decommissioned nuclear fleets? Read More

03.10.25- Ultra-fast thermal mats could power homes, or radically reduce energy
Loz Blain

How's this for a set of promises? Flint Engineering claims its new, flat, thermal-transfer "IsoMat" can power entire homes, cut refrigerator energy consumption by 30%, and radically speed up EV charging while also extending battery life. 

How does the IsoMat achieve these goals? Essentially by moving heat from one place to another in a radically quick and efficient fashion. Read More

03.08.25- PA Faces "Looming Power Crisis" After Gov. Shapiro's Electricity Tax
And Plant Closures
Tyler Durden

Not unlike the rest of the country which will soon have aggressive new power needs thanks to the data centers powering AI, Pennsylvania is also facing its own power crisis. 

Nearly a year after Gov. Josh Shapiro promised a “new era” in energy—touting job creation, lower utility bills, and billions in clean energy investment—Pennsylvanians see little progress. Instead, he promotes short-term fixes and questionable deals that do nothing to curb rising electricity costs, according to a new op-ed in the Delaware Valley Journal by Senator Gene Yaw. Read More

03.07.25- Italy Overturns 40-Year Nuclear Ban
Haley Zaremba

Last week, the Italian government adopted a law to overturn a 40-year ban on nuclear energy in a pivotal move for the future of the country’s energy landscape. Under the law, which has yet to be approved by parliament, Italy must adopt detailed decrees to revitalize the nation’s long-dormant nuclear power sector. Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin anticipates that the nation’s new consolidated nuclear code will be ready by the end of 2027.  Read More

03.06.25- U.S. Crude Stockpiles Climb as Oil Prices Tumble Below $70
Julianne Geiger

Crude oil inventories in the United States saw an increase of 3.6 million barrels during the week ending February 28, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday.

Crude oil prices were down prior to the crude data release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, even after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a dip of 1.455 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories. The market-moving force, rather, was OPEC+’s decision to begin unwinding its production cuts starting in April. The Brent benchmarkwas trading down 2.13% at 9:47 a.m. ET at $69.53, marking three days of consecutive losses. The WTI benchmark, meanwhile, was trading down 2.64% at $66.46. Read More

03.05.25- Solar film you can stick anywhere to generate energy is nearly here
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Since 2012, UK-based Power Roll has been working on a way to print low-cost solar film to generate clean energy from sunlight. It's now one crucial step closer to manufacturing its lightweight, apply-anywhere film, with a new design for its perovskite solar cells that should make make production cheap and scalable.

Power Roll has been focusing on embossing 'microgroove structures' into a plastic substrate, similar to a "hologram" on a credit card. A single square meter has 500,000 microgroove structures, and these are coated with conductive materials and photo-active ink. Layers of encapsulation film keep the printed rolls stable and enhance their durability. Read More

03.04.25- Penn Undergraduate Solves Century-Old Wind Energy Problem
Haley Zaremba

It’s a turbulent time for wind energy. The sector is virtually paralyzed in the United States due to what seems to be Donald Trump’s personal vendetta against wind turbines, and the offshore wind industry is facing catastrophic delays and soaring costs thanks to inflation, high interest rates, and supply chain problems.  Read More

03.03.25- Is Trump Breaking the Wind Industry?
Julianne Geiger

The Biden administration wanted to paint America’s skies with spinning blades, but Trump has once again sent the wind industry into a tizzy.

On Trump's first day back in office, he took an axe to federal wind policies, pausing leasing and permitting for new projects and leaving developers in limbo. Offshore and onshore wind giants—Shell, TotalEnergies, and Orsted among them, according to the WSJ—are suddenly staring at billion-dollar write-downs and wondering if their investments just got sucked into a policy tornado. Read More

03.01.25- Fusion Technology to Revolutionize Geothermal Power
Haley Zaremba

The Earth’s core produces so much heat that if we could tap just one tenth of one percent of it, the world’s energy needs would be satisfied for the next 20 million years. And that infinite source of power would yield zero greenhouse gases in the process. But while geothermal energy thrives today in places like Iceland, where heat from the Earth’s core naturally comes up to the surface of the Earth’s crust, for the rest of the world it remains out of reach. Read More

02.28.25- Helion eyes Washington site for 2028 fusion reactor build
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Energy company Helion is inching closer to its goal of firing up the world's first fusion reactor to produce usable electricity. It's currently considering a property in the city of Malaga, Washington, to set up a 50-MW facility and power Microsoft's data centers.

Local media outlet Wenatchee World reported that Helion made an announcement at a press conference on Thursday, laying out its plans to lease a site in Malaga. The prospective project is located within Chelan County, and near the Rock Island Dam on the Columbia river. The land is owned by Chelan County Public Utility District. Read More

02.27.25- The Era of Abundant Oil, Resources And Food Is Coming to An End, And With It, The World As we Know It Will Change Dramatically.
Madge Waggy

Global oil production is expected to peak in the near future (5-15 years). The shale boom that grew and sustained U.S. production for the last decade significantly delayed what is often simply referred to as peak oil.

Without the shale revolution, global oil production would likely have peaked in the early 2010s, and current output would be at least 10 million barrels per day lower than it is today. Read More

02.26.25- Iran Turns to Solar to Address Electricity Shortage
Andrew Topf

Iran isn’t the first nation that springs to mind when it comes to solar power.

The Middle Eastern country is one of the richest in energy resources, holding the second-largest natural gas reserves behind Russia, at 17 percent, and 9.4 percent of global oil reserves. It is a founding member of OPEC and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). Read More

02.25.25- BYD to build the 'world's largest' battery storage projects
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Chinese energy giant BYD has just inked a deal to build the largest battery storage projects on the planet for Saudi Arabia. The company will put together facilities at five sites totaling a massive 12.5 GWh of energy storage.Read More

02.24.25- Drilling the deepest hole in history: Unlocking geothermal energy
Loz Blain

MIT spin-off Quaise is trying to use hijacked fusion technology to drill some of the deepest holes in history, unlocking clean, virtually limitless, supercritical geothermal energy that can re-power fossil-fueled power plants all over the world. But how does it work? And are they even close to realizing their vision? Read More

02.22.25- AI Data Centers Bet on Next-Gen Nuclear
Tsvetana Paraskova

Soaring demand for electricity to power the AI boom is creating a global rush to develop small modular reactors to meet the growing energy needs of the Big Tech firms with electricity that’s both reliable and low-carbon.

Many start-ups in the United States and Europe are vying to become the first to not only design but also put into commercial operation the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors. Read More

02.21.25- Floating nuclear power plants to be mass produced for US coastline
David Szondy

UK-based Core Power has announced that it plans to mass produce a fleet of floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) using advanced reactor design and modular shipbuilding to be anchored off the US coast in about 10 years.

Nuclear power is enjoying something of a renaissance with many countries turning to the atom to meet their energy needs. However, the bottleneck for increasing the nuclear sector isn't with manufacturing reactors. It's the civil engineering side of things, with most of the time and cost going to securing real estate for building the foundations and buildings for the plant as well as navigating a bewildering maze of permits, licenses, and planning. Read More

02.20.25- The Economics of Solar Power
Haley Zaremba

When the massive Ivanpah solar plant was finished in the Mojave Desert in 2014, it was touted as the future of solar power and a cutting edge approach to clean energy. The plant was the world’s largest solar thermal plant when it was built, spreading over 5 miles of federal land. It cost about $2.2 billion and received loan guarantees worth $1.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy. Now, barely over ten years later, it’s already closing. Read More

02.19.25- France runs fusion reactor for record 22 minutes
David Szondy

France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – a new record. The milestone was reached on February 12 at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) WEST Tokamak reactor. Read More

02.18.25- Coal Consumption Remains High in the United States
Haley Zaremba

While many countries worldwide are moving away from a dependence on coal, the U.S. still relies heavily on the dirtiest fossil fuel for its power. The U.S. has experienced an accelerated green transition since the introduction of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, which has spurred a massive increase in the country’s renewable energy capacity and attracted billions in private funding.  Read More

02.17.25- Trump's Energy Secretary Is Betting Big on Nuclear Power
Felicity Bradstock

President Trump has doubled down on his pledges to allow for more fossil fuel production and reign in green funding since he came into office last month. He signed executive orders to allow for new oil and gas exploration and boost output, as well as restrict new renewable energy projects and halt a great deal of green funding. He declared a national energy emergency on 20th January, under the National Emergencies Act, largely in a bid to support fossil fuels and condemn renewable energy sources. However, perhaps surprisingly, his condemnation of clean energy does not appear to extend to nuclear power, which is expected to flourish under the Trump administration. Read More

02.15.25- Britain's Energy Future Hinges on Small Modular Reactors
CityAM.com

While France generates most of its energy from nuclear, Britain has the highest industrial electricity costs in the world. The upfront costs of small modular reactors are high, but so is the return on investment, says John Caudwell

Last month was the hottest January on record globally. It was unexpected because the natural weather phenomena known as ‘La Niña’ should have produced a cooling effect. That suggests that La Niña might be losing its ability to keep global warming in check – a terrifying reminder of the escalating climate crisis. Read More

02.14.25- What Happened to the
Green Hydrogen Boom?
Haley Zaremba

This week, 37 hydrogen-powered buses were delivered to Bologna, Italy, marking the first phase of a large-scale order placed by the transport operator TPER. At the tail end of 2023, TPER ordered 137 hydrogen buses to be deployed in Bologna and nearby Ferrara as part of a broader effort to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. The project was co-funded by TPER and through European Union funds from the bloc’s post-pandemic recovery plan. Read More

02.13.25- America's War On Coal Power-Plants
Is Over
Tyler Durden

Al Gore's worst nightmare, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg TV hosts on Tuesday that coal-fired power plants will remain the backbone of President Trump's reindustrialization of America. Wright emphasized that coal plants will be restarted to ensure affordable and reliable electricity for decades. 

"What's been the big issues for this president that he ran on, you know, the economic well-being of Americans and the National Security of our country. And our citizens, so we've had 20-plus years of sort of deindustrializing the United States and letting our heavy industry flow overseas. Read More

02.12.25- Net Zero Dreams Meet Energy
Affordability Reality
Tsvetana Paraskova

The pushback on the net zero ambitions of many countries has become increasingly evident since the energy crisis of 2022.

The surge in energy prices, especially in Europe, has forced governments to address immediate concerns about the cost of living and high energy prices rather than gain more support for net-zero goals and policies.  Read More

02.11.25-International Collaboration Driving Advancements in Geothermal Technology
Felicity Bradstock

As governments and the private sector explore ways to expand renewable energy capacity around the globe, they are paying greater attention to the potential of geothermal energy. Having been overlooked for several decades, largely due to the absence of the technology required to meaningfully harness its power, several scientific institutions now believe they can access huge amounts of clean geothermal energy to support a green transition.  Read More

02.10.25- Trump's Energy Policies Cast Shadow Over U.S. Wind Industry
Felicity Bradstock

President Trump has been emphatic about his support for oil and gas throughout his electoral campaign and since coming into office. In addition, he has made it clear that he is far less supportive of renewable energy, calling Biden’s groundbreaking climate policy – the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – a “Green New Scam. Greatest scam in history, probably.” While many U.S. energy leaders believe the green transition is unstoppable, Trump appears set on restricting renewable energy expansion in favour of growing the domestic fossil fuel industry. Read More

02.08.25- Flying figure-eights
to generate off-grid electricity
Joe Salas

It's only fitting that the company generating electricity by loop-de-looping a ground-tethered winged drone is from North Carolina. After all, North Carolina is the birthplace of human flight.

In 2023, wind energy accounted for roughly 7.8% of all electricity created around the world. There are a few countries that have really topped the list of wind-energy generation: Fifty-eight percent of Denmark's total electricity generation was wind. Uruguay saw 43%. Ireland 35%. Read More

02.07.25- Drought Dims Hydropower's Promise
Haley Zaremba

Hydropower is the world’s single largest source of green energy. On a global scale, hydropower plants produce more energy than all other renewable power sources combined. However, the growth rate of new hydropower capacity has tapered off in recent years, and the sector is plagued by serious current and future problems, from increased incidents and intensity of droughts in a changing climate, and major negative environmental externalities associated with mega-dams. Read More

02.06.25- The Trump Administration Could Throw A Lifeline To The Uranium Sector
Alex Kimani

Over the past couple of years, the nuclear energy sector has enjoyed a renaissance in the U.S. and many Western countries thanks to the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, high power demand and nuclear’s status as a low-carbon energy source. Uranium demand has soared thanks to a series of policy "U-turns" with governments from Japan to Germany revising plans to phase out nuclear power. Not surprisingly, prices of uranium--the fuel that powers conventional fission reactors--have soared to multi-year highs while shares of uranium producers Cameco Corp. Read More

02.05.25- China Hits Clean Energy Goal Six Years Ahead of Schedule
Tsvetana Paraskova

A record pace of installations of solar and wind power in recent years has helped China achieve its 2030 renewable energy capacity target six years ahead of schedule.   

China, the world’s biggest emissions polluter, set in 2020 a goal to have at least 1,200 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind capacity by 2030. Read More

02.04.25- 28-ton, 1.2-megawatt tidal kite is now exporting power to the grid
Loz Blain

Minesto's fully operational Dragon 12 looks like some sort of futuristic military drone – but it behaves remarkably like a kite underwater. It uses lift generated by tidal flows to fly patterns faster than the currents, harvesting renewable energy.

Solar energy is the bedrock of most renewable energy grid plans – but lunar energy is even more predictable, and a number of different companies are working to commercialize energy generated from the regular inflows and outflows of the tides. Read More

02.03.25- Energy and Nuclear Stocks Recover After DeepSeek Selloff
Alex Kimani

The U.S. stock markets were routed last Monday after China’s AI lab DeepSeek rattled Silicon Valley after its large language model outperformed American AI leaders, defying American attempts to stop China's high-tech ambitions. According to benchmarks posted on DeepSeek's website, R1 outperformed models from OpenAI, Meta (NASDAQ:META) and Anthropic, who have spent billions of dollars building their models. In a technical report, DeepSeek said its V3 model had a training cost of only $5.6 million–a fraction of the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars U.S. AI lab charges for its large language models. Read More

01.31.25- Green Hydrogen Hype Fizzles as Implementation Lags
Haley Zaremba

Over the past decade, countries and private enterprises around the world have made ambitious goals and pledges to expand the production and use of green hydrogen in their operations. These targets come as a part of broader clean energy transition efforts, as green hydrogen could be a critical component of any feasible pathway to meeting global climate goals. Since hydrogen can be combusted at high heats like fossil fuels, it can help to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries like steel making and shipping. Read More

01.31.25- The Small Nuclear Reactor Revolution Is Underway
Felicity Bradstock

Small modular reactor (SMR) technology has improved immensely in recent years, as several nuclear power companies around the globe aim to launch small-scale nuclear projects to provide clean energy within the next decade.

SMRs are advanced nuclear reactors with a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, equivalent to about one-third the generating capacity of a conventional nuclear reactor. SMRs are much smaller than traditional reactors and are modular, making it easier to assemble them in factories and transport them to the site. Because of their smaller size, SMRs can be installed on sites that are not suitable for conventional reactors. They are also significantly cheaper and faster to build than traditional nuclear reactors and can be constructed incrementally to meet the growing energy demand of a site. Read More

01.30.25- Chevron And GE Vernova Teaming Up To Build Nat Gas Plants To Power Data Centers
Tyler Durden

Despite the market scare about data centers and AI offered up by Deepseek this week, U.S. based energy companies don't seem phased. 

The latest example? Chevron, Engine No. 1, and GE Vernova are teaming up to build natural gas power plants in the U.S., co-located with data centers to meet growing electricity demands driven by AI development, according to Yahoo Finance. Read More

01.29.25- Helion has $1 billion and 3 years to figure out fusion-powered energy
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Ion's hopes its seventh prototype, Polaris, will be the first machine to demonstrate electricity from fusion

Washington-based fusion energy company Helion just raised US$425 million in fresh funding for its bid to be the first to produce usable electricity through nuclear fusion. The firm's latest Series F round brings the total investment into Helion over the $1 billion line, and it's aiming to begin delivering power from a single fusion 50-MW plant to Microsoft by 2028. Read More

01.28.25- Can Geothermal Become a Major US Energy Source Under Trump?
Andrew Topf

The bubbling sulfur springs and powerful, majestic geysers of Yellowstone National Park are visible manifestations of the potential for geothermal energy in the United States.

Yet for various reasons — including logistics, economics, and permitting issues — geothermal has not come close to reaching its potential. That could be changing, with Donald Trump’s surprising embrace of the deep-seated renewable energy source. Read More

01.27.25- China sets new fusion endurance record of over a thousand seconds
David Szondy

China has achieved a major milestone in the quest for practical commercial fusion power. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor in Hefei, Anhui Province has set a new record with a 1,066-second sustained fusion reaction.

For 80 years, there has been a concerted effort to turn the incredible destructive power of the hydrogen bomb into a practical source of power. In part, this has been a matter of pure science. In part, it's been a major technical challenge. And, in part, it's been a legacy of Cold War rivalries. Read More

01.25.25- MIT's zero-energy technique shows how to brew ammonia underground
Michael Franco

Ammonia has enormous potential as a fuel of the future, but most current production methods make it a dirty source of energy. Yet a new method from MIT that would derive the compound using the Earth's rocks and natural heat cleans it up considerably.

Currently, ammonia is the second-most produced chemical in the world, where about 80% of it is used as agricultural fertilizer. However, current ammonia-production methods chew up about 2% of the world's fossil fuel energy and release about 1% of worldwide manmade greenhouse gas emissions. Put another way, for each ton of ammonia produced, about 2.4 tons of carbon dioxide are released. Read More

01.24.25- UK Government Pledges Record Investment in Nuclear Fusion
Felicity Bradstock

At the beginning of 2024, the U.K. Conservative government launched its nuclear power roadmap, with plans to increase nuclear generation by up to four times, to 24GW by 2050. After taking government in July, Kier Starmer’s Labour Party doubled down on plans to develop the U.K.’s nuclear power as part of an accelerated green transition. However, delays in the development of new power plants and other challenges have threatened the achievement of the country’s ambitious nuclear goals. Now, a massive cash injection could help the government achieve its nuclear objectives. Read More

01.23.25- World's largest solar energy plant begins to take shape in Abu Dhabi
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Abu Dhabi will soon be home to a 5.2-GW solar farm – snagging the top spot on the global solar energy plant leaderboard.

That's part of a gigascale project set to be built in the capital of the United Arab Emirates by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company aka Masdar, and Emirates Water and Electricity Company. The firms note it'll be the world's first '24/7' solar photovolatic plant coupled with a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to match. Read More

01.22.25- Permian Basin Oil and Gas Output Faces Disruption Due to Freezing Temperatures
Tyler Durden

Texas' top electricity regulator issued a "Weather Watch" from Monday morning through Thursday, citing "extreme cold weather" and the potential for snow, which could send electrical demand soaring across the state. 

According to the National Weather Service, snow is forecasted to begin in Houston on Monday evening and accumulate to upwards of 4 inches by Tuesday. After the snow, frigid temperatures are expected to sweep in, bringing dangerously cold conditions that could jeopardize the power grid and energy infrastructure.  Read More

01.21.25- Indonesia Bets on Solar Manufacturing Amid US-China Trade Row
Tsvetana Paraskova

Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, is betting big on attracting investment in its solar manufacturing industry, looking to take advantage of the U.S. anti-dumping tariffs on China and some of Indonesia’s Southeast Asian neighbors.  

China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam face U.S. tariffs and restrictions in exporting their solar products, including panels and other equipment, as the United States has determined that they have been engaged in dumping practices.  Read More

01.20.25- 3D-printed battery made from fungi feeds on sugars
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Swiss researchers claim to have devised a functional living battery powered by the combined efforts of two types of fungi – all in a biodegradable, non-toxic 3D-printed package. I'll give you a second to wrap your head around that outrageous statement before diving into the details.

That's from a team at Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), a Dübendorf-based research institute whose innovations have found their way into Omega watches, quick-drying sports bras, and top British soccer team Arsenal's artificial turf. Read More

01.18.25- Nuclear Waste: The Dark Side
of the Microreactor Boom
Haley Zaremba

Nuclear energy is ready for its close-up. After decades of steep decline in the sector and relatively high levels of public mistrust for the controversial technology, the tides are turning in favor of a nuclear energy renaissance. The public memory of disasters like Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl is fading, and the benefits of nuclear – a zero-carbon, baseload energy source – are getting harder to ignore as deadlines for climate commitments grow closer and energy demand ticks ever higher. But the future of the nuclear energy sector will look a bit different than its last boom time, from technological advances to the makeup of its biggest backers. Read More

01.17.25- Molten salt nuclear reactor in Wyoming hits key milestone
Michael Franco

Since founding TerraPower in 2008, Bill Gates has had his eye on developing a safe, efficient, and clean next-gen nuclear plant. That project, called Natrium, has already broken ground in Wyoming and has just leaped over a critical hurdle.

In Kemmerer, Wyoming, the Naughton Power Plant has been burning coal to provide electricity since the 1960s. But in September 2019, it was announced that the plant would be shut down by 2025 due to issues with operating efficiency and compliance with environmental regulations. Yet unlike other towns where coal plants get shuttered, Kemmerer won't simply fade from the map. Instead, it is the site where Natrium, America's first coal-to-nuclear project, is taking place. Read More

01.16.25- A Coordinated Strategy To Bring American Energy Dominance Back Again!
H. Sterling Burnett

President-elect Donald Trump is well situated to hit the ground running upon taking the oath of office. His experience attempting to drain the swamp in his first term should arm him for greater success in his second term.

One area where Trump made significant headway in his first term was in making America energy independent. Indeed, Trump’s policies began a domestic energy renaissance, making the U.S. energy dominant, becoming a net exporting country for the first time in 75 years. Read More

01.15.25- 2024 Registrations Of New Electric Cars Plummet 27.5% In Germany…”Petrol Dominates”
Pierre L. Gosselin

How’s the Green New Deal working out in Germany? Not very well at all.

Firstly, Germany has been in recession for almost 2 years now – thanks mostly to the policies of Economics Minster Robert Habeck (Green Party), who incidentally has no education in economics, business or finance. The guy just doesn’t know what he’s doing. Read More

01.14.25- Trudeau's Exit Sparks Oil Industry Optimism in Canada
Felicity Bradstock

Canada is expected to continue growing as an oil power in the coming years as the Alberta government signs new expansion deals, a new tanker terminal is opened in Vancouver, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigns. The government of the major oil-producing province of Alberta signed a new agreement with Calgary-based pipeline company Enbridge this January aimed at increasing oil exports to the U.S. The deal will establish a working group with the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC), which will be tasked with evaluating future egress, transport, storage, terminaling, and market access opportunities. The team will support plans to increase Alberta’s oil production in line with Enbridge’s planned pipeline expansion projects. Read More

01.13.25- US Oil Growth Slows as
Gas Takes the Lead
Irina Slav

Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month is almost unanimously believed to bring in a new era in U.S. energy policy—an era of pro-oil and pro-gas regulation aimed at boosting the country’s production and exports, in line with Trump’s energy dominance agenda. However, this belief may yet get shattered by factors outside the president-elect’s control.

There have already been signs that the oil and gas industry itself is not really on board with a rerun of the “Drill, baby, drill” movie that the shale revolution made. The industry seems to have advanced to the stage of financial discipline and shareholder returns and is not going back to the stage where the ultimate goal was to see just how much oil and gas they could get out of the ground. Then there are the oil and gas themselves. Read More

01.11.25- Can the World Break Its Reliance on Chinese Clean Energy Tech?
Haley Zaremba

China is blowing the competition away when it comes to clean energy buildout. In 2023, China alone spent more money on clean energy technologies than the next 10 biggest investors combined. On top of controlling supply chains for widely used technologies like solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, as well as the components critical to their manufacturing, China is also at the cutting edge of development for innovative and disruptive clean energy tech like clean hydrogen and energy storage. This means that China, which already dominates global clean energy tech markets, is only going to solidify its competitive edge going forward. Read More

01.10.25- Is U.S. Nuclear Power at Risk? Russia's Uranium Restrictions Explained
Tyler Durden

Nuclear power accounts for 19% of electricity generation in the U.S.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, illustrates the top sources of enriched uranium for U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors in 2023, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Read More

01.09.25- Get Ready for a Major Solar Showdown
Alex Kimani

Last month, we reported yet another perovskite breaththrough as solar panels continue making impressive efficiency gains. To wit, Hanwha Qcells, a subsidiary of South Korea’s giant conglomerate Hanwha Corp, set a world record for the efficiency of a large-area silicon solar cell with a top layer of perovskite, a development that could dramatically shrink the size of projects and slash costs. Qcells announced it has achieved cell efficiency of 28.6% on a large commercial-sized cell known as an M10 using the technology, considerably higher than around 21% for traditional commercial silicon solar panels. Read More

01.08.25- NYC is set to get a $3 billion,
80,000-acre offshore wind farm
Joe Salas

New York City will soon be getting its own personal offshore wind farm. The Empire Wind 1 project just received a US$3 billion project financing package and is expected to go online in 2027, powering roughly half a million borough residents. But what's the catch? Read More

01.07.25- Nuclear Renaissance
Sparks Uranium Rush
Irina Slav

The debate about whether nuclear energy has a place in a net-zero energy system has been heating up recently. Oblivious to that debate, large electricity consumers are making their own plans. While Germany shut down its last nuclear reactors, Microsoft struck a deal to re-open the Three Mile Island plant to fuel its data centers. Nuclear is back. And the race to fuel the nuclear renaissance is on. Read More

01.06.25- Could Texas Become a Geothermal Energy Hub?
Haley Zaremba

Geothermal could soon be the hottest new thing in the United States energy mix. The naturally clean energy source has traditionally enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the United States, which is an increasingly impressive feat for any item of legislative interest. But while geothermal has a lot of things going for it – zero emissions, constant productivity – but it has a lot of hurdles to overcome before it becomes commercially competitive. Read More

01.04.25- The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved
Joe Salas

China has approved what is set to become the biggest hydropower dam complex in the world, capable of producing nearly three times as much power as the current record-holder, the Three Gorges Dam. 

The project is slated to be built on the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet near the border of India at a cost of US$137 billion. It's part of China's 14th "Five-Year Plan," which includes environmental goals to accelerate renewable energy and fight pollution. The location of the proposed dam looks to take advantage of the river's steep geography to harness more hydropower than ever before: 300 billion kilowatt-hours per year. Read More

01.03.25- Make Lithium Great Again: Peer-Reviewed Study Reveals Whole-Body Benefits Of Supplementation
Tyler Durden

Lithium is best known as a medication for treating bipolar disorder, where it’s used in higher doses to stabilize mood and reduce the risk of suicide. But now, researchers are uncovering evidence that this humble mineral may offer benefits far beyond mental health - at doses much smaller than those used in traditional therapies. A 2023 study from Brock University explored these possibilities in depth. Read More

01.02.24- The Factors That Will Drive Oil Prices in 2025
Irina Slav

This year in oil has been marked by chronic trader pessimism about Chinese demand and an equally chronic downplaying of supply disruption risks. This has made for a rather stable year in prices—and the stability could continue in 2025, on a few conditions.

Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate appear set to end the year at nearly the same levels that they started. WTI started 2024 at a little over $70 per barrel and is about to end a little below that. Brent crude looks like it will post a little more noticeable loss, starting the year at $77 per barrel and ending at a bit over $74 time of writing. Read More

01.01.25- Residential Battery Energy Storage Systems Industry Growth Opportunities - Distributed Solar, Battery Cost Declines, Incentives, and Supportive Regulations Sustain Double-Digit Growth
ResearchAndMarkets.com

The global residential BESS market revenue is forecast to double to $31.31 billion by 2030, and then double again to $60.02 billion by 2035.

Dublin, Dec. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Growth Opportunities in the Residential Battery Energy Storage Systems Industry" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Read More

12.31.24- U.S. Natural Gas Futures Soar Ahead of Historic Cold Front
Tyler Durden

US natural gas futures surged Monday morning as weather models continued to show a significant cold blast set to sweep across the Lower 48 in the coming days. The arctic air mass is expected to linger for weeks in the eastern half of the US, with increasing chances of wintery precipitation in some parts of the US. Traders appear to be responding to updated heating degree day forecasts, signaling a massive spike in heating demand over the next few weeks. Read More

12.30.24- 3 Clean Energy Stocks That Could Thrive Under Trump
Alex Kimani

Clean energy investors have endured yet another torrid year as traders continue shunning the alternative energy sector. The solar sector, in particular, highlights the negative sentiment pervading renewable energy investing: According to a recent report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the U.S. is on track to add close to 40 gigawatts of solar energy capacity in 2024--more than double last year’s tally and more than triple what was added in 2022. The solar sector is clearly booming, yet solar stocks have badly underperformed,  with the sector’s popular benchmark, Invesco Solar ETF (NYSEARCA:TAN), having returned -35.3% YTD vs. 24.3% by the S&P 500. Read More

12.28.24- World's first 30MW pure hydrogen electrical generator
Joe Salas

The first and largest of its kind: a 30 MW, pure-hydrogen electrical generator called the Jupiter One just completed its first successful full-system test. 

The Jupiter One is the most powerful and largest pure hydrogen generator on the planet. It was developed in collaboration with Mingyang Smart Energy, known for colossal wind turbines, and Mingyang Hydrogen Energy along with several research teams and smaller enterprises.  Read More

12.27.24- Oil Market 2024 in Review: A Year of Surprises and Shifting Demand
Irina Slav

It has been an eventful year for world energy: oil supply jump scares in the Middle East, a surge in electricity demand, and a nuclear renaissance were all among the hallmarks of 2024, along with a pickup in natural gas demand. All of these trends appear set to continue into 2025, along with increasingly severe challenges on the path of the energy transition. Read More

12.26.24- Geothermal Energy: Big Tech's Answer to AI's Growing Energy Consumption
Haley Zaremba

The renewable revolution’s biggest superheroes are at risk of turning into its biggest villains. For years, Silicon Valley’s biggest players have been among the most vocal and most deep pocketed proponents of clean energy investment. But now, thanks to the runaway energy demand driven by artificial intelligence, Big Tech’s emissions are sharply on the rise and its lofty decarbonization goals are becoming ever more far-fetched. The bigwigs behind tech companies including Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI are now pushing harder than ever for greater deployment of renewable energy infrastructure and increased research and development of novel clean and alternative energies, but keeping up with the voracious energy appetite of AI is a tall order. Read More

12.25.24- Hydrogen Fuel Cells: A Promising Green Alternative to Battery Electric Vehicles
Haley Zaremba

While the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market has been growing rapidly over the last decade, several automakers are also investing in research and development into an alternative green technology - hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Many believe that hydrogen could be the key to decarbonising heavy industry, providing clean heating, and running greener vehicles. Countries worldwide have invested heavily in renewable energy sources to generate electricity; however, this does not provide the fuel needed to power certain operations. By contrast, hydrogen can be used in a similar way to conventional oil and gas-derived fuels, making it possible to power cars with clean hydrogen rather than petrol or diesel.  Read More

12.24.24- Green Hydrogen Costs Set to Stay Too High For Too Long
Charles Kennedy

Green hydrogen will struggle to compete at price level with gray hydrogen made from natural gas at least until 2050—much longer than previously anticipated, according to new estimatesby research firm BloombergNEF.

BNEF’s new report on hydrogen prices finds that green hydrogen, the one produced via electrolysis using renewable energy, will fail to reach price parity with gray hydrogen by the middle of the century, as costs have more than tripled from last year’s forecast.  Read More

12.23.24- Virginia's fusion power plant: A step toward infinite energy
Joe Salas

No, this isn't the return of Marvel's Iron Man; Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has announced plans to build the world's first grid-scale fusion power plant near Richmond, Virginia. 

After over 100 locations around the world were scouted, CFS chose a 100-acre (40.5-ha) plot of land in Chesterfield County in Virginia for the ARC – an acronym for "Affordable, Robust, Compact" – to be built. This fusion power plant aims to produce a continuous 400 megawatts of clean, virtually limitless energy by the early 2030s. Read More

12.21.24- Tanker Ships Set Sail for Greener Future with Wind-Powered Technology
Tyler Durden

Ever seen a massive tanker ship...with wind sails? You might soon.

That's because the Sohar Max, a 400,000-deadweight-ton vessel, was just retrofitted with five 35-meter rotor sails at China's COSCO Zhoushan shipyard, according to Bloomberg. The purpose is to reduce fuel use by 6% and cut annual carbon emissions by 3,000 tons. Read More

12.20.24- This Major Perovskite Breakthrough Could Change Solar
Alex Kimani

Qcells, a subsidiary of South Korea’s giant conglomerate Hanwha Corp, has set a world record for the efficiency of a large-area silicon solar cell with a top layer of perovskite, a development that could dramatically shrink the size of projects and slash costs. Qcells says it has achieved cell efficiency of 28.6% on a large commercial-sized cell known as an M10 using the technology, considerably higher than 27% efficiency for crystalline silicon cells and around 21% for traditional commercial silicon solar panels. To be fair, China's Longi has achieved efficiency breakthroughs above 30%; however, that was for much smaller cells. Read More

12.19.24- Can Coal Ash Solve the Rare Earth Supply Chain Crisis?
Haley Zaremba

Coal ash is currently a hot topic in United States politics. Just yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled to allow the Biden administration to move forward with a plan to address toxic coal ash, in the latest update in a drawn-out legal battle over monitoring and remediation of the toxic substance. But while coal ash is a noted hazard to public health and the environment, it could also be a key new resource for the clean energy transition. Read More

12.18.24- AI and Chip Manufacturing Drive Japan's Nuclear Energy Expansion
Tyler Durden

The world continues to "warm" back up to nuclear, with the latest example coming out of Japan, where its Shimane nuclear power station in western Japan has been restarted for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima meltdown.

Japan's long-delayed restart of the 820 MW No. 2 reactor at the Shimane plant, shut down since January 2012, raises the number of operational reactors to 14, with a total capacity of 13,253 MW, according to Reuters. Read More

12.17.24- New retrofit lets micro-turbines burn both hydrogen and natural gas
David Szondy

As a way to keep small natural gas power plants operating in anticipation of a hydrogen economy, the Deutsche Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center, or DLR) and Power Service Consulting (PSC) have tested a way for micro-turbines to burn hydrogen, gas, or both. Read More

12.16.24- Enhanced Geothermal: A Game Changer for Renewable Energy
Robert Rapier

Enhanced Geothermal Systems, or EGS, are quietly transforming how we think about renewable energy, turning one of the Earth’s most underutilized resources—its internal heat—into a reliable and sustainable power source. The DOE Department of Energy (DOE) has estimated that there is approximately 100,000 megawatts of clean, baseload power possible through EGS technology in the United States

The beauty of this technology, which extracts thermal energy from deep beneath the surface, is that it is widely applicable, and may be of particular interest in regions where they face limitations. Read More

12.14.24- Uranium Wars
James Rickards

Uranium production is best understood as an industry played out on a geopolitical chessboard.

Enriched uranium is used to fuel nuclear reactors. The degree of enrichment is not high. Natural uranium (sometimes called yellowcake) has about 0.7% U-235 isotope. This is enriched to 3% to 5% for use in most reactors (called low-enriched uranium or LEU). Some specialized reactors require uranium enriched to 20% U-235 isotope, but those are rare. Read More

12.13.24- Collapse of the $5 Trillion
Green Energy Scam
Doug Casey

International Man: Governments worldwide have spent over $5 trillion in the past two decades to subsidize wind, solar, and other so-called renewables.

However, even with that astronomical financial support, the world still depends on hydrocarbons for 84% of its energy needs—down only 2% since governments started binge spending on renewables 20 years ago.

What is really going on here?  Read More

12.12.24- China Looks To Build The Largest Human-Made Object in Space
Alex Kimani 

Two months ago, we reported that Baiju Bhatt, one of the co-founders of the investing app Robinhood, debuted space solar power company Aetherflux. The startup plans to build a constellation of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that will use infrared lasers to transmit power to small ground stations on Earth.

The startup notes that space solar power can revolutionize energy distribution, especially where delivering power is expensive, challenging, or dangerous. Powering hard-to-reach places like remote military bases, islands, or areas hit by disasters unlocks new capabilities and advantages for our country. Read More

12.11.24- Nuclear Stocks Were Super Hot Just A Month Ago. What’s Changed?
Alex Kimani

Over the past couple of years, the nuclear energy sector has enjoyed a renaissance in the U.S. and many Western countries thanks to the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, high power demand and nuclear’s status as a low-carbon energy source. Uranium demand has soared thanks to a series of policy "U-turns" with governments from Japan to Germany revising plans to phase out nuclear power. Uranium spot prices hit an all-time high of $81.32 per pound in February, double the level 12 months prior. According to the World Nuclear Association, demand from reactors is expected to climb 28% by 2030, and nearly double by 2040. Not surprisingly, the sector’s popular benchmark, VanEck Uranium and Nuclear ETF (NYSEARCA:NLR), recently hit an all-time high. Read More

12.10.24- Emerging Trends from Electrification to Energy Management 
Lee Ettleman

Advancements in electrification and energy management technologies are sparking a scientific renaissance in power. Learn how trends at the source of power, at the point of consumption and in energy system design are driving a new era of energy awareness and control. 

Society is undergoing a scientific renaissance driven by the timely convergence of technological advancements and investments in energy. Read More

12.09.24- AI's Energy Appetite Sparks Global Power Grid Concerns
Haley Zaremba

AI is reshaping the global energy market, and there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. Machine learning and natural language processing require massive amounts of energy-hungry computing power, and as the industry grows it is already placing a major strain on energy grids around the world. But while there are serious concerns for the economic and environmental impact of the technology’s insatiable energy demand, AI remains a huge investment priority for both the public and the private sector. It’s clear that AI is here to stay, and contingency plans for global energy security are urgently needed. Read More

12.07.24- Solar Panel Importers Face
Tariff Deadline Crunch
Tyler Durden

Companies that imported millions of Southeast Asian solar panels could have to pay tariffs on them "ranging from 30% to more than 230%", according to a new report from Bloomberg. 

Companies have until December 3rd to install the panels, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has pledged strict enforcement to prevent stockpiling, potentially exposing importers to audits, inspections, and billions in backdated tariff costs. Read More

12.06.24- Small Nuclear Reactors Are Gaining Traction Around the Globe
Felicity Bradstock

As more countries worldwide begin to develop innovative nuclear technology and a ‘new nuclear era’ takes hold, an increasing number of governments are supporting small modular reactor (SMR) technology. Companies in regions of the world from North America to Asia, Europe and Africa are deploying SMR technology to support governments in their efforts to decarbonise and undergo a green transition. In addition to investment in new conventional reactors, we can expect to see a plethora of SMR projects worldwide in the coming decades.  Read More

12.05.24- Texas Looks to Capitalize on Big Tech’s Nuclear Power Push
Tyler Durden

In the old ranchlands of South Texas, dormant uranium mines are coming back online. A collection of new ones hope to start production soon, extracting radioactive fuel from the region's shallow aquifers. Many more may follow.

These mines are the leading edge of what government and industry leaders in Texas hope will be a nuclear renaissance, as America's latent nuclear sector begins to stir again.  Read More

12.04.24- Why No One Wants California’s Orphaned Oil Wells
Tsvetana Paraskova

None of the three dozen sales of oil wells proposed in California this year has materialized due to the considerable clean-up costs for the wells estimated by the state’s oil and gas regulator.

Last year, California sought to prevent a rise in the already high number of so-called orphan oil wells. The state also looked to keep from passing off to taxpayers the liability for plugging and abandoning oil wells should operators not have sufficient funds to plug and decommission non-producing wells and clean up the sites. Read More

12.03.24- The Next Four Years Will BeAll
About Natural Gas
Alex Kimani

Earlier in the year, energy analytics firm Wood Mackenzie predicted that a second Trump presidency could place a huge part of renewable energy investments at risk, increase carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes more by 2050 and delay peak fossil fuel demand by 10 years beyond current forecasts. Not surprisingly, WoodMac expects the fossil fuel sector to benefit from Trump: the analysts have predicted that less spending on low carbon energy could boost demand for natural gas by 6% or 6B cf/day by 2030. Read More

12.02.24- Why Europe’s Hydrogen Economy Dreams Remain Just That
Alex Kimani

Four years ago, the European Commission unveiled the landmark European Green Deal wherein it laid out a series of policies aimed at making the region a “climate-neutral bloc” by 2050. Among the key policies, Europe set a target to consume 20 million tons/year (Mt/y) of renewable hydrogen and install 62 GW in electrolyzer capacity by 2030. Unfortunately, the continent is quickly acknowledging a cold reality: hydrogen, really, is a hard sell. In its latest annual report, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) paints a bleak picture of the state of the continent’s hydrogen sector, saying those targets are unlikely to be realized without tackling serious challenges that include production cost and infrastructure. Read More

11.30.24- The Secret Metal That Helped Win WWII is Back, And Prices Are Soaring
Josh Owens

More than 100 years ago, a ship left a Nova Scotia harbor carrying a precious cargo that few today would recognize as valuable. The crew, full of optimism, was bound for Wales hoping that the metal they carried would lead them to riches. Unfortunately, they never made it.

A German U-boat lurking in the cold Atlantic waters fired a torpedo and the ship went down, sinking to the ocean floor along with its mysterious cargo. Read More

11.29.24- American Oil Rigs Continue Their Steady Decline
Julianne Geiger

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell again this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Wednesday, after falling in the week prior.

The total rig count fell by a single rig for the third week in a row, landing at 582 total rigs, according to Baker Hughes, 43 years fewer than a year ago. Read More

11.28.24- Electric Revenge: Texas Sues BlackRock And Others For 'Conspiring' To Quash Coal, Sending Energy Prices Soaring
Tyler Durden

Texas is leading a new lawsuit with 10 other red states against BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street for allegedly breaking antitrust law by colluding to suppress coal - causing electricity prices to spike.

"Competitive markets — not the dictates of far-flung asset managers — should determine the price Americans pay for electricity," wrote Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the complaint. Read More

11.27.24- Trump's Nightmare: The Critical Resource Biden Couldn't Secure
Michael Kern

As U.S. President Biden nears the end of his term, there’s one little-known metal whose scarcity is keeping him up at night even today. And analysts warn that President-elect Donald Trump is likely to inherit this headache too. 

The metal is not gold, silver, or uranium. It’s not the lithium used for EV batteries. It’s not the copper that is essential for electrification. It’s not even the rare earth elements that are crucial for everything from smartphones to wind turbines. Read More

11.26.24- Fast-charging lithium-sulfur battery for eVTOLs nears production
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Researchers at Australia's Monash University are close to solving one of the biggest challenges with eVTOL aircraft. The team's new lithium-sulfur battery tech is designed to deliver roughly twice the energy density of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, as well as speedy charging and discharging – enabling the sort of power delivery needed in the skies. Read More

11.25.24- Government Funding Fuels
Geothermal Expansion
Felicity Bradstock

Following an influx of funding in the sector in recent years, there have been significant advances in geothermal energy. More countries are backing the clean energy source in a bid to diversify their energy mix and shift away from a reliance on fossil fuels towards green alternatives. In addition to government backing for geothermal projects, many private companies, including several technology giants, are investing in the clean energy source to help meet the growing electricity demand due to the commercial rollout of advanced technologies. Read More

11.23.24- Sodium-Ion Batteries: A Promising Rival to Lithium?
Felicity Bradstock

Electric vehicle (EV) makers are constantly looking for ways to improve battery life to deliver more reliable batteries that can power EVs more efficiently for a longer distance. To date, battery manufacturers have relied heavily on lithium producers to supply the minerals needed to power their products. However, the rising demand for lithium and the finite supply of the mineral mean that battery makers are looking for alternative options and aiming to recycle more batteries. They are also investing heavily in research and development to improve the performance and lifecycle of their batteries. This will help improve efficiency in EVs and utility-scale battery storage.Read More

11.22.24- China's Solar Dominance Fuels Asia's Green Energy Shift
Tyler Durden

If you're trying to implement green energy solutions in Asia, chances are you're going to need to rely on China one way or another. 

Southeast Asia’s demand for renewable energy is rising, driven by tech manufacturing and data center growth, according to Nikkei. Solarvest, the region's leading renewable energy provider, plans to capitalize on this boom by increasing imports from China, according to a local manager. Read More

11.21.24- Small modular nuclear reactors get a reality check in new report
Michael Franco

A new report has assessed the feasibility of deploying small modular nuclear reactors to meet increasing energy demands around the world. The findings don't look so good for this particular form of energy production.

Small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) are generally defined as nuclear plants that have capacity that tops out at about 300 megawatts, enough to run about 30,000 US homes. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), which prepared the report, there are about 80 SMR concepts currently in various stages of development around the world. Read More

11.20.24- Why Big Oil Is Scaling Back Renewables Investment
Tsvetana Parakova

Europe’s biggest oil and gas companies have changed their approach to energy supply twice over the past five years.

First came the ambitions to become major players in the renewables sector and goals to reduce oil and gas production by the end of the decade. That was in 2019 and early 2020 when Big Oil firms were racing to announce major shifts in strategy toward conventional and green energy. Read More

11.19.24- First onshore wave energy project in the US gets official nod
Paul Ridden

Back in 2022, Eco Wave Energy announced plans to relocate its wave energy array from Gibraltar to the Port of Los Angeles. Now the company has secured final approval for what will become the first onshore wave energy project in the US.

The idea behind the setup is to mount a number of floaters on coastal infrastructure, which rise and fall to the motion of waves. This drives hydraulic pistons to move fluid to an accumulator, which is then released to produce electricity via a generator. Read More

11.18.24- Bourbon distilleries: A new source of renewable energy
Michael Franco

In Kentucky, bourbon demand is expected to double in the next five years, while the state's cattle population has now reached its lowest point since 1951. Here's how these two facts could combine to turn bourbon distilleries into a new source of biofuels.

At the end of the bourbon distilling process, producers are left with a substance known as stillage. This material consists of the grains used to feed the yeast that created the bourbon as well as dead yeast cells and other fermentation products. It is a high protein material and is most commonly used to feed cattle and other livestock. In Kentucky alone, 127.2 million gallons of bourbon were produced when the last comprehensive count was done in 2020 and for each gallon of spirits made, there is 10 times as much stillage produced. Read More

11.16.24- Shale Industry Wants Liberty CEO Wright as U.S. Energy Secretary
Charles Kennedy

Chris Wright, founder and CEO of fracking services company Liberty Energy, is a top pick among shale industry executives to lead the U.S. Department of Energy in the coming Trump Administration.

Wright, who advocates for “better human lives by expanding access to abundant, affordable, and reliable energy,” does not have political experience, but is being endorsed by his peer executives to be the next U.S. Secretary of Energy. Read More

11.15.24- Electrochemical reactor grabs 97.5% of lithium from geothermal sources
Michael Franco

Lithium-ion batteries power everything from our vape pens to electric cars, but they have one glaring issue: they rely on lots of hard-to-harvest lithium. A new reactor from Rice University is set to make the whole process easier and safer.

It's hard to pick up any rechargeable device these days that doesn't have a lithium-ion battery inside. While there have been alternatives floated, such as those based on potassium or sodium, lithium is currently where it's at in the contemporary battery market. That's primarily because, despite occasionally bursting into flames, Li-ion batteries have an excellent energy density that lets them hold a lot of charge in a relatively small size. Read More

11.14.24- Three Key Energy Moves Trump Plans for His First 100 Days
Simon Watkins

Crucially for President-Elect Donald Trump’s second term in office, he will have considerable personal influence over the Senate (in which his Republican Party now holds a majority) and over the Supreme Court (where conservatives hold a six-to-three majority). His Party – and few can argue that it is now truly that – may also secure a majority in the second of the two institutions of Congress, the House of Representatives (at the time of writing, the Republicans had secured 213 of 218 seats needed for a majority in the House, with counting still ongoing).  Read More

11.13.24- The Future of Nuclear Power is Wrought with Challenges
Gail Tverberg

It is easy to get the impression that proposed new modular nuclear generating units will solve the problems of nuclear generation. Perhaps they will allow more nuclear electricity to be generated at a low cost and with much less of a problem with spent fuel.

As I analyze the situation, however, the problems associated with nuclear electricity generation are more complex and immediate than most people perceive. My analysis shows that the world is already dealing with “not enough uranium from mines to go around.” In particular, US production of uranium “peaked”about 1980. Read More

The End of Globalism: Navigating the Transition to a Sustainable World
Kurt Cobb

Back in 2016 a month before Donald Trump was elected for the first time, I wrote a piece that I'm revisiting here. So much of what I said then still applies that I encourage you to read that piece. My thinking was heavily informed by a lecture by the now late French philosopher Bruno Latour entitled "Why Gaia is not the Globe."

Latour made the case that Trump's perplexing popularity could be traced to his ability to give voice to the anger and fear generated by the effects of Globalism. In fact, Latour noticed that the anger and fear were actually widespread and reflected in Great Britain's exit from European Union and the many right-wing movements in European countries that now are all too familiar eight years later. Read More

11.11.24- Here's Why These Geopolitical And Financial Chokepoints Need Your Attention...
Chris MacIntosh

• 

  The Houthis in Yemen tried to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

• Then Hezbollah droned his house. Apparently, he was not at home at the time.

• Iran launched an unprecedented missile attack on Israel. The part you probably didn’t hear about is that Iran says a “state of war” now exists between them and Israel.  Read More

11.09.24- Three Mile Island's Clean Energy Comeback Fueled by Tech Giant Demand
Felicity Bradstock

Three Mile Island, the site of one of the world’s most famous nuclear accidents, is set to reopen several years after its closure. On September 20th, Baltimore-based Constellation Energy and Microsoft announced that they had reached a deal that would mean the reopening of the 835 MW Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Unit 2 has been shut down since its partial core meltdown in 1979 and is currently being decommissioned. However, as Unit 1 was not damaged during the accident, it continued operating until 2019, when it eventually closed for financial reasons. Read More

11.08.24- And Now, for Someting Entirely Different: Ivy Day Thoughts
The Z Man

If you were to ask an American to name a corrupt country, he would most likely pick one from what we used to call the third world. To a great degree, this is how we now define the term “third world”. It simply means corrupt. First world countries have transparency and the rule of law, while third world countries are opaque, and the rules are not always clear to the citizens of those countries. These days it is not unusual to hear Russia or China called third world, for example. Read More

11.07.24- Solar And Wind Won't Replace Natural Gas For Decades: They Will Depend On It
Robin Gaster

Solar and wind are rolling out rapidly in the U.S. They account for about 19 percent of energy generation today, and could reach more than 40% by 2030. This clean energy will rapidly replace coal, and many expect it will simply replace natural gas as well. But that’s a mistake: In fact, solar and wind will depend on gas for decades to come.

Today, solar and wind are relatively low cost, and prices will likely fall further. But they are not like fossil fuels—they are what’s known as variable renewable energy (VRE)—meaning they only produce electricity when the sun shines or the wind blows. Read More

11.06.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Bitcoin, Treasury Yields Jump as Trump Takes White House
By City AM

US Treasury yields jumped and Bitcoin surged to a new record as markets reacted to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.

Republicans have taken back control of the Senate, while Trump is due to return to the White House after winning the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania.

Trump declared victory in a speech in Florida after having earlier won the key swing states of North Carolina and Georgia. The win was officially called by media outlets later in the morning. Read More

11.05.24- Looming Oil Glut to Reshape Global Energy Landscape
Haley Zaremba

We’re headed for a historic supply-demand gap in oil markets, the size of which has only been seen twice since the mid-nineteenth century, when the oil industry was born. A report this week from the World Bank has set off alarm bells about a coming oil glut that has the potential to seriously disrupt global economics and trade patterns. 

"Next year, the global oil supply is expected to exceed demand by an average of 1.2 million barrels per day," World Bank stated in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook report. The scale of this oversupply is difficult to overstate; these numbers have only been exceeded twice in history, in 1998 and 2020. As a result, a barrel of oil could cost less than $60 within the next six years. Read More

11.04.24- China sets launch date for world’s first thorium molten salt nuclear power station
Stephen Chin

Construction of a molten salt nuclear power plant that uses thorium as fuel instead of uranium is set to begin in the Gobi Desert

11.02.24- USGS Finds Enough Lithium to Meet Annual Demand Nine Times Over
Alex Kimani

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment's Office of the State Geologist have discovered a vast lithium reserve containing more than nine times the International Energy Agency's projection of global lithium demand for electric vehicles in 2030. A relic of an ancient sea that left an extensive, porous, and permeable limestone geologic, the Smackover Formation extends under parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, and could contain between 5 and 19 million tons of lithium reserves. Read More

11.01.24- New Survey Shows Grim Outlook For Oil Markets
Julianne Geiger

A Reuters poll released Thursday paints a lackluster future for oil in 2025, with a cocktail of sluggish demand growth and supply glut concerns pulling prices down. Analysts now see Brent crude averaging $80.55 per barrel this year and $76.61 in 2025— a steady downgrade from earlier projections. Read More

10.31.24- The Race for Nuclear Fusion
Is Heating Up
Felicity Bradstock

Scientists have been searching for a way to produce a nuclear fusion reaction for decades, to develop commercial operations that can provide abundant clean energy. Several breakthroughs in the U.S. and U.K. in the past couple of years have shown great promise for the future of nuclear fusion, but many scientists believe we still have a long way to go before the technology can be deployed on a commercial scale. Meanwhile, China’s heavy investment in fusion research and development could put it ahead of the competition in the coming years. Read More

10.30.24- Small Nuclear Reactors to Power Czech Republic's Green Energy Shift
City AM

Rolls-Royce has sold a minority stake in its small nuclear reactor division to Czech power company CEZ.

The Derby-headquartered giant has handed a 20 per cent share in Rolls-Royce SMR in a deal worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

CEZ plans to build the first small modular reactor at the existing Temelin nuclear plant in the first half of the 2030s. Read More

10.29.24- It's not a tiny home. It's actually a nuclear microreactor powerplant
Joe Salas

How would you like to visit your local nuclear power facility and maybe go for a swim in its indoor pool? Or hang out and look at art ... Maybe even just sit with friends and enjoy a cup of coffee in the warm glow of nuclear power? 

With backing from Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and makers of ChatGPT, Oklo Inc. – a company that recycles nuclear fuel and uses it in its nuclear fission microreactor dubbed Aurora – says this will be possible. Not only possible, but in Oklo's plans. Read More

10.28.24- The Green New Scam Is Dying
James Rickards

It’s no secret that the vast majority of the so-called elites are advocates of climate alarmism and are taken in by the Green New Scam.

Whether this preference is based on ignorance of the science, ideological zeal, a willful desire to hurt American growth or simple greed because of their investments in Green New Scam infrastructure varies case by case. Read More

10.26.24- Big Tech's Nuclear Gamble Could Change The Course of the Energy Transition
Irina Slav

Microsoft recently struck a deal to restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Google partnered with small modular reactor developer Kairos to build 500MW of generation capacity. Amazon bought stock in another SMR developer, X-energy. Big Oil loves nuclear. This could change the course of the energy transition. Read More

10.25.24- Oxford Claims to Have Produced Mater-Antimatter Plasma
Joseph P. Farrell

Well, I am still sitting here waiting for the inspector to show up, and thus still trying to catch up on this week’s blogs, and this story is a humdinger of a whopper doozie, if true. It was shared by M.D., with our dep gratitude, and, as the headline observes, comes from my alma mater, the University of Oxford: Read More

10.24.24- Planet's largest wind turbine record broken again at 26-MW
Joe Salas

China, the undisputed global leader in wind energy, has just set another world record for the world's tallest and highest-capacity offshore wind turbine, taller than the Eiffel Tower, The Chrysler Building, and longer than the longest US aircraft carrier. 

The nacelle hub height sits at 607 ft (185 m), while the blade diameter is a whopping 1,107 ft (310 m). It has a blade swept area of 812,424 square feet (75,477 sq m). Do you know what else has about that much wingspan? Twelve Boeing 747s. You'd need an area the size of 14 NFL football fields, or a decent city block, to lay it down. It's a bit big. Read More

10.23.24- Why Is Smart Money Betting Against Renewable Energy
Alex Kimani

Last week, we reported that bearish sentiment in oil markets had sunk to levels last seen during the 2008 global financial crisis. According to commodity analysts at Standard Chartered, the main themes currently dominating oil markets are expectations of macroeconomic hard landings, extreme oil demand weakness, and persistent fears of oversupplied oil markets in 2025. Read More

10.22.24- Wave-resistant PV platform explores offshore solar potential
Paul Ridden

Fields turned over to solar farms are becoming a more common sight as we look towards a zero-carbon future. But like wind turbines, massive PV installations may soon be heading offshore. China is looking to lead the charge, and is embarking on sea trials of a wave-resistant hexagonal floating platform. Read More

10.21.24- Scientists To Drill Volcano In Search Of Unlimited Super-Hot Energy
Tsvetana Paraskova

An international team of scientists is preparing to drill into an active volcano in Iceland in search of a better understanding of the properties of the molten rock, magma, deep underneath.

Apart from gaining better insights into the processes taking place under the surface of the Earth, the researchers plan, via a testbed under the Krafla volcano, to look into the potential of super-hot geothermal energy. Read More

10.19.24- Controversial Study Claims LNG is Dirtier Than Coal
Robert Rapier

A new article in Financial Times discusses a controversial academic paper by Cornell University professor Robert Howarth that has reignited the debate over liquefied natural gas (LNG) and its environmental impact.

Howarth’s peer-reviewed paper, published in Energy Science and Engineering, claims that LNG has a 33% larger emissions footprint than coal over a 20-year period, challenging the oil and gas industry’s assertion that LNG is a cleaner alternative. Read More

10.18.24- Ultra-deep fracking for limitless geothermal power is possible: EPFL
David Szondy

The prospect of virtually unlimited clean geothermal power is now substantially brighter. EPFL’s Laboratory of Experimental Rock Mechanics (LEMR) has shown that the semi-plastic, gooey rock at supercritical depths can still be fractured to let water through. Read More

Google goes nuclear in world-first small reactor agreement
Michael Franco

In what it calls "the world's first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple small modular reactors," Google has taken another step toward its goal of achieving net-zero emissions from its operational chain by 2030.

In terms of developing cleaner, carbon-free energy, Google is certainly putting its money where its mouth is. Just last year the company switched on an advanced geothermal plant in Nevada that has already made impressive gains in developing its technology for using heat from beneath the Earth's surface to generate power. Read More

10.16.24- TOYOTA WATER POWERED ENGINE:
Outperforms Hydrogen And Electric Vehicles (EV's) "Water As Fuel!"
NEM721

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10.15.24- Billionaire Robinhood Co-Founder Eyes Solar from Space
Alex Kimani

Baiju Bhatt, one of the co-founders of the investing app Robinhood, has debuted the space solar power company Aetherflux. The startup plans to build a constellation of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites that will use infrared lasers to transmit power to small ground stations on Earth. However, the company has not divulged the specifics about its satellite plans. Read More

10.14.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Elon Musk's $100 Tesla Phone With Built-In Starlink FINALLY Hitting The Market!
Tech Central

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10.11.24- Solar power project hits the rails with between-track panel pilot
Paul Ridden

Even on busy rail networks, the gap between lines can spend much of its time doing little but face skyward, so why not put that space to good use? Swiss startup Sun-Ways is looking to do just that by installing solar panels in between railway tracks.

Despite many household and business rooftops rocking solar panels, and dedicated "farms" also soaking up the Sun's energy, there's still huge potential for harvesting much more. Read More

10.10.24- Declining North Sea Oil Patch Could Make Way For Geothermal Boom
Alex Kimani

Oil and gas fields in Europe’s North Sea are in terminal decline. Last year, the oil basin produced 34 m tonnes of oil, its lowest since production in the North Sea was established in the 1970s. Scores of Big Oil companies have been pulling out of the aging oil basin, with production expected to continue shrinking despite the UK government recently issuing a raft of licenses since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read More

10.09.24- Nuclear Power Likely To Grow By Getting Smaller
Kevin Stocklin

In the midst of growing demand for low-carbon base-load electricity, nuclear power is increasingly regarded as a clean, reliable option; but multi-year regulatory approval processes, a dearth of capital, and chronic cost overruns when constructing new plants have made utilities reluctant to build.

For many in the nuclear power industry, one way to address these issues is to become smaller. Read More

10.08.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Traitors to America Should be
Tried for Treason
Brent Johnson

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10.07.24- Is Nuclear Power the Future of Green Energy for Big Tech?
Tyler Durden

Following the news of the Three Mile Island restart plans to power Microsoft's AI data centers and the revival of Holtec's Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed in an interview with Nikkei Asia in Tokyo on Thursday that the tech giant is exploring the use of nuclear energy as a potential 'green' source to power its data centers.  Read More

10.05.24- Will EU's EV Tariffs Ignite a Global Trade War?
Tyler Durden

Bloomberg reports that EU member states have voted to slap tariffs of up to 45% on Chinese-made electric vehicles, ignoring warnings from some members that this dangerous move risks sparking an "economic cold war" with Beijing. 

The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, recently concluded its anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese imports of battery electric vehicles. The findings supported the Commission's move to implement the duties, which would last for five years. Read More

10.04.24- Oil Stocks To Watch As Middle East Conflict Intensifies
Alex Kimani

Crude oil futures surged as much as 5% in Thursday’s intraday session after President Biden said his administration would support Israel striking Iran's oil facilities, adding that the option is being discussed. Brent crude for November delivery gained 4.8% to trade at $77.44 per barrel at 12.50 pm ET while WTI crude was changing hands at $73.65 per barrel after gaining 5.1%.  Read More

10.03.24- Robots are Making Nuclear Energy Safer and More Efficient
Felicity Bradstock

Innovations in technology are helping boost safety in nuclear energy operations through the use of robots, which can decrease human exposure to operational hazards. Energy companies around the globe are integrating autonomous smart technologies into operations to improve health and safety, reduce costs, and enhance remote access. Robots have become widely used in both fossil fuels and renewable energy operations worldwide and now their role in nuclear energy projects is expanding. Nuclear companies are increasingly using robotics for decommissioning activities, as well as monitoring operations. The use of robots is expected to grow in the coming years thanks to continual technological innovations and a greater openness to modernisation through digitalisation.  Read More

10.02.24- U.S. Port Strike Could Trigger New Wave of Inflation
Tyler Durden

More than 45,000 International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) members from over three dozen facilities across 14 Gulf and East Coast ports went on strike early Tuesday, marking the largest labor action at US ports in nearly 50 years. The labor action, driven by disputes over automation and wages in a new multi-year labor contract, threatens to disrupt supply chains nationwide. If the strike persists for more than a week, retailers could face shortages of certain goods (read: here), potentially sparking another wave of inflation.  Read More

10.01.24- 3 Stocks To Play The Nuclear Renaissance
Alex Kimani

After decades of being treated as the black sheep of the energy universe, nuclear energy is enjoying a renaissance in the U.S. and other countries around the world thanks to the need for decarbonization and growing power demand. Indeed, the world is witnessing unprecedented electricity demand growth. Last year,  power sector consulting firm Grid Strategies published a report titled “The Era of Flat Power Demand is Over,” which pointed out that United States grid planners--utilities and regional transmission operators (RTOs)--had nearly doubled growth projections in their five-year demand forecasts. For the first time in decades, demand for electricity in the U.S. is projected to grow by as much as 15% over the next decade driven by the Artificial Intelligence (AI), clean energy manufacturing, and cryptocurrencies boom. Read More

09.30.24- eVinci nuclear microreactor moves towards commercialization
David Szondy

Westinghouse Electric Company is advancing its revolutionary eVinci nuclear microreactor. Based on space nuclear technology, it boasts a tiny footprint, no moving parts, and can be swapped out for refueling, much like replacing a used gas bottle.

In the wake of climate change concerns, nuclear energy is experiencing a resurgence. With its zero-emissions principle and ability to generate large amounts of power, it can address many of the challenges facing the energy sector. However, the nuclear industry must overcome issues related to safety (perceived or otherwise), availability, and cost, while also significantly speeding up the construction process, which traditionally takes years. Read More

09.28.24- An Electric Investment!
Byron King

When I travel by air, which I do often, I usually choose a window seat. Looking out over the American landscape, I’ve noticed some changes in recent years.

Among the forests, fields, farms, housing and office park developments, I see many solar panel arrays. But there’s something else as well, and a lot of it. I’m talking about data centers.

They’re especially common in northern Virginia, outside D.C. Northern Virginia is home to 70% of the world’s data centers. Read More

09.27.24- How China Could Win The Nuclear Fusion Race
Alex Kimani

It’s been seven decades ever since scientists started working on nuclear fusion technology, with the allure of almost limitless clean energy proving too powerful to resist. The U.S. was among the world’s first countries to bet big on this futuristic gambit, working on fusion research in earnest since the early 1950s. China’s foray came much later. Read More

09.26.24- Thermoelectric generator pulls energy from room temperature heat
Michael Irving

Scientists in Japan have developed a new organic device that can harvest energy from heat. Unlike other thermoelectric generators, this one works at room temperature without a heat gradient.

Thermoelectric devices are designed to tap into a simple law of physics: heat energy moves from hotter regions to colder ones. In these devices, electrons move from the warmer surface to the cooler one, which produces an electric current. In theory, thermoelectric generators, materials and paints could produce electricitytemperature differences in engines, power plants, even body heat. Read More

09.25.24- Coal's Resurgence Challenges Global Energy Transition
Tyler Durden

Despite efforts to decarbonize the economy, global coal consumption surpassed 164 exajoules for the first time in 2023. The fossil fuel still accounts for 26% of the world’s total energy consumption.

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti shows global coal consumption by region from 1965 to 2023, based on data from the Energy Institute. Read More

09.24.24- Three Mile Island Nuke to Reopen with Microsoft Contract
Leonard Hyman and William Tilles

On Friday (September 20th) Baltimore-based Constellation Energy and Microsoft jointly announced an agreement to reopen the shuttered 835 mw Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant located near Harrisburg, PA. Its more famous twin, unit 2, has been closed since its partial core meltdown in 1979–the single worst accident in US commercial nuclear operating history. Unit 2 is presently being decommissioned. Unit 1 was unscathed by the accident and continued operating until its 1999 closure for economic reasons. Read More

09.23.24- U.S. Solar Energy Soars Despite Chinese Competition
Felicity Bradstock

The U.S. is seeing record solar energy capacity growth each year, thanks to greater public and private investment in the sector. The already rapidly growing solar industry boomed following the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other favourable policies. This growth is expected to continue, with several large-scale solar farms in the pipeline for the coming decade, supported by the deployment of utility-scale battery storage across the country. The solar boom has supported growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector and led to the creation of thousands of jobs. However, competition with China and tariffs on renewable energy equipment has cast a shadow over the U.S. solar industry at a time when it should be untouchable. Read More

09.21.24- Gazprom Accelerates Pipeline Gas Transports To China
Julianne Geiger

Russia is accelerating its natural gas exports to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline, aiming to hit maximum capacity by the end of 2024—a full year ahead of schedule.Gazprom, Russia's state-run energy giant, has agreed with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to boost December supplies, reaching the pipeline's designed capacity of 38 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually. Read More

09.20.24- Glowing crystal-powered nuclear battery boasts 8,000x efficiency boost
Michael Irving

When you picture a sci-fi energy source, glowing green crystals are right up there. Scientists in China have now demonstrated just that, in the form of a “micronuclear battery” that can provide continuous low levels of power for decades. Read More

09.19.24- Oil Net Short For First Time in History
Julianne Geiger

Brent crude oil is currently priced at $72.14 per barrel, showing a slight increase of $0.17 (+0.24%) for the day. However, behind this small rise is a much larger story unfolding in the oil markets.

According to energy investor and market commentator Eric Nuttall, the financial demand for oil, known as "net length," has dropped to its lowest point in history. Essentially, "net length" refers to the difference between the number of investors betting oil prices will rise (long positions) versus those betting they will fall (short positions). When net length is low, it means there is a reduced belief that prices will increase. Read More

09.18.24- Sunlight turns CO2 and methane into valuable gases for fuel and industry
Paul Craig Roberts

Taking a leaf out of the book of plants, scientists have used a photosynthesis blueprint to harness the power of sunlight and turn two of the most destructive greenhouse gases into useful, prized chemicals that can be then used for the production of fuels and play a vital role in manufacturing. 

Researchers from McGill University have developed a novel process known as photo-driven oxygen-atom-grafting, which uses gold, palladium and gallium nitride as a catalyst to chemically transform carbon dioxide and methane into carbon monoxide and green methanol when exposed to sunlight. Read More

09.17.24- Solar Pumps Poised to Revolutionize Global Water Access
Felicity Bradstock

As the use of solar technology expands, the rollout of solar-powered water pumps is expected to significantly enhance the availability of safe drinking water around the world. Groundwater – the water stored in between rocks underground – contributes almost 99 percent of the unfrozen fresh water found on Earth. In Africa, where many do not have access to clean drinking water, there is thought to be around 20 times more groundwater than that in lakes and reservoirs. And yet many countries across the continent experience severe water scarcity, with many communities lacking the equipment needed to access the water located just a few metres underground. Read More

09.16.24- New grid battery packs record energy density into a shipping container
Joe Salas

China leads the world in terms of renewable energy resources like solar power. And not just by a small margin either, making over twice as much solar power as the next highest country, the USA. Where do you store any excess solar energy for use when the sun isn't shining? Answer: in ridiculously big batteries. Read More

09.14.24- Next-Gen Nuclear Power: Oracle's Solution for Energy-Hungry AI
Tyler Durden

Oracle chairman Larry Ellison announced this week that AI's growing electricity demand is pushing Oracle to consider next-gen nuclear power.

During an earnings call, Ellison said the company is designing a data center that will need over a gigawatt of electricity, which would be supplied by three small nuclear reactors, according to CNBC.  Read More

09.13.24- Russia's Nuclear Ambitions in Central Asia
Eurasianet

Hoping to drum up some much-needed cash to help fuel the Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine, Rosatom, Russia’s state-controlled nuclear entity, is hyping atomic energy as a “green” solution to Central Asia’s power problems. But Rosatom’s efforts to assuage Central Asian citizens on the safety and greenness of Russian nuclear solutions are undermined by reports of haphazard operational practices. Read More

09.12.24- California Launches America’s First Hydrogen-Powered Passenger Train
Alex Kimani

San Bernardino, a Southern California city, has unveiled the first-ever hydrogen-powered passenger train in the United States, an important milestone as California ramps up efforts to meet its 2045 carbon neutrality goals. 

Dubbed Zemu for Zero-Emission Multiple Unit, the $20 million train uses a hybrid hydrogen fuel cell and battery system to power the lightweight vehicle capable of ferrying 108-seated passengers on a 9-mile line known as the Arrow Corridor. San Bernardino is notorious for its poor air quality thanks to a high concentration of freeways, rail yards and industrial facilities. Read More

09.11.24- Watch: Giant multibody wave energy converter flaps its way toward launch
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

If you find yourself in the Australian port city of Albany and spot a humongous yellow machine bobbing in the waves of King George Sound, don't be alarmed. It's just a generator prototype making a case for renewable wave energy.

Developed by the University of Western Australia's Marine Energy Research Australia knowledge hub, the device is called the Moored MultiMode Multibody (M4) Wave Energy Demonstration Project. Read More

09.10.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: The Mediocrity Downspiral
El Gato Malo

A walking tour of emergent institutional submergence

How do whole agencies, companies, and cultures that were once high function succumb to mediocrity and then collapse into incompetence and nepotism?

It seems like poison or like plan, but mostly, i suspect it’s not. it’s just self-assembling self-disassembly. Read More

09.09.24- Motionless turbines deliver super-efficient wind energy to BMW's factory
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Houston-based Aeromine Technologies has fitted a bunch of silent and motionless wind energy harnessing airfoils on the roof of BMW's MINI manufacturing plant in Oxford, UK. They're meant to complement the factory's solar panels to produce clean energy, while taking up a lot less space. Read More

09.07.24- Why Has the Green Hydrogen Hype Faded?
Felicity Bradstock

Green hydrogen was the buzzword on everyone’s lips a couple of years ago, but the initial hype seems to have faded away as the industry takes time to build capacity and overcome production and transportation hurdles. Several countries have set out ambitious green hydrogen production aims for the coming decades, as they strive to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries. However, as governments and the private sector increase investments in green hydrogen, the sector is taking time to develop. Researchers are constantly looking at ways to reduce production costs, which are elevated at present, as well as overcome transport restrictions. While there are high hopes for the development of a global green hydrogen market, it could take a decade or more before we see greater production and use of the clean fuel. Read More

09.06.24- Groundbreaking Study Confirms Human Emissions Have ‘Zero Impact’ on Climate Change
Sean Adl-Tabatabai

Despite the endless barrage of propaganda by the mainstream media and global elites, it turns out that man-made fossil fuel emissions have “zero impact” on climate change.

A groundbreaking new study challenges the belief that human emissions are the primary driver of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. The research, published in the Science of Climate Change, concludes that sea surface temperatures (SST) play a far more significant role than anthropogenic (human-caused) factors in determining annual changes in atmospheric CO2 levels. Read More

09.05.24- Global Solar Generation Overtakes Wind Power
Alex Kimani

Global electricity generation from solar farms has exceeded power generation from wind farms since May, marking the longest stretch in history where solar has surpassed wind as the top utility-scale renewable power source. Solar electricity generation exceeded wind generation by 1.65 terawatt hours (TWh) in May and 9.57 TWh in June, energy think tank Ember has revealed. Power generation data for July and August is yet to come out; however, the two months are likely to see a continuation of this trend considering that July is usually the peak month for solar output across the northern hemisphere while  August is usually the second highest solar generation month. Previously, solar power generation exceeded wind generation in August and June of 2023 but has never before strung together such a sustained stretch of higher generation. Read More

09.04.24- World's first zinc-ion battery megafactory opens for business
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

Sweden’s Enerpoly has flung open the doors to its zinc-ion battery megafactory in the north of Stockholm – making it the first manufacturing facility to use this battery technology at a large scale in the world.

Dubbed the Enerpoly Production Innovation Center, the 70,000-sq-ft (6,500-sq-m) factory is designed to achieve a capacity throughput of 100 MWh annually. That’ll be in a couple of years though: while the company has begun commissioning already, it’s slated to reach full production capacity only in 2026. Read More

09.03.24- Nuclear Fusion, a Perpetually Distant Dream, Moves Closer to Reality
Kevin Stocklin

Generating nearly limitless, clean, carbon-free energy from nuclear fusion—a vision that seems to be perpetually out of reach—has taken major steps in the past several years toward becoming a reality. Read More

09.02.24- Energy Majors Say Oil is Here to Stay
Felicity Bradstock

While several international energy organisations and leading sectoral experts expect the global oil demand to begin decreasing by the end of the decade, some oil majors expect oil demand to remain high for decades to come. ExxonMobil and Aramco are just some of the companies that have said they will continue pumping crude in anticipation of the continued high demand for fossil fuels into the next decade and beyond. Read More

08.31.24- Hydrogen stored in iron: A cheap, scalable grid battery for the winter
Abhimanyu Ghoshal

While hydrogen's high energy per mass makes it an excellent fuel, it's awfully hard and expensive to store long-term. That could change, thanks to the work of researchers at Switzerland's ETH Zurich. They've worked out a way to store hydrogen in ordinary steel-walled containers for months without losing it into the atmosphere – using iron. Read More

08.30.24- H2Starfire engine: A new and insanely efficient type of rotary
Joe Salas

Astron aerospace has shown a partial prototype of a new rotary combustion engine it claims runs at an extraordinary 60% thermal efficiency, burning totally clean with zero NOx emissions and nothing but fresh water out of the tailpipe.

With internal combustion engines (ICE) on the way out and electric vehicles (EV) on the way in – both politically and environmentally – innovative ways of using renewable energy for clean transportation are at the forefront of many engineering minds. Read More

08.29.24- World's first green ammonia plant is now open for business
Vox Day

Three Danish energy tech firms have flung open the doors to the first ever green ammonia plant in the world, in the town of Ramme, Denmark.

The plant is said to be capable of producing 5,000 tons of green ammonia per year, entirely from solar and wind energy. Topsoe reports that this effort will prevent 8,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Read More

08.28.24- Nuclear reactors a mile underground promise safe, cheap power
David Szondy

Startup Deep Fission has come up with a new way to deal with the economic and safety problems of nuclear power that is, to say the least, novel. The idea is to build a reactor that's under 30 inches (76 cm) wide and stick it down a mile-deep (1.6-km) drill shaft.

With its promise of limitless energy by breaking down matter itself, nuclear power has long held a utopian promise for humanity. However, economic and safety considerations, along with political opposition, have hindered its development – especially in the very countries that developed the technology. Read More

08.27.24- Oil Prices Soar as Geopolitical Risk Rises Rapidly
Josh Owens

Oil prices spiked dramatically on Monday morning, with Brent breaking above $81 and WTIrising toward $77. 

While hopes of an interest rate cut had already boosted bullish sentiment in markets, it is geopolitics and supply risks that sent prices soaring on Monday morning.

A combination of Israel launching strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Russia launching a major missile and drone attack on Ukraine, and the Libyan government in Benghazi declaring force majeure on all oil facilities drove oil prices up dramatically. Read More

08.26.24- Are We Headed for Another Great Depression?
Gail Tverberg

• The current economic landscape shares striking similarities with the late 1920s, marked by high debt, wealth inequality, and low energy consumption growth.
  
  
• Historical data suggests a strong correlation between energy supply growth, economic growth, and income equality.
  
  
• The world economy may be transitioning from growth to shrinkage due to declining energy resources, potentially leading to financial instability and political conflict. Read More

08.24.24- US Natural Gas Is America's Clean Energy Standard
Jason Hayes

Abundant and affordable energy drives America’s powerful and productive economy. That’s been true throughout our nation’s history, and America’s recent achievement of energy independence provides the most concrete& illustratio of that fact.

But to keep our nation firing on all eight cylinders, we need government policies that prioritize providing adequate, reliable and secure domestic energy supplies. Read More

08.23.24- Global Offshore Wind Installations to Surpass 520 GW by 2040
Rystad Energy

Global offshore wind projects have faced significant headwinds due to recent inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions, exemplified by postponed permitting processes, delayed auctions and slow supply chain build-ups. Despite these challenges, the sector staved off challenges in 2023, seeing a 7% increase in new capacity additions compared to the previous year. This momentum is expected to accelerate this year, with new capacity additions expected to grow by 9% to over 11 gigawatts (GW) by the end of the year. Rystad Energy expects this growth for the offshore wind sector to continue at a steady pace, and estimates that global installations, excluding mainland China, will exceed 520 GW by 2040. Read More

08.22.24- Spaceship tech slashes energy usage of existing AC systems by 50%
Darren Quick

As we experience temperature extremes more often as a result of climate change, it predictably leads to an uptick in the use of air conditioning systems. This of course results in higher energy use, which, if it’s not coming from renewable sources, means more greenhouse gas emissions, and the vicious cycle continues.

Although today’s AC units are more efficient than ever, they’re still a major drain on electrical grids, and updating to newer, more efficient units can be expensive – particularly for owners of large commercial systems. Helix Earth Technologies is looking to address this problem by repurposing a technology originally developed to filter air on spacecraft, which was developed by company CEO Rawand Rasheed and his team when he was at NASA. Read More

08.21.24- A New Era for Nuclear Power
in the U.S.
Felicity Bradstock

The U.S. Palisades Power Plant could become the first nuclear plant to reopen in the U.S. after shutting down, potentially signaling a new era for U.S. nuclear power. As the U.S. government supports a new wave of nuclear reactor development, in support of a green transition, the reopening of existing plants could help the country develop its nuclear power capacity more rapidly. The Biden administration has provided financial support to several struggling nuclear plants to help them keep their doors open, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other recent policies are encouraging the development of new nuclear operations. Pressure from the government to decarbonize the economy and financial incentives for companies pursuing green energy could also support alternative nuclear developments, such as the restoration and reopening of old reactors.  Read More

08.20.24- Big Oil Cashes In as Clean Fuel Startups Falter
David Messler

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022-IRA was supposed to accelerate the transition from petroleum-based fuels to what the act termed “Cleaner Transportation Fuels.” The IRA provided billions of dollars in tax credits and direct subsidies to encourage private industry to move forward with the implementation of so-called “Cleaner”-(a catchall term including, liquid hydrogen, biodiesel, ethanol, and renewable natural gas-RNG), new fuels that would help the country meet climate goals. Read More

08.19.24- The U.S. Is Quietly Building Several Renewable Energy Megaprojects
Alex Kimani

After soaring during the global energy crisis triggered by the Covid pane3dmic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the renewable energy sector has fallen back to earth, with high interest rates and a weaker global economy acting as headwinds for clean energy equities. 

The sector’s favorite benchmark, iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (NASDAQ:ICLN), is deeply in the red, with a -18.2% return in the year-to-date, compared to a 6.6% gain by its fossil-fuel equivalent, the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLE) and 12.1% return  by the S&P 500. Thankfully, the clean energy revolution does not appear to be running out of steam. Read More

08.17.24- The Rise of Geothermal Power Networks
Felicity Bradstock

As governments rapidly search for ways to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives, there could be huge potential for developing natural geothermal resources underground. Investing in networked geothermal power could provide abundant clean heating and electricity for millions of households and businesses worldwide. Although countries with abundant geothermal resources have been tapping into the natural power source for thousands of years, governments have only recently funded greater research into the use of advanced geothermal systems aimed at expanding the use of the energy source. Read More

08.16.24- Samsung’s new silver solid-state batteries are poised to revolutionize EVs with an impressive 600-mile range, 9-min full charge, and 20-yr lifespan.
First Majestic

Samsung’s new silver solid-state batteries are poised to revolutionize EVs with an impressive 600-mile range, 9-min full charge, and 20-yr lifespan. Current EV‘s require about 5g of silver. This revolutionary technology requires ~1kg of silver. Read More

08.14.24- Giant dual-rotor wind turbine takes to the seas
David Szondy

The world's largest single-capacity floating wind platform has set to sea and the builder released images of the operation. Mingyang’s OceanX is set to travel 191 nm (220 miles, 354 km) over the next three days to its final offshore destination.

When we first reported on Mingyang’s OceanX, it was already causing a bit of a stir thanks to its dual-rotor design. Now, it has launched from its building site at Guangzhou, China and is heading towards the Qingzhou IV Offshore Wind Farm in Yangjiang, Gangdong to showcase its remarkable technology. Read More

08.13.24- How Mayonnaise Could Help Scientists Advance Nuclear Fusion Efforts
Tsvetana Paraskova

The most common of condiments could help researchers better understand the physics behind one of the most difficult and sought-after scientific feats—making nuclear fusion a reality.

When compressed and heated, mayonnaise exhibits some characteristics similar to the various states of plasma in a hypothetical nuclear fusion reaction, scientists have found. Read More

08.12.24- Geopolitical Tensions Are Transforming the Rare Earth Market
Rystad Energy

The rare earth market is undergoing a shift in geographical supply chain concentration, spurred by Western efforts to reduce reliance on China off the back of growing demand, focus on national security, and the strategic importance of the materials. Over the last decade, annual rare earth supply has tripled, setting global production records almost every year – from 142,000 tonnes in 2013 to 359,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide equivalents mined last year. Read More

08.10.24- Can Nuclear Power Help Achieve Carbon Neutrality?
City AM

Nuclear power is a controversial topic as it is seen by some as a key solution to achieving a carbon-neutral future, while others view it as a potential disaster waiting to happen. With the global population projected to reach 10bn by 2050, the demand for electricity is expected to double at the time when the world is looking to transition away from fossil fuels. This raises the question of how to power the future. Read More

08.09.24- Gazprom Exports To Europe Via Ukraine Continue Despite Fighting
Charles Kennedy

Russian gas exports to Europe have continued despite reports of Ukrainian forces seizing a key gas metering station near the Russia-Ukraine border.

• Concerns over potential disruptions to gas flows have led to a spike in European gas prices.
  
  
• The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine highlights the vulnerability of Europe's energy supply and the potential for disruptions. Read More

08.08.24- Geothermal Market Poised for Accelerated Growth in Coming Years
Rystad Energy

Geothermal energy is set to play a significant, albeit small role in the power mix of the future, building on its currently modest 0.3% share of the world’s power supply. As global economies ramp up their efforts to decarbonize, the importance of renewable baseload energy sources such as geothermal is expected to increase in the coming years. Installed geothermal power generation capacity currently stands at 16.8 gigawatts electric (GWe) worldwide, with almost 800 megawatts electric (MWe) expected to be added this year. This year’s growth, mainly stemming from project start-ups in Indonesia and New Zealand, is expected to bring in investments worth $6.9 billion – a record high in recent years. Read More

08.07.24- Supercritical geothermal power: Limitless promise or impossible dream?
David Szondy

Supercritical geothermal power holds the promise of meeting humanity's energy needs for millions of years, but how practical is it? A new analysis by Karthik Subramanian of Lux Research suggests that it may lie somewhere between improbable and impossible.

At first glance, geothermal power seems like a brilliant energy source. It's clean, there's enough heat in the Earth to power civilization for any foreseeable future, and all you have to do is drill down to tap it.Read More

Cheap heat-storing 'firebricks' projected to save industries trillions
Zach Scheidt

Transitioning to 100% renewable energy globally would be cheaper and simpler using firebricks, a form of thermal energy storage with roots in the Bronze Age, to produce most of the heat needed for industrial processes, according to a new Stanford study.

Today’s industries require high temperatures for manufacturing, which are achieved largely by continuously burning coal, oil, fossil gas, or biomass. With much of the world focused on reducing emissions by transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable sources like wind, solar, and hydro, the question is how to provide industries with on-demand continuous heat in a 100% renewable world. Read More

08.05.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Scientists Drop Bombshell: Ivermectin Cures Cancer, Parkinson’s, Vax Damage,
Many Various Diseases
Frank Bergman

Ivermectin is continuing to stun the scientific community as the “wonder drug” is being used to treat a growing list of various ailments in humans.

During the pandemic, the corporate media and bureaucratic health officials attempted to smear ivermectin as a “horse dewormer” after it was found to be successful in treating Covid patients. Read More

08.03.24- Can Nuclear Power Help Achieve Carbon Neutrality?
City AM

Nuclear power is a controversial topic as it is seen by some as a key solution to achieving a carbon-neutral future, while others view it as a potential disaster waiting to happen. With the global population projected to reach 10bn by 2050, the demand for electricity is expected to double at the time when the world is looking to transition away from fossil fuels. This raises the question of how to power the future. Read More

08.02.24- U.S. Oil & Gas Jobs are Disappearing Despite Record Production
Tsvetana Paraskova

U.S. oil production is breaking records, but employment numbers have dropped in five out of six months this year as operational efficiencies allow operators to continue to boost production with fewer rigs and workers, the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) said last week in a cautionary note.

Texas, home to the biggest shale basin, the Permian, has seen crude oil production grow this year, and the share of Texas of total U.S. production has further increased, according to data from the industry association. Read More

08.01.24- Microwave technique recovers 87% of batteries' lithium in 15 minutes
Michael Franco

Lithium is a finite resource, and the more we lock inside rechargeable batteries, the less we have to use. A new speedy method to free the element from such sources could be a game changer in terms of the material's availability.

Thanks to our modern day way of purchasing rechargeable everything – including cars – the demand for the lithium-ion batteries that power much of our consumer technology has been skyrocketing. Currently valued at approximately $65 billion, the market for lithium-ion batteries is expected to grow by 23% in the next eight years. Read More

07.31.24- Peak Summer is Here Again, Busting All-Time Records that Were Never Actually Set
David Haggith

Peak summer arrives with temperatures that, it turns out, are hot, and climate change is now responsible in some areas for rising house insurance costs that soared as much as 21% faster than temps.

Yes, it turns out climate change is once again causing summer! Our first boldface headline below notes that peak summer has arrived. How we can know this is peak summer when the rest of summer hasn’t happened yet is unclear. That’s kind of the point of this Zero Hedge article, though—that you would think it is surely peak summer, given how strident headlines have reached an all-time peak compared to other years … and how headlines do that every July as temperatures start to arc seriously upward. Read More

07.30.24- World-first space-based energy grid outlined by Star Catcher
Michael Irving

Star Catcher Industries has secured US$12.25 million in seed funding for its ambitious plan to build the world’s first “space-based energy grid.” A network of satellites would gather energy from the Sun and beam it at higher concentrations to other satellites in orbit. Read More

07.29.24- What Are America’s
Cheapest Energy Sources?
Tyler Durden

In the evolving global energy landscape, renewable sources are becoming increasingly cost effective. Even without subsidies, renewables are often the cheapest option available.

This chart, created by Visual Capitalist's Selin Oguz and Ryan Bellafontaine, in partnership with the National Public Utilities Council, shows which electricity sources are the most and least expensive in 2024, using data by Lazard. Read More

07.17.24- Seawater-slurping hydrogen reactor able to power a sub for 30 days
Michael Irving

MIT scientists have discovered an intriguing new way to produce hydrogen fuel, using just soda cans, seawater and coffee grounds. The team says the chemical reaction could be put to work powering engines or fuel cells in marine vehicles that suck in seawater.

Hydrogen is an important player in the game for decarbonizing energy production – it’s clean-burning, energy-dense, and when used in fuel cells the only by-product is water. But one major hurdle is that it’s hard to store and transport, because the tiny molecules tend to leak right through containers and piping. Not only does that mean losses, but excess hydrogen can wreak havoc in the atmosphere. Read More

07.26.24- Revolutionary grid-scale wave energy generator deployed in Hawaii
David Szondy

Ocean Energy has deployed its 826-tonne wave energy converter buoy OE-35 at the US Navy's Wave Energy Test Site off the coast of the island of Oahu ahead of it being hooked up to Hawaii's electricity grid.

Measuring 125 x 59 ft (38 x 18 m) with a draft of 31 ft (9 m), the OE-35 was already a familiar sight in Kaneohe Bay on the Windward side of Oahu. Fixed just north of M?kapu Peninsula, which is home to a US Marine Corps base that I became very familiar with years ago when its F-18 fighters used to go blasting over my anchored boat in the early morning. Read More

07.25.24- Inside the High-Stakes Battle for
Nuclear Fusion Supremacy
Haley Zaremba

The race is on to unlock a technology capable of creating scalable, commercial nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion has been viewed as the elusive ‘holy grail’ of energy for a century now, always growing closer to reality, but always just out of reach. But now, advances in nuclear fusion experiments are increasing rapidly, and success is in sight. As such, deep-pocketed superpowers around the world are heavily investing in fusion research in a bif to become the first nation to harness the form of energy that powers our own sun, providing nearly limitless clean energy. Read More

07.24.24- Offshore wind farm charges floating boats in world first
Michael Franco

In the Belgian North Sea, maintenance vessels are now able to tether to an automatic cable at a wind farm to get their batteries topped up. The innovative system is the first of its kind and a major step in keeping electric vessels as green as possible. Read More

07.23.24- Massive 40-MW floating wind turbine array wins major tick of approval
Darren Quick

While the quest for pulling more megawatts from wind turbines has generally led to bigger and bigger rotors on turbines of conventional design – like this monster 22-MW number in China – Norway’s Wind Catching Systems (WCS) has taken a different path. It claims its mega-array of smaller rotors arranged in a grid would achieve up to 126 MW, or five times the energy of a 15-MW single-rotor turbine, in North Sea conditions – and even more in some other locations around the world. Read More

07.22.24- China Has Just Gained First-Mover Advantage In Nuclear Fusion
Alex Kimani

It’s been seven decades ever since scientists started working on nuclear fusion technology, with the allure of almost limitless clean energy proving too powerful to resist. Unfortunately, milestones have fallen time and again, giving rise to the running joke that a practical nuclear fusion power plant could be decades, if not centuries, away. Read More

07.20.24- Africa Emerges As Focal Point In Global Oil & Gas Exploration
Aatisha Mahajanvia

The skewed activity is highlighted by explorers demarcating assets within their portfolios as ‘core’ areas of operations, with the majority of guided exploration spending being directed towards exploring these areas. Secondly, the acceleration of development of proven basins amid the rise of renewable sources of energy has been demonstrated by the recent flurry of activity within the Guyana Basin and Namibia’s sector of the Orange Basin. These basins have not only seen an increase in activity but have also in recent years contributed significantly towards global conventional discovered volumes, which have been declining. Additionally, the availability of vast resources within technically and financially challenging offshore areas has been exemplified by an increase in deepwater and ultra-deepwater activity and the announcement of standout discoveries from these areas. Read More

07.19.24- Oil and Gas Are Here To Stay
Irina Slav

The energy transition is showing signs of losing momentum over the past few months. EV sales are slowing, wind and solar capacity additions are not expanding fast enough, and electricity is getting more instead of less expensive.

With those signs, others have been flashing red, too. Despite the push against oil and gas, these are here to stay for the long haul—and demand won’t even decline that much after peaking, according to the latest energy outlook of BP. Read More

07.18.24- "Smart soil" grows 138% bigger crops using 40% less water
Michael Irving

Watering and fertilizing crops to provide enough food for a changing world is a major challenge in agriculture. Now, scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a “smart soil” that can keep plants better hydrated and provide a controlled release of nutrients. In tests it drastically improved crop growth while using far less water. It’s been estimated that around 70% of the world’s freshwater usage goes towards agriculture.

That means that in areas where water is more scarce it can be hard to grow crops and feed populations, so scientists are investigating ways to boost efficiency. Read More

07.17.24- Energy: The Foundation Of Modern Economies
Danny Ervin

I am generally pessimistic about the future of the U.S. due to recent energy policies at the federal and state levels that favor "green" energy technologies, primarily solar and wind.

These policies often distort the economics of power production, leading to a massive misallocation of capital and overinvestment in unreliable solar and wind projects. Reliable electricity supply requires consistency every second of the day, not just minute-by-minute, but also over weeks, months, and years. My past experience in forecasting electricity demand for a five-year horizon showed that wind and solar forecasts fail to meet this requirement. Read More

07.16.24- The Offshore Wind Energy Scandal Is Even Worse Than You Think
Robert Bryce

These 11 charts show how America’s biggest NGOs are colluding with foreign corporations that want to industrialize our oceans with thousands of turbines that will hurt whales and ratepayers

Two of Europe’s biggest energy companies are abandoning the SS Offshore Wind. Read More

07.15.24- Houston we Have a Problem
Leonard Hyman and William Tilles

Hurricane Beryl barreled through Houston last Monday leaving over three million electric utility customers without power in the sweltering summer heat. Hurricanes, despite appearing with increasing frequency and greater force, are still relatively infrequent in terms of devastating any given electric utility’s service area. There are things that management routinely prepares for and executes and there are unexpected severe weather events no matter how accurately forecasted. In the latter case, management can only respond. They can't retroactively “harden” their distribution system after the lines are down and the poles are lying in the street. Read More

07.13.24- India Looks to Russia for Reliable Uranium Supply
Alex Kimani

For the first time in five years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Russia for a state visit on Monday, where he is holding talks with President Vladimir Putin to help re-energize relations between the two countries, with an eye on strategic deals. One item on the top of the agenda is Modi’s desire to finalize a long-term uranium supply deal with Russia, in a bid to secure a stable and reliable source of uranium for India's expanding nuclear power sector. Read More

07.12.24- Has The Extreme Bear Market in Natural Gas Come to an End?
Haley Zaremba

In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we will take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week we’ll dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers. 

Let’s take a look.  Read More

07.11.24- The Nationwide 500,000
EV Charger Charade
Geoffrey Pohanka

The word charade has several meanings, and including an act or event that is clearly false (Cambridge Dictionary), something done just for show (Vocabulary.com), or a situation in which people pretend that something is true when it clearly is not (Oxford Leaner’s Dictionary).

The charade I refers to is President Biden’s $7.5 billion dollar investment to install 500,000 electric charging stations along America’s highways by 2030. A reliable and convenient public EV charging infrastructure is critical to achieve the President’s goal of meeting the recent EPA CO2 emission regulation that require nearly 72% of U.S. new light vehicle sales to be fully electric or plug-in hybrid by 2032. Read More

07.10.24- Why U.S. Oil and Gas Production Is Slowing Down
Tsvetana Paraskova

Slowing drilling activity in the U.S. shale patch is capping oil production growth while natural gas output is down from year-ago levels amid above-average inventories and unsustainably low prices earlier this year.  Oil and gas prices have dropped since the highs from the summer of 2022 when they spiked following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Read More

07.09.24- Fusion energy companies unite to accelerate commercial power
David Szondy

A recent ITER workshop bringing together almost 50 CEOs and senior scientists from private fusion startups suggests that combining the technologies from magnetic and laser fusion experiments could accelerate the development of practical fusion power. 

Though the field of fusion energy research is dominated by a few major efforts, there are today about 50 privately funded fusion startups in 12 countries that have garnered over US$5.6 billion in investments. Most of them claim that they will be able to achieve commercial fusion power by 2030. Read More

07.08.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: The ATF Has Resumed Openly Murdering Americans
Frank M. Lee

Many people who know anything about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE, or ATF for short) will know they started off as a “harmless” tax collecting agency that eventually turned into a law enforcement agency in its own right. In other words, they evolved from a bunch of glorified robbers with mechanical calculators and spreadsheets into a gang of violent thugs with guns and badges. This transformation became obvious to the world in the famous Ruby Ridge (1992) and Waco (1993) incidents, both having had heavy ATF involvement and with the latter event culminating in an open massacre of the Branch Davidians that included women and children. Read More

07.06.24- Why U.S. Oil and Gas Production Is Slowing Down
Tsvetana Paraskova

Slowing drilling activity in the U.S. shale patch is capping oil production growth while natural gas output is down from year-ago levels amid above-average inventories and unsustainably low prices earlier this year. Oil and gas prices have dropped since the highs from the summer of 2022 when they spiked following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Read More

07.05.24- Beryl May Threathen Core of U.S. Refining Industry
Tyler Durden

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC) downgraded Hurricane Beryl to a Category 4 storm from a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale on Wednesday morning. Beryl is the earliest hurricane on record to strengthen into a Category 5 as it churns across the southeastern Caribbean Sea. It is forecasted to hit the Yucatán Peninsula on Friday and afterward poses a threat to US oil and energy critical infrastructure on the Gulf Coast. Read More

07.04.24- World's biggest geothermal power purchase agreement now in the bag
Michael Franco

Just a year ago, Fervo Energy successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of its horizontally oriented geothermal system. Now the company has landed a massive contract for providing its clean, virtually endless power to the California grid.

It's only been one year since Fervo Energy unveiled a novel concept in geothermal energy harvesting at its Project Red pilot plant in Nevada. Instead of drilling vertical bores that deliver water into the hot rocks lying beneath the Earth's surface, it used techniques from the oil and gas industry to break up rocks, drive water through them horizontally, and collect the resultant steam to drive turbines at the surface.  Read More

07.03.24- Offshore wind turbine platform pivots downwind like a weathervane
David Szondy

A new offshore wind farm system that promises faster, cheaper installation and operations will be tested in the Mediterranean. Called the NextFloat+ Project, it received a €13.4-million (US$14.4-million) grant from the European Commission.

Setting up wind farms at sea seems like a logical idea. Sea breezes tend to blow regularly and open water provides a more predictable and dependable wind pattern than on land. Plus you don't have to worry so much about compulsory purchase of the building site. Read More

07.02.24- Transatlantic Energy Highway: Is a Global Power Grid on the Horizon?
Haley Zaremba

There are a great number of challenges standing between the current global energy landscape and decarbonization. Even though the installation of renewable energy production capacity is picking up speed, experts say that the growth rate is insufficient to achieve the goals set forth by the Paris Climate Agreement. However, in some places, the amount of renewable energy currently being produced is already too much for the grid to handle in some locations, with prices even going negative when supply and demand are severely mismatched. Read More

07.01.24- U.S. Oil, Gas Drilling Activity Plummets
Julianne Geiger

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell again this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count fell by 7 to 581 this week, compared to 674 rigs this same time last year.

The number of oil rigs fell by 6 this week, after falling by 3 in the week prior. Oil rigs now stand at 479—down by 66 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 this week to 97, a loss of 27 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous stayed the same at 5. Read More

06.29.24- Fast-charging sodium-ion battery uses anodes made from trees
C.C. Weiss

A month after Natron Energy began its first-of-kind sodium-ion battery mass production, Swedish sodium-ion developer Altris has identified a means of making the lithium-free batteries even more sustainable. Together with partner Stora Enso, it's adapting tree pulp-sourced carbon toward use as an anode material. 

A byproduct of wood pulp manufacturing, lignin has long been investigated for possible use as a more sustainable electrode material. Finnish renewable materials company Stora Enso made headlines in 2022 when it partnered up with Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt toward using its proprietary Lignode material in lithium-ion battery anodes. Stora Enso describes Lignode as a hard carbon material refined from lignin. Read More

06.28.24- Is This The World's Very Last
New Oil State?
Irina Slav

In late March, the president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, lectured—in his own words—the BBC's Stephen Sackur, who tried to suggest during an interview that Guyana would do better to think about protecting its environment than developing its oil resources.

Ali's lecture went viral as he slammed Sackur and the West for benefiting from the advantages of oil and gas for decades and now having the hypocrisy of trying to lecture poorer countries about their own plans for using oil and gas to their advantage. Guyana's oil wealth is also, in a sense, going viral. Read More

06.27.24- Renewable Energy Growth Fails To Offset Fossil Fuel Dominance
Tyler Durden

At a time when the peak of "green" virtue signaling has come and gone, we regret to inform you that all that jawboning and posturing has achieved... absolutely nothing because according to the Statistical Review of World Energy report released on Thursday, global fossil fuel consumption and energy emissions hit all-time highs in 2023 (even as fossil fuels' share of the global energy mix decreased slightly on the year). Read More

06.26.24- U.S. Remains The World’s Most Attractive Renewables Market
Charles Kennedy

The United States kept its number one spot on EY’s Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index in the latest ranking of the world’s top markets on the attractiveness of their renewable energy investment and deployment opportunities.

EY’s Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) has ranked the top 40 markets to reflect its assessments of market attractiveness and global market trends. Read More

06.25.24- Citi Forecasts Oil Price Drop
to $60s by 2025
Tsvetana Paraskova

Citi predicts that oil prices will plummet to the $60s range by 2025 as inventories build following a tight market this summer, signaling a bearish outlook despite current robust demand and higher prices.

Oil has recouped the losses from early June when the OPEC+ group's indication that it could begin returning some supply to the market in the fourth quarter sent bearish signals across the market. Read More

06.24.24- Is Big Solar Beating Big Oil in 2024?
Alex Kimani

Some of the world’s biggest and oldest oil & gas companies aka Big Oil are credited with powering the Second Industrial Revolution that kicked off in the late 19th century and ushered in the modern tech era as we know it. Oil accelerated industrial production and reshaped networks by allowing faster transportation thanks to being cheaper and packing a much higher energy density than other fuels. However, solar energy could become the primary power source of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, thanks to its simplicity, longevity, low cost, and overall efficiency. Indeed, Bloomberg has revealed that the seven largest solar companies--all located in China--already are supplying more energy to the world than the seven biggest fossil fuel producers. Read More

06.22.24- Green hydrogen breakthrough swaps in water for iridium
Michael Franco

Hydrogen holds the most promise when it is produced via green methods

Hydrogen shows a lot of promise as a powerful, clean fuel source – as long as the process that creates it is also green. A new report shows how tough it might be to get to truly green hydrogen, while a new study removes a barrier to its creation. Read More

06.15.24- Canada Poised to Reclaim Top Spot as World's Largest Uranium Producer
Tyler Durden

Canada was the world's top uranium producer for years until Kazakhstan dethroned it in 2009. Fast forward to 2022, and Canada held the second spot, pumping out 15% of the global supply. By 2023, Canada became the top uranium supplier to the US, delivering 27% of total deliveries. With uranium prices soaring in the last several years, primarily because of the 'Next AI Trade' theme (laid out for pro subs), Canada's uranium mining boom could lead it to reclaim the top spot. 

A new report from Bloomberg highlights that Canada's Saskatchewan province is the epicenter of the country's uranium mining boom:Read More

06.14.24- OPEC Slams IEA For "Dangerous" Forecast Of Peak Oil Demand By 2030
Tsvetana Paraskova

Peak oil demand is not on the horizon, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Thursday, blasting the International Energy Agency’s prediction that global oil demand will peak before 2030.

Some net-zero scenarios suggest that oil should not be part of a sustainable energy future, Read More

06.13.24- U.S. LNG Shipped to Asia Is Still
Cleaner Than Coal
Rystad Energy

The value-chain emissions of liquified natural gas (LNG) are lower on average than for coal-fired power generation, even when the fuel is shipped over long distances, according to new research from Rystad Energy. Natural gas that is produced and liquified in the US and shipped to Asia on return journeys of about 23,000 miles could emit up to 50% less than even the cleanest coal power plants. However, there are significant variations between US LNG sources, coal sources and types, and power plants, as well as uncertainties regarding methane emissions through both value chains. Read More

06.12.24- The Hydropower Industry Is Facing an Existential Threat
Felicity Bradstock

Clean hydropower is produced in several parts of the world with around 60 percent coming from China, Brazil, the United States, Canada, Russia, India, Norway, Venezuela, Sweden, and Japan. Now, more countries want to exploit their hydropower potential as governments worldwide push for a green transition. However, the industry faces a multitude of challenges, mainly associated with climate change. Recent periods of drought in several countries around the globe have driven down hydropower production rates and threaten future output. Read More

06.11.24- Mesmerizing vertical turbine wall to enter customer trials this year
Paul Ridden

Since revealing a concept for an energy generating wall back in 2021, designer Joe Doucet has been working on bringing the idea to life. That time is here with the launch of Airiva, a modular rotary wind turbine wall destined for installation on city buildings and infrastructure.

The idea in 2021 was to build a mesmerizing wall of 25 vertical-axis turbines, each connected to a generator for a total peak power output of 10 kilowatts. Read More

06.10.24- Scientists Inch Closer to the Holy Grail of Clean Energy
Felicity Bradstock

After several decades of failed attempts, scientists believe they are finally edging closer to achieving nuclear fusion at the scale needed to produce abundant clean energy. Several successful tests in recent years have made energy experts optimistic about the future of nuclear fusion, although some believe we are still a long way off achieving commercial-scale fusion. Nevertheless, the achievements seen at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the U.S. and other labs around the globe have encouraged companies to invest heavily in the sector. Read More

06.08.24- HotTwist water-based thermal system cuts heating bills by 75%
Michael Irving

Water can hold a huge amount of thermal energy, and a new system to tap into this resource is being trialed in Scotland. A startup called SeaWarm uses heat stored in bodies of water for buildings, pulling four times more heat out than electricity used.

Simply put, heat pumps are designed to take thermal energy (heat) from one medium and give it to another. Your fridge, for instance, takes heat from the air inside and pumps it outside, cooling the interior. An air conditioner works in a similar way, cooling the inside of your house (or heating it in winter). Read More

06.07.24- So-Called “Green Economy”
Doug Casey

International Man: Politicians, the media, and large corporations promote solar and wind energy as replacements for fossil fuels. Western governments are trying to pick winners and are subsidizing wind and solar energy to the tune of billions.

What’s going on here?

Doug Casey: Solar and wind energy can be useful. But generally only for special applications or remote locations where regular power is uneconomic or unavailable. Read More

06.06.24- China's Abundant Solar and Wind Resources Drive Green Hydrogen Projects
Rystad Energy

Mainland China's national plan identifies hydrogen as a key element in its low-carbon energy transition strategy. The nation is committed to using hydrogen for decarbonization, with Rystad Energy projecting the installation of approximately 2.5 gigawatts (GW) of hydrogen electrolyzer capacity by the end of the year. This capacity is expected to produce 220,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of green hydrogen, 6-kilotonnes-per-annum (ktpa) more than the rest of the world combined. Under its national plan, China is targeting green hydrogen production of 200,000 tpa by the end of 2025, but our analysis shows it will exceed that volume by the end of this year. Read More

06.05.24- Occidental Joins Berkshire In New Lithium JV
Julianne Geiger

Occidental Petroleum has entered into a joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway’s BHE Renewables in a tie-up to extract and produce lithium compounds, Occidental said in a news release on Tuesday.

The merger isn’t out of left field. Occidental’s wholly-owned subsidiary TerraLithium has patented DLE technologies that can process any lithium-containing brine “into a responsibly sourced supply of high-purity lithium,” Oxy said. As for BHE, it operates 10 geothermal power plants in California that process 50,000 gallons of lithium-rich bring every minute, producing 345 MW of “clean energy”. Read More

06.04.24- 3 Reasons There’s Something Sinister With the Big Push for Electric Vehicles
Nick Giambruno

That’s how much the additional electricity consumption per household would be if the average US home adopted electric vehicles (EVs).

Congressman Thomas Massie—an electrical engineer—revealed this information while discussing with Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, President Biden’s plan to have 50% of cars sold in the US be electric by 2030.  Read More

06.03.24- Global Investment Surges in Green Ammonia Research and Development
Felicity Bradstock

Green ammonia is gaining in popularity as an alternative renewable energy source that can be used in fertilisers, as well as potentially for industry and shipping. An increase in the production of green ammonia could help several hard-to-abate industries decarbonise operations in line with a global green transition. Several countries around the globe are now investing heavily in research and development, to explore different applications, scale up production and reduce the costs associated with green ammonia production.  Read More

06.01.24- Small modular nuclear reactors get a reality check in new report
Michael Franco

A new report has assessed the feasibility of deploying small modular nuclear reactors to meet increasing energy demands around the world. The findings don't look so good for this particular form of energy production.

Small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) are generally defined as nuclear plants that have capacity that tops out at about 300 megawatts, enough to run about 30,000 US homes. According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), which prepared the report, there are about 80 SMR concepts currently in various stages of development around the world. Read More

05.31.24- World's Largest Nuclear Plant Remains Idle Despite Energy Crisis
Tyler Durden

We don't think it'll be long before nuclear power once again has a renaissance, as we've written about extensively. But for now, the world's largest nuclear power plant, the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, is sitting idle even as the world's energy needs continue to grow. 

Bloomberg reported this week that the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, recognized by Guinness World Records for its potential 8.2 gigawatt output, stands idle despite being central to Japan's goal of deriving 50% of its energy from nuclear power by 2030. Read More

05.30.25- White House Embraces Nuclear, Makes Biggest Push In Five Decades
For Clean Atomic Power 
Tyler Durden

The Biden administration is finally taking significant steps to revitalize America's nuclear power industry, a move likely to upset radical leftist environmentalists funded by shady non-governmental organizations. The administration recognizes that nuclear power is critical to reaching 100% reliable carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 rather than relying solely on unreliable solar and wind energy sources for the power grid (after all, AI data centers need reliable power). This nuclear renaissance has been a ZH theme for several years. Read More

05.29.24- Solar Power Set to Soar
in the Middle East
Rystad Energy

Renewables capacity in the Middle East is set to soar in the coming years, with green energy sources outpacing fossil fuel usage in the power sector by 2040, according to Rystad Energy's latest research. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is expected to emerge as the predominant source, accounting for more than half of the region’s power supply by the middle of the century, up from 2% last year. By 2050, renewable energy sources, including hydro in addition to solar and wind, are expected to constitute a staggering 70% of the Middle East's power generation mix. This marks a monumental leap from the mere 5% recorded at the end of 2023, signaling a transformative shift in the region's energy landscape. Despite the coming surge of clean energy installations, the region will continue to rely heavily on natural gas in the short term, and usage will continue to grow until it peaks around 2030. Read More

05.28.24- U.S. Remains Painfully Dependent on China for Silicon and Solar Panels
Metal Miner Team

The Renewables MMI (Monthly Metals Index) continued its slight downward trend month-on-month, dropping by 3.8%. Two large components of the index, silicon and cobalt prices, continue to experience drops due to lingering renewable energy supply bottlenecks from 2023. This, along with falling grain-oriented electrical steel prices, brought the index down

Silicon for Solar Panels: A Geopolitical Imbalance? Read More

05.27.24- Thermal power cell harvests electricity from heat at record efficiency
Michael Irving

A new heat-to-energy converter has reached a record efficiency of 44% – the average steam turbine manages about 35%, for comparison. This thermophotovoltaic cell is a major step on the way to sustainable, grid-scale renewable energy storage.

With renewable energy prices dropping fast, the barrier now is their intermittency – the first point any renewable energy skeptic will throw at you is “but what happens at night or when the wind isn’t blowing?” A little thing called “batteries” can help there, and there’s no shortage of grid-scale storage systems that can save energy for (literally) rainy days. That includes scaling up classics like lithium-ion batteries, or more experimental designs like iron-air, water-in-salt, flow batteries, or a variety of gravity-based systems. Read More

05.25-24- Copper prices to quadruple on surging green demand, legendary oil trader Pierre Andurand says
Carl Surran

Hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand, one of the world's best-known commodity traders, thinks the copper price rally has much farther to run and could nearly quadruple to $40K/metric ton in the next few years, as supply struggles to keep up with surging demand. Read More

05.23.24- China’s Rapid Nuclear Expansion Is Threatening U.S. Dominance in the Sector
Haley Zaremba

China’s runaway nuclear energy expansion has competitors biting their fingernails. As nuclear energy regains traction around the world as a promising baseload power source for a decarbonized future, it’s also become more and more of a geopolitical battleground. As countries scramble to keep a strategic foothold in a rapidly changing energy landscape, becoming a nuclear energy powerhouse is suddenly important for world superpowers. And China seems to be winning this race. Read More

05.23.24- China’s Rapid Nuclear Expansion Is Threatening U.S. Dominance in the Sector
Haley Zaremba

China’s runaway nuclear energy expansion has competitors biting their fingernails. As nuclear energy regains traction around the world as a promising baseload power source for a decarbonized future, it’s also become more and more of a geopolitical battleground. As countries scramble to keep a strategic foothold in a rapidly changing energy landscape, becoming a nuclear energy powerhouse is suddenly important for world superpowers. And China seems to be winning this race. Read More

05.22.24- A Promising Solution to Boosting Ethanol Production
Brian Westenhaus

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have found that persimmon tannin, known for its antioxidant properties, improves the growth of yeast in the presence of ethanol. It’s a case of naturally derived antioxidants improving growth of yeast strain in presence of ethanol.

The findings have been published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Read More

05.21.24- What is residential energy storage and how does it work?
Enel X Global Retail

Home energy storage consists of a battery that allows you to store surplus electricity for later consumption, and when combined with solar power generated by your photovoltaic system, the batteries allow you to store energy generated during the day for use around the clock. Since battery energy storage systems are capable of optimizing the use of electricity, they ensure the most effective operation of your home solar power system. At the same time, they also guarantee continuity in case of temporary disruptions in the power supply, with extremely low response times. Home energy storage further supports energy self-consumption: the surplus energy produced during the daytime from a renewable source can be stored locally to use at a later time, thus reducing the degree of dependency on the electricity grid. Read More

05.20.24- Russia Discovers Massive Oil and Gas Reserves in British Antarctic Territory
CITY A.M.

Russia has found huge oil and gas reserves in British Antarctic territory, potentially leading to drilling in the protected region.

The reserves uncovered contain around 511bn barrels worth of oil, equating to around 10 times the North Sea’s output over the last 50 years. Read More

05.18.24- Oil, Gas Activity in U.S. Holds Steady
Julianne Geiger

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count rose by 1 to 604 this week, compared to 720 rigs this same time last year. Read More

05.16.24- 40% of US lithium needs could come from unlikely source in Pennsylvania
Michael Franco

Runoff from fracking operations is not usually considered a good thing, but a new finding reveals it could be a source of a very valuable metal

Thanks to the increase of electric vehicles and other battery-using technologies, the demand for lithium is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. One odd but potent source of the metal is a Pennsylvania wastewater stream, says a new study. Read More

05.15.24- Machine Learning Could Make Geothermal Energy More Affordable
Felicity Bradstock

As governments and private companies pump funds into research and development, aiming to achieve the innovation needed to advance renewable energy operations, we are seeing greater progress in the global green transition. With major advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital offerings in recent years, some energy experts believe that this technology can now be used to enhance energy production, boosting the potential of the world’s geothermal energy output. Read More

05.14.24- Volcanic ash: The cheapest battery for solar energy storage
Loz Blain

It's rarely great news when an area gets blanketed in volcanic ash – but University of Barcelona researchers have discovered it has a rare combination of useful properties, which make it remarkably useful as an energy storage medium.

We've written a number of times about super-cheap thermal energy storage, and a number of other times about highly efficient heat batteries operating at super-high temperatures. The cheapest of these 'brick toasters' use the most abundant of materials, and the most efficient can handle extraordinarily high temperatures using materials like liquid tin and carbon materials – but volcanic ash, as it turns out, might offer a kind of goldilocks proposition in the middle for certain applications. Read More

05.13.24- World's highest-efficiency hydrogen system scales up for mass production
Loz Blain

Hysata claims its capillary-feed electrolyzer is the world's most efficient, using some 20% less energy to produce hydrogen while also being cheaper to install and maintain

Hysata promises the world's cheapest hydrogen, thanks to a remarkable device that splits water into H2 and O2 at 95% efficiency – some 20% higher than the best conventional electrolyzers. The company has raised US$111 million to scale up production. Read More

05.11.24- Nuclear Energy: The New Geopolitical Battleground
Haley Zaremba

While the west has had a considerable amount of success imposing energy sanctions on Russia in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russian nuclear sector exports have proven harder to kick. But now, as more western nations get serious about cutting Russia out of their nuclear energy supply chains, they are pushing more and more economic and geopolitical power into the hands of China. Read More

05.10.24- China Controls 80% of World's Solar Panel Supply Chain
Tyler Durden

In 2023, solar energy accounted for three-quarters of renewable capacity additions worldwide. Most of this growth occurred in Asia, the EU, and the U.S., continuing a trend observed over the past decade.

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti illustrates the rise in installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in China, the EU, and the U.S. between 2010 and 2022, measured in gigawatts (GW). Bruegel compiled the data... Read More

05.09.24- Argentina To Mine Bitcoin With Stranded Gas
Vivek Sun

An Argentinian energy company has partnered to launch a gas flare-powered Bitcoin mining facility, using stranded gas to mitigate emissions.

Argentina's energy sector is increasingly turning to Bitcoin, this time with a state-owned facility using stranded natural gas from oil fields that would otherwise be wasted. Read More

05.08.24- Drilling into magma: Risky plan takes geothermal to supercritical extremes
Michael Franco

The Krafla Magma Testbed will attempt to harness the power of magma beneath the Earth's surface to generate more efficient geothermal energy

The Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) "has the potential to be for geoscientists what the Large Hadron Collider has been for particle physicists." So say researchers working on the project to drill straight into a magma chamber to explore massive geothermal power. Read More

05.07.24- Transparent Materials Unlock New Possibilities for Photovoltaics
Brian Westenhaus

Some materials are transparent to light of a certain frequency. When such light is shone on them, electrical currents can still be generated, contrary to previous assumptions.

Scientists from Leipzig University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have managed to prove this. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Physical Review.  Read More

05.06.24- Sea-bed 'air batteries' offer cheaper long-term energy storage
Loz Blain

BaroMar says its undersea compressed energy storage system creates an air battery cheaper than any other for long-duration storage

Israeli company BaroMar is preparing to test a clever new angle on grid-level energy storage, which it says will be the cheapest way to stabilize renewable grids over longer time scales. This innovative system lets water do the work. Read More

05.04.24- "I've Been Totally Ghosted": After Install, Solar Panels Become
Maintenance Nightmare
Tyler Durden

The green new deal and switch to "alternative' energy looks like it's going exactly as planned: costing the taxpayer trillions of dollars and generally pissing everybody off.

That was the case with a number of solar panel owners who are now finding it difficult to get their panels serviced, according to WBAL TV.

Solar panel installation is touted as offering benefits like reduced energy costs, environmental friendliness, and significant rebates. However, many homeowners have discovered a concerning issue within the industry: addressing technical problems can be exceedingly challenging -- if not outright impossible.  Read More

05.03.24- Lithium-free sodium batteries exit the lab and enter US production
Peter Reagan

Blue has become Natron Energy's signature color owing to the patented Prussian Blue electrons it uses for the fast, frequent transfer of sodium ions that underpin its claims of 10 times lithium-ion's cycling speeds and a 50,000-cycle lifespan 

Two years ago, sodium-ion battery pioneer Natron Energy was busy preparing its specially formulated sodium batteries for mass production. The company slipped a little past its 2023 kickoff plans, but it didn't fall too far behind as far as mass battery production goes. It officially commenced production of its rapid-charging, long-life lithium-free sodium batteries this week, bringing to market an intriguing new alternative in the energy storage game. Read More

05.02.24- The Stage Is Set for a Resurgence of Nuclear Power in the U.S.
Tyler Durden

The United States is about to experience a resurgence in nuclear energy. The federal government is expected to continue restarting shuttered nuclear power plants in the coming years to meet the increasing demand for clean, dependable energy essential for powering the economy of tomorrow. 

"There are a couple of nuclear power plants that we probably should, and can, turn back on," Jigar Shah, director of the US Energy Department's Loan Programs Office, told Bloomberg in an interview. Read More

05.01.24- Senate Passes Ban Of Russian Uranium Imports, Risking Market "Havoc"
And Soaring Prices
Tyler Durden

A truck carries containers with low-enriched uranium to be used as fuel for nuclear reactors, at a port in St. Petersburg, Russia >

With shares of CCJ tumbling earlier today after the company reported soggy Q1 earnings, despite its recent initiating coverage report by an enthusiastic Goldman Sachs which sees the Uranium company at the forefront of the "Next AI trade" and slapped it with a $55 price target (as we reported previously), the uranium trade suddenly found itself in need of a miracle. Read More

03.18.24- The U.S. Is Betting Big on Small Nuclear Reactors
Felicity Bradstock

The U.S. is set to accelerate the rollout of new nuclear power plants and reactors following the passing of new legislation this month. This follows a movement away from nuclear power for several decades due to the poor political and public perception of nuclear power due to several notable nuclear disasters. Now, in line with plans for a green transition, the U.S. is once again turning to nuclear power to provide abundant low-carbon energy and help decarbonize its economy.  Read More

03.16.24- U.S. Uranium Producers Reviving Abandoned Mines Amid Supply Squeeze
Alex Kimani

As the AI craze continues to hog the limelight, another asset class has been enjoying a similar boom, albeit under the radar. Over the past couple of years, uranium and shares in companies that mine it have gone on a tear amid a spike in demand and looming shortages. After being ostracized for decades as the black sheep of the alternative energy industry, nuclear energy is back in fashion as the global energy and climate crisis are forcing policymakers to return to the drawing board.Last year’s COP28 held in the United Arab Emirates made history as the first ever climate summit to back nuclear energy among low-emissions technologies. Read More

03.15.24- Elon Musk: AI will run out of electricity and transformers in 2025
Loz Blain

"I've never seen any technology advance faster than this." The chip shortage may be behind us, but AI and EVs are expanding at such a rapacious rate that the world will face supply crunches in electricity and transformers next year, says Elon Musk.

In a dial-in Q&A to close the Bosch Connected World conference, the recent Nobel Peace Prize nominee spoke about self-driving cars and humanoid robots, and hinted at what's coming next from Tesla in electric vehicles – but he clearly wanted to send the clearest possible signal to industry as well: Get going on clean energy generation, and make as many electrical transformers as you can. Read More

03.14.24- Can Nuclear Power “Decarbonize” the Oil and Gas Industry?
Felicity Bradstock

Governments and private companies worldwide have been exploring the idea of reducing emissions from oil operations by using nuclear energy. There is increasing pressure for oil and gas firms to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to support a global green transition and reduce the effects of climate change on the environment, yet this can be extremely difficult to achieve. Much of the focus has been on retroactive carbon-capture operations, using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Many environmentalists believe that the retroactive approach does not make a meaningful change and that fossil fuel companies must reduce their production rates, as well as decarbonise operations at the source. In response, companies worldwide are exploring the potential for nuclear energy to power operations to reduce the emissions created during production and processing activities. Read More

03.13.24- IEA, OPEC Divergence on Oil Demand Becomes Too Big To Ignore
Irina Slav

Ever since the International Energy Agency switched from a pure-play information provider to an advocate of the energy transition, its forecasts about oil demand have shifted to increasingly reflect this advocacy.

This has led to a growing divergence between the IEA's and OPEC's outlooks on the future of the commodity, increasing the risk of confusion among analysts and investors. The question "Who's right?" has become a legitimate one. Read More

03.12.24- Giant 'sand battery' holds
a week's heat for a whole town
Michael Irving

A new industrial-scale 'sand battery' has been announced for Finland, which packs 1 MW of power and a capacity of up to 100 MWh of thermal energy for use during those cold polar winters. The new battery will be about 10 times bigger than a pilot plantthat’s been running since 2022.

The sand battery, developed by Polar Night Energy, is a clever concept. Basically, it’s a big steel silo of sand (or a similar solid material) that’s warmed up through a heat exchanger buried in the center, using excess electricity from the grid – say, that generated during a spike from renewable sources, when it’s cheap. Read More

03.11.24- New Lithium Ion Conductor Redefines Solid-State Battery Design
Brian Westenhaus

University of Liverpool researchers have discovered a solid electrolyte material that rapidly conducts lithium ions. The discovery of new Li ion conductor unlocks a new direction for sustainable batteries. The discovery is discussed in a paper published in the journal Science. Read More

03.09.24- China’s Rare Earth
Export Ban Is Backfiring
Metal Miner Team

The Rare Earths MMI (Monthly Metals Index) experienced a pretty significant drop month-on-month, falling 24.73%. Save for cerium oxide, all components of the index either fell or moved sideways. Weaker than anticipated downstream demand ended up hitting certain metals related to rare earth magnets particularly hard, causing a plummet in the index. Read More

03.08.24- Texas Wildfires Underscore Increasing Risk for Utilities
Leonard Hyman and William Tilles

Warren Buffett fretted, in his annual report, that wildfires threatened his electric utility investments. He specifically cited the stock price carnage experienced by two US utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Hawaiian Electric, as the basis for his concern. Barely a week later,  the Smokehouse fire in the Texas Panhandle has burned over a million acres of brush and timber in the heart of cattle country. This time it is Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy and its utility subsidiary, Southwestern Public Service that is at risk. The company filed an 8-k with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on February 29 stating that a lawsuit had been filed in Texas blaming the utility's inadequate pole maintenance practices as being the cause of the wildfires. Shares of Xcel Energy have declined about 20% in response thus far. Read More

03.07.24- Cutting-Edge AI Identifies New Catalysts for Hydrogen Electrolysis
Brian Westenhaus

A National Institute for Materials Science, Japan research team has developed an AI technique capable of expediting the identification of materials with desirable characteristics. Using this technique, the team was able to discover high-performance water electrolyzer electrode materials free of platinum-group elements – substances previously thought to be indispensable in water electrolysis. These materials may be used to reduce the cost of large-scale production of green hydrogen – a next-generation energy source.  Read More

03.06.24- MIT’s Superconducting Magnets Mark Major Fusion Milestone
Brian Westenhaus

An MIT comprehensive study of high-temperature superconducting magnets confirms they meet requirements for an economic, compact fusion power plant.

A detailed report by researchers at PSFC and MIT spinout company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), published in a collection of six peer-reviewed papers in a special edition of the March issue of IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. Read More

03.05.24- Startups and Big Oil Use Fracking Tech To Unlock Geothermal Energy
Tsvetana Paraskova

Big Oil is using its deep pockets and expertise in well geology to back and partner with energy startups that are looking to unlock renewable energy from beneath the earth’s surface.

Geothermal energy, which has been around for decades, has received new momentum with the net-zero targets of many economies, including the United States. Read More

03.04.24- Solar Stocks Rally on Optimistic Guidance
Alex Kimani

The solar sector has snapped from a months-long selloff after the largest U.S. solar module manufacturer, First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR), beat Wall Street’s earnings estimate and also issued robust 2024 guidance. First Solar reported Q4 2023 GAAP EPS of $3.25, $0.13 above the Wall Street consensus while revenue of $1.16B was good for a healthy 16.0% Y/Y growth despite missing the consensus by $160M. Fourth-quarter earnings swung to a profit of $349M from a loss of $7.5M in the year-earlier quarter. First Solar finished the year with net bookings of 28.3 GW at a base ASP of 31.8 c/w and net cash balance of $1.6 billion. Read More

03.02.24- Seawater plant will capture 10 tons of CO2 and make 300 kg of H2 per day
Paul McClure

After successful pilot programs, UCLA has partnered with Singapore’s national water agency and others to build the world’s largest ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant capable of removing 3,650 metric tons (8,046,873 lb) of the greenhouse gas per year while producing 105 metric tons (231,000 lb) of carbon-negative hydrogen.

According to the World Bank, average global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020 were 4.3 metric tons (9,500 lb) per capita. With this figure in mind, researchers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have been working to trap atmospheric CO2 from the oceans in an effort to reduce it. Read More

03.01.24- Elon Musk: AI will run out of electricity and transformers in 2025
Loz Blain

"I've never seen any technology advance faster than this." The chip shortage may be behind us, but AI and EVs are expanding at such a rapacious rate that the world will face supply crunches in electricity and transformers next year, says Elon Musk.

In a dial-in Q&A to close the Bosch Connected World conference, the recent Nobel Peace Prize nominee spoke about self-driving cars and humanoid robots, and hinted at what's coming next from Tesla in electric vehicles – but he clearly wanted to send the clearest possible signal to industry as well: Get going on clean energy generation, and make as many electrical transformers as you can. Read More

02.29.24- This Might Be The Fastest Way to Double U.S. Grid Capacity
Alex Kimani

The Biden administration has set an ambitious target to generate 80% of the United States’ electricity from renewables by 2030 and 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035. However, the country’s aging infrastructure is already struggling to keep pace with the rapid growth of renewable energy, with experts saying a massive grid overhaul is required to make intermittent generation possible. Read More

02.28.24- Europe Set for 50 TWh Solar Power Boom in 2024
Rystad Energy

Despite a record-breaking 60 gigawatts direct current (GWDC) of solar PV capacity expansion in 2023, solar power generation in Europe saw a modest increase of about 20%. This year, however, will be another story. Read More

02.27.24- Could Solar Power Become America’s Leading Electricity Source?
Felicity Bradstock

Solar energy operations have been flourishing in recent years, following decades of sustained investment and recent innovations in solar panel technology. There has been a solar manufacturing boom, which is expected to continue at a faster pace. Countries worldwide are investing heavily in increasing their solar energy capacity in support of a green transition, with China and the U.S. leading the way. Read More

02.26.24- Bumpy solar cells could harvest up to 66% more energy
Michael Irving

A new solar cell design consisting of "hemispheres" on the surface, like braille dots, could improve efficiency

Solar cell efficiency may get a bump from bumps. New research suggests that building tiny domes into the surface of organic solar cells could boost their efficiency by up to two-thirds, while capturing light from a wider angle. Read More

02.24.24- EVs Are a Bust
Jeffrey Tucker

We are living through one of history’s longest and most excruciating versions of “We told you so.”

When in March 2020, the world’s governments decided to “shut down” the world’s economies and throttle any and all social activity, and deny kids schooling plus cancel worship services and holidays, there was no end to the warnings of the terrible collateral damage, even if most of them were censored. Read More

02.23.24- Trillions of tons of buried hydrogen: Clean energy gold rush begins
Loz Blain

There's enough natural hydrogen trapped underground to meet all projected demands for hundreds of years. An unpublished report by the US Geological Survey identifies it as a new primary resource, and fires the starter pistol on a new gold rush. Read More

02.22.24- Nuclear SMR welding breakthrough:
A year's work now takes a day
David Szondy

Small Modular Reactor (SMR) construction shifts into high gear, as UK company Sheffield Forgemasters welds a full-size nuclear reactor vessel in under 24 hours instead of the usual 12 months. The rollout of this game-changing tech could be massive.

Modular reactors have the potential to revolutionize the nuclear power industry by turning nuclear generating plants from major civil engineering projects to factory-produced commodities. Instead of being essentially one-offs, modular reactors have a standardized design, can be mass produced, installed in any number required to serve local needs, and don't require the incredibly expensive buildings conventional reactors depend upon.  Read More

02.21.24- World On Threshold Of Natural Hydrogen "Gold Rush," Geologists Say
Tyler Durden

Speaking this weekend at a Denver meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, geologists heralded a coming, game-changing surge in mankind's harvesting of a resource long thought impractical to collect: naturally-occurring or "geologic hydrogen." 

The scientists provided a first look at the findings of an as-yet-unpublished study performed by the US Geological Survey (USGS). The key takeaway: naturally-occurring hydrogen is far more abundant near the Earth's surface than previously known. Researchers say the planet holds upwards of 5 trillion tons of hydrogen, trapped in underground pockets. Read More

02.20.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Congress Is Broken
Douglas Andrews

The recent retirement announcements of two talented and patriotic Republican congressmen bodes ill for our nation.

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

So said Ronald Reagan on January 20, 1981, in his first inaugural address. We were reminded of these words last Wednesday when Tennessee Republican Congressman Mark Green said, “I have come to realize our fight is not here within Washington, our fight is with Washington” (emphasis added). Read More

02.19.24- 10 Reasons Why The World Can't Run Without Fossil Fuels
Gail Tverberg

• Banks, governments, and businesses would face failure due to the essential role of fossil fuels in the economy.

• Critical infrastructure like electricity, internet, and trade systems would collapse without fossil fuel support.

• Agriculture and home heating would become inefficient and inaccessible to many, leading to widespread social upheaval. Read More

02.17.24- Solar Panel Waste is Becoming
a Big Problem
Jennifer Kary

Numerous factors continue to pull at the Renewables MMI (Monthly Metals Index) as it moves through Q1. This past month, the index largely moved sideways, only exhibiting a slight upward movement of 1.66%. Meanwhile, renewable energy news indicated that metals like cobalt and silicon could remain in oversupply for some time. Moreover, expanding mining operations in DRC continue to add cobalt to the already-abundant global stockpile. With steel prices flattening, the index continues to move steadily sideways. Read More

02.16.24- Advanced geothermal drilling is 70% faster and 50% cheaper than 2022
Michael Franco

Geothermal development company Fervo Energy has announced impressive strides being made at its Cape Station facility in southern Utah. The results could lead to a quicker and more widespread uptake of this super-clean energy production process.Read More

02.15.24- Wyoming Rare Earth Discovery Could Shake Up Global Markets
Jennifer Kary

Month-on-month, rare earths prices exhibited sharp downward movement. While weaker downstream demand could potentially prove one culprit in the dropping prices, another potential factor is an increase in global rare earth production outside of China. If true, China could find itself bumped down the totem pole in terms of rare earth magnets dominance. Meanwhile, China’s economy continues to waver due to the weakened property sector, which could also potentially impact prices. For now, China continues to hold its spot as the top global rare earths producer. Read More

02.14.24- Why Are China’s Solar Panels
So Cheap?
Mike Shedlock

The US wants to break into the solar panel business. Doing so, if its possible at all, means costs of the solar panels and electricity will surge...

China’s Grip on Solar

The Wall Street Journal asks Can the U.S. Break China’s Grip on Solar? Read More

02.13.24- Historic fusion ignition in a lab experiment confirmed
David Szondy

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has published an extensive paper confirming the validity of its 2022 fusion experiment where multiple lasers focused on a sphere of deuterium and tritium to achieve the first fusion ignition in a laboratory.

Creating nuclear fusion is relatively easy to produce. All you need are the conditions that place hydrogen isotope ions under the right conditions of heat and pressure to cause them to fuse into helium. In fact, it's so easy that it was the centerpiece of a General Electric exhibit that ran for 10 hours a day at the 1964 World's Fair. Read More

02.12.24- Fusion Breakthrough Could Spark AI and Quantum Computing Boom
Tyler Durden

A recent physics breakthrough that could serve as a proof-of-concept for the development of nuclear fusion reactors capable of producing near-unlimited energy has finally passed its official peer-review successfully.  On December 5th, 2022 a team of researchers at the United States National Ignition Facilityin California recorded data indicating that it had achieved a nuclear fusion reaction that created more energy than it took to produce. The reported results were the first of their kind.Read More

02.10.24- Nuclear Energy's Role
in a Sustainable Future
Tommy Tuberville

It’s the coldest time of the year and the demand for energy is significantly higher as people try to warm their homes. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), in Alabama seven out of ten homes rely on electric heating during the winter months. Increasing demand is placing a strain on our power grid, and the Biden administration has no solution to the problem. Read More

02.09.24- The Delusions Of Davos And Dubai, Part Three: Alternatives To Wind & Solar Energy
Edward Ring

Wind and solar energy cannot lift humanity into prosperity.

But as an impressive fleet of private jets has recently migrated from the COP 28 Summit in Dubai to the World Economic Forum in Davos, carrying the hoi polloi of the world from one elitist summit to another, this delusion was the dominant sentiment. Read More

02.08.24- Is the Push for Electric Vehicles Outpacing Market Readiness?
Jennifer Kary

All components of the Automotive MMI moved sideways or down month-on-month. Moreover, January saw prices flatten out across the steel market, causing hot-dipped galvanized steel prices to trend close to support zones. Meanwhile, China’s wavering economy continues to prove a concern for global markets because the country is such a large steel demand driver. Many fear that if HDG demand were to drop too much within China, it could impact global demand overall. Therefore, HDG buyers for vehicle manufacturers should to keep a close eye on China’s economy for the foreseeable future. Read More

02.07.24- Self-extinguishing lithium battery puts out its own fires
Loz Blain

High-density lithium batteries hold vast amounts of energy – and when they drop their guts, they can do so in absolutely spectacular destructive fashion. So researchers have built fire extinguishing capabilities right into the cells themselves. Read More

02.06.24- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: Brace for Impact
James Howard Kunstler

“It’s not enough to say it’s nuts, you have to explain why it’s so nuts.” – Terrance McKenna

“Joe Biden’s” victory dance in South Carolina — down on the ol’ Democratic Party Plantation, where they grows votes — didn’t last long. By Sunday, a rogue satellite named Tucker Carlson was spotted orbiting over Russia, Russia, Russia, a country you have to say three times so that people get how serious it is. Carlson threatens to actually sit down in the same room with Putin, Putin, Putin — the antithesis of “Joe Biden,” since Putin actually operates as head-of-state — and convey Mr. P’s thoughts and opinions to the citizens of America via the rascally social media platform called “X.” Read More

02.05.24- Nanosheet Breakthrough to Boost Sustainable Hydrogen Production
Brian Westenhaus

City University of Hong Kong scientists have recently developed a novel strategy to engineer stable and efficient ultrathin nanosheet catalysts by forming Turing structures with multiple nanotwin crystals. This innovative discovery paves the way for enhanced catalyst performance for green hydrogen production. The report about the research has been published in Nature Communications. Read More

02.03.04- Global Plant Growth Accelerates Thanks to Higher Carbon Dioxide Levels, New Study Finds
Chris Morrison

The rate of global greening caused by recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide has accelerated during the last two decades, according to important new findings recently published by a group of Chinese scientists. About 55% of global land mass revealed an “accelerated rate” of vegetation growth, compared with only 7.3% showing increased decline or ‘browning’. Read More

02.02.24- Uranium Prices Soar As World Turns
to Nuclear Power
Haley Zaremba

As the need for abundant and expedient carbon-free energy intensifies and solar and wind power deployment hit some major speedbumps, more and more industry experts are calling for a resurgence of nuclear energy. While nuclear power has been out of vogue for decades now, proponents argue that its myriad values can no longer be ignored. Read More

02.01.24- Home Battery Storage Explained
Jason Svarc

Batteries for solar energy storage are evolving rapidly and becoming mainstream as the transition to renewable energy accelerates. Until recently, batteries were mainly used for off-grid solar systems. However, the giant leap forward in lithium battery technology has seen immense interest in people wanting to store excess solar energy, increase self-consumption and become more energy-independent. Additionally, with frequent extreme weather events causing grid-wide blackouts, households and businesses are looking for ways to ensure a reliable electricity supply during prolonged disruptions. Read More

02.31.24- Battery-free sensor harnesses the power of speech
Paul McClure

Researchers have developed a battery-free sensor that reacts to sound waves, such as particular spoken words, producing enough vibrational energy to power an electronic device. The novel sensor would not only reduce battery waste but could also power medical devices like cochlear implants or monitor buildings for faults. Read More

01.30.24- Navigating the Land Crunch in Renewable Energy Expansion
Haley Zaremgba

Building out solar and wind power generation capacity at the scale and pace needed to meet global climate pledges will require some serious problem-solving. There are a handful of key challenges facing renewable scaling, the three most prominent of which are aging and unsuitable power grids, arduous and lengthy permitting processes, and securing enough land to build utility-scale solar and wind farms. Read More

01.29.24- Joe Biden cuts off LNG exports in latest act of economic sabotage against Texas and Western European countries
Mike Adams

This is a truly incredible development. Joe Biden has just halted all new LNG exports from the United States and this comes after the US Navy destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines feeding energy to Europe. In addition, Qatar has just announced a halting of LNG exports due to the risk of ships being damaged in the conflict between the Yemen rebels and the US Navy in the Red Sea. Read More

01.27.24- New Law Could Put Geothermal On Equal Footing With Oil And Gas
Alex Kimani

Nearly two decades ago, President George W.Bush’s administration passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that ‘‘…provides categorical exclusions from National Environmental Policy Act reviews for permitting for drilling in public lands where drilling has occurred within the last five years,  or where an approved environmental evaluation was completed within the last five years”.Interestingly, this special privilege only applies to oil and gas fields but not to geothermal energy, despite the latter being a much cleaner energy source.Read More

01.26.24- Why Lithium Prices Crashed by 80%
Tsvetana Paraskova

Slowing growth in electric vehicle sales, including in the top EV market, China, and a market oversupply in battery metals sent lithium prices crashing by 80% in the past year, prompting lithium miners to pause and scale back expansion projects.   

China's EV sales continued to grow last year but fell short of expectations. On the other hand, raw material providers, which had rushed to mine lithium in the past two years to meet growing demand, have outproduced the current demand. As a result, lithium prices crashed last year by over 80% to the lowest level since 2020, at $13,200 per ton, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence says, as carried by the Financial Times. Read More

01.25.24- Self-powered emergency seawall could generate power during tsunamis
Loz Blain

Self-deploying sea barriers offer coastal towns some protection from the destructive forces of tsunamis – but one problem can arise when power goes out in a disaster scenario. Hence this Japanese proposal for a wall that generates its own power.

There are only around two tsunamis a year worldwide that cause death or damage, according to the US Tsunami Warning System. Larger ones capable of causing death or damage more than 1,000 km (620 miles) from their point of origin happen at a rate around two per decade. Read More

01.24.24- Floating Solar Farms: Southeast Asia's Answer to Land Scarcity
Ryan Opsal

Solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity additions are poised to be a central pillar of Southeast Asia’s energy future, with floating installations primed to play a critical role. Mirroring the broader Asian region’s dominance of the global floating PV (FPV) market, Rystad Energy research shows that Southeast Asia will account for 10% of the region’s total solar capacity by 2030, encompassing ground-mounted, rooftop and FPV installations. Countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand are well-positioned to be at the forefront of this growing trend, using FPV to increase clean energy generation capacity. Read More

01.23.24- "Power plant" generates electricity via the wind and rain on its leaves
Ben Coxworth

The artificial "power plant," with nonfunctional green leaves and beige leaves that are actually energy collectors – in real-world use, all of the leaves could be colored green

While renewable energy sources certainly are more eco-friendly than fossil fuels, most of them only produce electricity in one way, such as using sunlight … which isn't always available. A new system, that has been built into an artificial plant, uses both wind and rain. Read More

01.22.24- Canada Dominates Global Uranium Production
Tyler Durden

Uranium production in Cigar Lake, Canada is the highest-grade in the world.

Since 2014, the site has mined 105 million pounds of the radioactive metal, which is naturally occurring on Earth. 

It is the largest uranium mine on the planet. Read More

01.20.24- Protecting Coasts and Powering Homes: The Tidal Range Revolution
Brian Westenhaus

Lancaster University researchers David Vandercruyssen, Simon Baker, David Howard and George Aggidis from the School of Engineering have said that tidal range schemes are vital to protect habitats, housing and businesses from a rising sea level estimated to be over one meter within 80 years.

The research report published in Energy (an open access paper), follows on from earlier Lancaster University research into a combined tidal range electricity generation and cost model demonstrating the viability of tidal range energy in the UK. This showed how it is possible to maintain the full tidal range within existing dams or weirs. Read More

01.19.24- Space-Based Solar Farms Could Power the Planet from Orbit
Haley Zaremba

The variability of renewable energy is one of the key hurdles standing between us and a net-zero future. Unlike baseload fossil fuels, which can be easily manipulated to produce enough supply to meet demand at any given time, renewable energy sources like solar and wind power depend on uncontrollable elements like the weather and the time of day. Finding a way to better match renewable energy supply with demand will therefore be critical to meeting global decarbonization goals. Read More

01.18.24- New Methane Emission Laws Could Transform U.S. Energy Sector
Felicity Bradstock

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could introduce new emissions fees for the production of methane in oil and gas projects across the country if approved. This month, the EPA proposed a new rule to encourage clean energy deployment and decarbonisation, as well as to reduce methane emissions, aimed at some of the country’s biggest emitters. Some companies in the oil and gas industry continue to emit higher levels of greenhouse gases than permitted by Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). If approved, this rule would charge companies that produce excess emissions. The EPA hopes that the rule will encourage companies to invest in carbon capture and storage technologies, as well as follow best practices to support decarbonisation and the curbing of methane emissions before it comes into place. Read More

How stupid is BC’s energy policy? We could be the Saudi Arabia of electricity for the price of one $16-billion Site C dam
Richard Mills

In British Columbia, the cost of building a Site C, a massive hydroelectric dam on the Peace River, is now estimated at CAD$16 billion, following numerous cost overruns.

BC taxpayers will also cough up $5.3 billion worth of tax breaks for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and pipeline called LNG Canada — three more LNG projects are proposed, all connected by pipelines, to ship natural gas fracked from BC gas fields to customers in Asia. Read More

01.16.24- "Dirt-powered fuel cell" draws near-limitless energy from soil
Loz Blain

A Northwestern University team has demonstrated a remarkable new way to generate electricity, with a paperback-sized device that nestles in soil and harvests power created as microbes break down dirt – for as long as there's carbon in the soil. 

Microbial fuel cells, as they're called, have been around for more than 100 years. They work a little like a battery, with an anode, cathode and electrolyte – but rather than drawing electricity from chemical sources, they work with bacteria that naturally donate electrons to nearby conductors as they chow down on soil. Read More

01.15.24- Copper's Critical Role
in Green Energy Transition
Felicity Bradstock

In the Autumn of 2023, the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) forecast that the copper market was likely to experience a significant surplus of the metal in 2024 after several companies worldwide ramped up their operations in response to the growing global demand. However, by the end of the year, updated forecasts suggested that copper prices would skyrocket in 2024, as the world faces deficits of the critical metal driven by more ambitious climate pledges from various countries around the globe. So, what can we expect for copper in the coming year? Read More

01.13.24- Geopolitical Risks Push Oil Prices Higher
Michael Kern

Oil prices are being pushed higher by renewed geopolitical risk after the UK and the U.S. launched an attack on Houthi positions in Yemen. Brent temporarily climbed above $80 before falling back slightly. Read More

01.12.24- Uranium's "Third Bull Market"
Set to Shine in 2024
Tyler Durden

So far this week, spot prices for yellowcake - uranium concentrate used in nuclear power generation - reached a new 16-year high, climbing to $92.45 per pound. Reflecting on our December 2020 note to readers in "Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze," yellowcake prices have risen 217%. 

The uranium market is only getting hotter, and continued tightness could push prices over $100, analysts from Bank of America and Berenberg Bank wrote in two separate notes. Read More

01.11.24- Scientists Present New Solid State Lithium Battery That Lasts 6000 Cycles
Brian Westenhaus

Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences researchers have developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged and discharged at least 6,000 times. That’s more than any other pouch battery cell – and can be recharged in a matter of minutes. The cycle count equals more than 16 years of daily charge /discharge cycles. Read More

01.10.24- This Is What They Don’t Want You to Know About the Climate Agenda
Dr Willie Soon

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01.09.24- Big Oil’s Ambitious Decarbonization Strategies Have Gone Bust
Alex Kimani

Back in February 2020,British oil and gas multinational BP Inc. (NYSE:BP) announced an ambitious goal to become net-zero by 2050 through, among other things, aggressively cutting oil and gas production and also undertaking one of the industry’s most expansive renewable electricity build-outs. 

In April of the same year, deep in the throes of the oil price crash, BP’s Dutch peer Shell Plc (NYSE:SHEL) warned that global oil demand had been permanently destroyed and effected its biggest dividend cut since the Second World War. Read More

01.08.24- Germany Leads the Way in Solar Energy Across Europe
Tyler Durden

According to assessments by the International Renewable Energy Agency in 2022, Germany had an installed photovoltaic capacity of around 67 gigawatts, making it the European country with the greatest solar energy potential.

As Statista's Anna Fleck details below, the capacity of the Federal Republic in that year was more than twice as high as Italy's, which ranked second with 25 gigawatts.  Read More

01.06.24- Home Battery Storage Explained
Clean Energy Reviews

Batteries for solar energy storage are evolving rapidly and becoming mainstream as the transition to renewable energy accelerates. Until recently, batteries were mainly used for off-grid solar systems. However, the giant leap forward in lithium battery technology has seen immense interest in people wanting to store excess solar energy, increase self-consumption and become more energy-independent. Additionally, with frequent extreme weather events causing grid-wide blackouts, households and businesses are looking for ways to ensure a reliable electricity supply during prolonged disruptions. Read More

01.05.24- Chinese Carmakers Launch Sodium-Ion Battery-Powered EVs
Tom Kool

Two Chinese state-owned carmakers have launched electric vehicles (EVs) powered by sodium-ion batteries, considered an alternative to the conventional  lithium-ion batteries used in most EVs, Caixin Global reports. 

Yiwei, a new EV subsidiary of JAC Group and backed by Volkswagen, debuted the first sodium-ion battery-powered electric car on Wednesday. 

Back in 2021, Volkswagen invested 1 billion euros in JAC Group for a 50% stake with the giant German automaker before full control of management of the EV joint venture with a 75% stake. Read More

01.04.24- Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
Irina Slav

In late 2021, President Biden ordered the release of 50 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down the price of gasoline. Then, in the spring of the next year, he ordered the release of another 130 million barrels.

Prices at the pump fell between $0.17 and $0.42 per gallon. With the massive withdrawals and previously scheduled mandatory sales, the SPR shed 270 million barrels and fell to the lowest in 40 years.Read More

01.03.24- 2023 May Have Been the U.S. Oil Industry’s Best Year Yet
Irina Slav

Last year, U.S. crude oil production broke another record. This in itself is not exactly news. The shale oil industry has been breaking records for breakfast for years. But that was before the pandemic.

After the pandemic, many pronounced the shale boom dead. Of course, those same people found out in 2023 that this wasn’t strictly true. Despite a continued focus on capital discipline and the flurry of cash they returned to shareholders, U.S. drillers managed to boost their overall output to over 13.2 million barrels daily in September. And they did it with fewer rigs, at that. And with zero—if not negative—support from the federal government. Read More

01.02.24- We’re on the Verge of a Reset of Expectations in the Oil Sector
David Messler

Despite a late Santa rally in the oilpatch this week, it's probably time to recognize that we are on the verge of a reset of expectations for the oil sector in the developing, likely 2024 price environment for WTI and Brent. We are about one inventory build away from a trip back into the $60's for WTI and the low $70's for Brent. Do we stay there for long? I doubt it, and will discuss why in this article, but it could happen. In this article I will discuss what I see as the most likely scenario for 2024. Read More

01.01.24- Next-Gen Solar Cells: Smaller, Cheaper, More Efficient
Brian Westenhaus

University of Ottawa engineers, together with national and international partners, have achieved a world first by manufacturing the first back-contact micrometric photovoltaic cells.

The cells, with a size twice the thickness of a strand of hair, have significant advantages over conventional solar technologies, reducing electrode-induced shadowing by 95% and potentially lowering energy production costs by up to three times. Read More