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The first major offshore wind farm in the US just started powering homes in New York.

This is BIG in more ways than one. With blades longer than the Statue of Liberty is tall, these are 12 massive next-generation turbines towering over the Atlantic. Together they should be able to generate 130 megawatts of clean energy for some 70,000 homes. For comparison, the US only had the capacity to generate 42 megawatts from offshore wind until now. More big offshore projects are on the way (and just a reminder, there’s no evidence to show they’re harming whales).


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Is anyone surprised Shell is walking back its commitments to pollute less?

We are talking about the the same industry profiting by creating the climate crisis. Shell previously promised to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which is impossible unless the company pivots away from dirty energy. Shell’s blaming consumers for its own lack of follow through, saying “investment in oil and gas will be needed” to meet demand.


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Fossil fuel companies are using AI to drill faster.

They’ve used AI for years to find new oil and gas reserves. Now, more advanced AI is helping them drill oil wells more efficiently. Within a few years, a significant chunk of wells could be drilled autonomously, Bloomberg reports. That brings costs down and helps dirty energy compete with renewables like solar and wind, which have become cheaper alternatives to fossil fuel power plants that wreck air quality and cause climate change.


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AI, Bitcoin mining, and clean tech manufacturing could push US power grids to the brink.

Electricity shortages could become a big problem over the next several years unless the US races to get more sources of clean energy online, The Washington Post reports. Data centers for AI and crypto mining are huge energy vampires. And the resurgence of domestic manufacturing for everything from semiconductors to EV batteries and solar panels are also expected to put extra strain on aging power grids.


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Don’t believe all the hype about AI helping fight climate change, a new report warns.

Because of all the energy it consumes, AI might actually make things worse by driving up greenhouse gas emissions. There’s also the risk of AI being weaponized to spread climate disinformation. You don’t have to take my word for it; this report from the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition brings together current research on the issue.


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The Verge
The methane-tracking satellite Jeff Bezos essentially paid for just launched.

But it’s not on one of his rockets. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is carrying MethaneSat, a satellite made to measure the potent greenhouse gas methane. The Bezos Earth Fund gave the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) $100 million to build and launch the satellite. Google is also partnering with EDF to create a global map of methane pollution coming from oil and gas infrastructure.


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Lawsuits blame an electric utility in Texas for the state’s largest wildfire.

The devastating Smokehouse Creek fire has already burned more than a million acres, killing at least two people, and destroying hundreds of structures. Officials are still investigating the cause of blaze. But at least one homeowner and one rancher have filed suits against utility Xcel Energy. A pole owned by Excel subsidiary Southwestern Public Service Company reportedly fell within the area where the blaze might have started.


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The US Department of Energy has to start over if it wants to survey Bitcoin miners’ electricity use.

The DOE reached a settlement with crypto miners who sued to block data collection. The agency tried to make companies disclose their energy use through an emergency data request. But a federal judge placed a temporary restraining order on it in February, saying the situation probably didn’t warrant emergency authorization. On Friday, the DOE agreed to destroy information it’s already collected. It can start over without emergency authorization, but would have to propose a new survey and give the public 60 days to comment.


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The EPA is delaying final rules on power plant pollution.

Measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions from gas-fired power plants operating in the US probably won’t be finalized until November — after presidential elections. It’s a risky gamble for environmental groups pushing the Biden administration to take more time to tighten proposed regulations. If Donald Trump is elected, policies to tackle climate change could just go out the window like they did during his last stint in office.


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The Verge
Elizabeth Warren is still pushing crypto mines to divulge their electricity use.

Warren has been urging federal agencies to scrutinize energy-hungry Bitcoin mines. But crypto groups secured a temporary pause on the Department of Energy’s survey of their electricity consumption.

“The Department is asking cryptominers to report basic information about their energy usage—like other industries have done for decades—so the public and lawmakers better understand how cryptomining’s electricity use and carbon emissions affect the power grid and environment,” Warren said in a statement to The Verge after the news came out.


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Clean energy projects are coming to tribal and rural communities in the US.

The Department of Energy announced $366 million for 17 clean energy projects across 30 Tribal Nations and 20 states. All of them are connected to “disadvantaged communities that are disproportionally overburdened by pollution and historically underserved.” That includes off-grid solar and battery storage for the Hopi and Navajo Nations, aiming to give 300 rural homes electricity for the first time. More than one-fifth of Navajo homes and one third of Hopi homes lacks electricity, according to the DOE.


Is the US on track to meet its climate goals?

Not yet, but there have been some gains since Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act into law — two huge investments in clean energy and transportation. EV sales and clean energy additions to the power grid hit record highs last year, according to an analysis by researchers from Princeton, MIT, and Rhodium Group. But progress is expected to slow down unless the US can get rid of red tape that’s getting in the way.


How much electricity does AI consume?

It’s not easy to calculate the watts and joules that go into a single Balenciaga pope. But we’re not completely in the dark about the true energy cost of AI.

Storm leaves over 800,000 Californians without power.

Severe wind and rain left more than 870,000 customers without power on Sunday evening according to data compiled by poweroutage.us, and remains at over 610,000 as Monday dawns.

It’s no wonder people who can afford them are increasingly purchasing battery-based home backup solutions from TeslaEcoFlowAnker, and others, or picking up and moving to energy independent communities. The aging electrical grid simply can’t keep up with the rise in extreme weather.


Over 610,000 people still without power.
Over 610,000 people still without power.
Image: poweroutage.us
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For five hours on Sunday, a third of Texas was powered by the sun.

Solar power feeding into the Texas energy grid set two records on January 28th. Production hit 15,222 MW at around 10am, and at 3:10pm, solar power met 36.1 percent of electricity demand, a new peak. Solar met around a third of overall demand every hour from 11am to 4pm.

This doesn’t even count rooftop solar. The sun, y’all!


Offshore wind makes a comeback in New Jersey.

The industry has been navigating choppy waters lately with soaring costs forcing companies to cancel plans to develop offshore wind farms along the east coast of the US. In a big blow to the state’s clean energy plans, Ørsted nixed two major projects off the coast of New Jersey last October. Bouncing back, New Jersey just inked new deals with Leading Light Wind and Attentive Energy Two to develop a couple new offshore wind projects.


Sam Altman says the future of AI depends on breakthroughs in clean energy.

The OpenAI CEO said during an event in Davos this week that “We still don’t appreciate the energy needs of this technology,” which is expected to consume an enormous amount of electricity as it matures. “There’s no way to get there without a breakthrough. We need [nuclear] fusion or we need like radically cheaper solar plus storage or something at massive scale,” Altman said.

Altman and Microsoft are both backers of the startup Helion, which is trying to develop a nuclear fusion generator — considered the Holy Grail of clean energy. But after more than 70 years of research punctuated with limited breakthroughs, many experts expect that the world will be chasing that Holy Grail for decades longer. Luckily, solar energy is already the cheapest source of electricity in history — the world just needs better batteries to store it.


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America’s next uranium mining rush is here — and it’s starting at the Grand Canyon.

After years of opposition from the Havasupai Tribe and environmental advocates, a contested mine near the Grand Canyon started producing uranium in December. It’s one of three mines in Arizona and Utah that started operations thanks to rising uranium prices and increased interest in nuclear energy as a carbon-free alternative to fossil fuels, despite uranium’s legacy of pollution and contaminated water. Two more mines in Colorado and Wyoming could also start producing uranium over the next year.


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More details on Jackery’s rooftop tent and solar generator.

Jackery tells the The Bearded Tesla Guy  that the center solar panel of that expandable 1000W array will be capable of 400W when the rooftop tent ships in Q4. It will feature a removable power station (with optional battery expansion) integrated into the tent that’s “sleekly designed” to maximize interior sleeping space. There’s also an optional AC inverter to quickly charge those batteries off the vehicle’s alternator.