Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 20h

The California hydrogen hub is dead! Long live the California hydrogen hub!

New story up on @canarymedia.com www.canarymedia.com/articles/hyd...

2 7

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 20h

whether they know you or not it's just bad form and lacks transparency to readers about how something became news

1 6

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 20h

Pretty slimy how many national outlets ripped off @jael.bsky.social's big scoop on the Nevada solar megaproject's demise without crediting her or @heatmap.news.

1 17 64

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

lisa martine jenkins @lisamartinejenkins.bsky.social · 21h

I spent time this week parsing the second list of (potential) DOE award cancellations that has been circulating DC, and it occurred to me that others would probably appreciate a clean, searchable dataset.

So I made one, for @latitudemedia.bsky.social :

🔌💡 www.latitudemedia.com/news/which-a...

Chart of the number of awards DOE is poised to potentially cancel (647), and the funds awarded (nearly $24 billion), broken down by office

1 4 5

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 21h

the republican governor of utah spencer cox cites my story about esmeralda 7’s apparent cancelation to criticize the trump administration:

“this is how we lose the AI/energy arms race with china”

Spencer Cox: This is how we lose the AI/energy arms race with China. Our country needs an all-of-the-above approach to energy (like Utah). We should be all in on nuclear/natural gas/geothermal and keeping our coal plants open for as long as possible. However, there are innovation/permitting/supply chain issues slowing those down. While intermittent sources have been overvalued in the past (and offshore wind is a disaster and should be discontinued), the incredible leaps in battery technology completely change the value proposition of solar in the right places. Solar with batteries can now be close to baseload power and we should keep these projects rolling until we get the gas/nuclear/geothermal plants we need.

14 27 160

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 23h

Losing the biggest solar project, but gaining the biggest offshore wind farm wasn’t in my Trump 2.0 bingo cards six months ago but here we are

Clare Fieseler, PhD @fieseler.bsky.social · 1d

In the Trump era, how did Virginia pull off building America's largest offshore wind farm without a hiccup?

Republicans, the military, data centers, a mind-blowing bargain, and a "starter" wind farm made it happen...🧵

www.canarymedia.com/articles/off...

America’s biggest offshore wind farm will be online in six months

Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW project off Virginia’s coast is progressing fast. The utility has a new, more definitive target to plug into the grid: March 2026.

www.canarymedia.com

3 14

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 23h

Yep

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 1d

The biggest offshore wind farm is coming online in six month and it’s like 2.6 gigawatts if I remember correctly

1 1

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 1d

Pope is a rockstar

2 11 58

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 1d

Crazy that the full capacity of this megaproject is a gigawatt bigger than the largest U.S. nuclear plant (Vogtle) and just a gigawatt smaller than the most powerful U.S. electrical station overall (the Grand Coulee Dam).

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 1d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

3 11 31

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

“.. Foreclosure rates have surged across the country and are up almost 20% from this time last year.”

www.realtor.com/news/trends/...

76 570 1.2K

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 1d

While the U.S. is cutting back on its green fuel production, China just powered on the world's biggest biomass gasification reactor with a capacity to produce 250,000 tons of green methanol per year.

chinahydrogen.substack.com/p/world-larg...

8 35

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 1d

China's megaprojects dazzle the world but its distributed energy generation is shattering records and teeing up a fundamental contradiction: the more its electricity production decentralizes, the more the control of its grid must be centralized.

www.asiasentinel.com/p/china-dist...

1 5

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

Heatmap News @heatmap.news · 2d

Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would would have made permitting for geothermal easier in California, much to the chagrin of developers.

Find more on that story, plus layoffs at Generate and Orsted, in this morning's AM newsletter by @alexckaufman.bsky.social

heatmap.news/am/californi...

Gavin Newsom Vetoes Landmark Geothermal Bill

On billions for clean energy, Orsted layoffs, and public housing heat pumps

heatmap.news

5 10

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

Christian Breyer @christianonre.bsky.social · 4d

Electric cars fare worse in Finnish car inspections – up to half of Tesla's flunk - yle.fi/a/74-20186654 - considerable quality issues of Tesla detected, other EV manufacturers perform well

Electric cars fare worse in Finnish car inspections – up to half of Teslas flunk

EVs are gaining popularity in Finland – but perform significantly worse in inspections than petrol, diesel or hybrid cars of the same age. Teslas have by far the highest test failure rate.

yle.fi

4 22 44

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

Heatmap News @heatmap.news · 3d

Coal demand may be rising globally, but Trump's promised U.S. coal renaissance hit some major bumps this week — including fallout from a catastrophic failure and a lawsuit against the president's plan to keep a Michigan plant alive.

Read about it from @alexckaufman.bsky.social in this morning's AM:

Energy Department Poised to Kill DAC Hubs

On Trump’s coal woes, NEPA reform, and Japan’s nuclear plans

heatmap.news

8 13

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 3d

Obscene.

Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 3d

The Post laid off seemingly the remaining of their liberal-leaning staff members on Opinion last Thursday, when some of them were observing Yom Kippur.

from @oliverdarcy.bsky.social for Status
status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-cuts-adam-oneal

2

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 4d

Very cool to have a byline in the @newhampshirebulletin.com!

New Hampshire Bulletin @newhampshirebulletin.com · 4d

"As has been happening for years, the U.S. could continue to lose gigawatts of power as hydroelectric facilities shut down rather than absorb the high costs of relicensing — especially with cheaper competition from gas, wind, and solar." From @alexckaufman.bsky.social via @canarymedia.com

US hydropower is at a make-or-break moment • New Hampshire Bulletin

For nearly a century, the Kelley’s Falls Dam in Manchester, New Hampshire, generated as much as 2,400 megawatt-hours of electricity per year.

newhampshirebulletin.com

2 6

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

Heatmap News @heatmap.news · 4d

In this morning's Heatmap AM:

🔌 Big new renewables reports from @ember-energy.org and the IEA
⛏️ A new mining road in Alaska
🚗 And a possible, cheaper new Tesla

Here's @alexckaufman.bsky.social on all those stories and more:

Solar and Wind Overtake Coal for the First Time

On Trump’s metal nationalization spree, Tesla’s big pitch, and fusion’s challenges

heatmap.news

1 4 7

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 4d

Big new feature in @technologyreview.com:

In August, I became the first journalist to visit what could be the first U.S. plant using a much greener, less water intensive process to produce lithium. It's on track to double U.S. lithium production overnight.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/07/1...

4 16

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 4d

New feature up on @latitudemedia.bsky.social on how Poland's polarized politics are stymying potential for geothermal at a moment when the country needs all the clean, domestic power it can get.

www.latitudemedia.com/news/in-coal...

In coal-addicted Poland, partisan politics throttle geothermal’s growth

Could the fast-growing market for American LNG be a market for startups like Zanskar?

www.latitudemedia.com

3 15

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 5d

My elder sister is the only person in my family who permanently left New York to build her life in Boston two decades ago, and I was really missing her this morning. If only we had high-speed rail!

1 6

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

Heatmap News @heatmap.news · 5d

“However far the pendulum swings one way, it’s likely that it’s going to swing just as far the other way.” - Colette Hirstius, president of Shell USA, on Trump's stop-work orders on offshore wind

Find more in this morning's Heatmap AM, by @alexckaufman.bsky.social

Big Oil Balks at Trump’s Offshore Wind Assault

On stronger uranium, Elon Musk’s big gamble, and Japan’s offshore headwinds

heatmap.news

3 8

Reposted by Alexander C. Kaufman

Lyle Lewis @race2extinct.bsky.social · 6d

Shading ploughed-out sand is not “healing deserts.” True deserts and native grasslands are living systems, not empty wastelands. Solar belongs on rooftops, brownfields & already-degraded sites.
sustainabilitymag.com/articles/ren...

Renewables: Can Solar Energy Stop Desertification?

Research from China’s Qinghai province reveals solar farms in desert regions may revitalise fragile ecosystems while generating renewable energy

sustainabilitymag.com

1 11 37

Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 6d

Obviously Norway is blessed with vast hydro resources and LCOE is a flawed and insufficient metric for measuring the value of different energy sources but interesting to see how a LLWR compares to offshore wind or SMRs. Would be nice to see what a full system cost estimate looks like for these.

1 3 4