Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1h

We see this communication pattern at play around the time of the rise of the tea party movement. Just when the collective conversation was focused in on power injustice and climate, all the sudden we were talking about the national debt and bickering about science.

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 2h

All I want in life is to persuade everyone, when encountering politics & culture, to ask, "why are we talking about this?" I mean that very literally: anything you encounter on your screens reflects a choice. Someone covered that, talked about that, rather than the many other things out there. Why?

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Reposted by Robert Ferry

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 6h

China ≠ just coal plants and solar exports. The deeper shift: electrifying everything it can. Strategic, because China relies on imported fossil fuels. Coal is still king in the power mix—for now. But the balance is changing year by year.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2h

The next step in the feedback loop is when poll-obsessed pundits put their fingers in the air and declare that now Democrats need run to the right on the issue. It would be nice if voters cared about Medicare for All but it’s just “reality” that the American people are talking about this instead.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2h

Rates are actually more like $0.15 to $0.35 per kWh in the U.S. and are rising fast. This rate that Base Power is offering is only possible because the company is also earning money through its orchestration of the batteries and acting as a utility power generator on the supply side.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 10h

They might not be able to deliver while achieving profitability?

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 11h

Why it could be important: If this catches on (it’s a pretty sweet deal), it would deploy a massive amount of dispatchable energy storage on the grid very quickly, increasing the mix of variable renewables we can deploy and minimizing their curtailment.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 11h

I wish Base Power a lot of luck!

They act as your utility (TX so far), install a 24 - 48 kWh home battery for you that keeps you running during a grid outage, and guarantee $0.08/kWh for the next 3 years on your electric bill.

Meanwhile they are managing all the batteries to provide grid services.

Base Power Battery & Energy Plans and Pricing | Base Power

Get a clear, no-surprises energy plan with Base Power. Guaranteed below-market electricity rates, no hidden fees—plus built-in home backup for ultimate reliability.

www.basepowercompany.com

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 20h

Our economy (by intentional design) externalizes the real costs paid by society for exceeding all nine planetary system boundaries as a kind of corporate welfare. At some point the scheme will collapse because biophysical reality isn’t influenced by profits.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

If you read one thing today it should be this. Then send it to your congressmember, senators, and to the White House.

Opinion | Why You Should Blame Trump When Your Energy Bills Go Up

www.nytimes.com

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

Good wine probably. But nothing as good as you’ll find in Madrid. Have a great time!!!

Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

I like to post positive, inspiring stories about cleantech and how people are deploying solutions to climate because desire for a better world can be a stronger political motivator than fear of apocalypse.

But it’s important to remind ourselves of the stakes and how limited is our time for action.

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

A new Nature study on the four horsemen of the climate-tipping-points apocalypse: "the Greenland Ice Sheet, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the South American monsoon system and the Amazon rainforest."

Destabilization of Earth system tipping elements - Nature Geoscience

A review of observation-based evidence suggests that four interconnected Earth system tipping elements have moved towards their critical thresholds, highlighting the need for better monitoring and increased mitigation efforts.

www.nature.com

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

Ethanol subsidies are counterproductive because they are an environmentally damaging land use when you could make the same energy from solar. They do improve local air quality but the vast distorting externalized costs to the environment and food system are unnecessary to accomplish the same result.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

This is the trend we must accelerate. If we do this every year with the gap ever widening (the fossil number falling), we will successfully transition our global energy system. Let's pick up the pace and save our own asses.

Sean Casten @seancasten.bsky.social · 2d

This is remarkable. The world added more solar and wind capacity in 2024 than we added demand. 100% of demand growth PLUS 9% to retire dirtier sources. Cheap energy keeps winning. ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

Then paying a premium would also make sense.

Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 1d

If transit vans of mining hardware could help decarbonize the transportation sector. I think it’s a good idea to overbuild the clean electricity grid with DER and centralized redundancies, HVDC to everywhere, and massive storage capacity. Current market design is a barrier to that future of course.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

Yes. I’d still subsidize L3 for a target that’s about double that. Right now it is 3x plus.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

In a growth model economy the guiding principle of policy should be to encourage domestic private spending which requires higher wages. Curious how the U.S. takes the opposite approach through tariffs and prioritizing shareholder profits.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

L3 chargers are also time of use and if they are always more per Kw than residential, it keeps residential as the lowest price option while still keeping L3 preferable to gas? Knowing the cost of a road trip is less for EV is critically important to the transition.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

I’m coming at this from the perspective of accelerating the decline of ICE vehicles in the fleet. Somehow the design of our clean ⚡️ system needs to make it significantly cheaper to own an EV. Maybe the answer is more DER and storage. We could also tax gasoline properly, but we know how that goes.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

A good set of energy policies would IMO result in off-peak home charging as the least expensive option by far (still incentivizing DR), with fast charging slightly cheaper than gasoline, and on-peak home charging about on par or even slightly higher than gasoline.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

If we ever come back to our senses and elect a thoughtful Congress we should subsidize fast charging so that it gets closer to home charging in cost per mile.

For now, home charging with an EV is the best option. We’ll see how that goes with data centers + slow interconnections driving rates up.

How Much It Costs to Drive an E.V. and a Gas Car in Every State

www.nytimes.com

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

Sad to see Sammy Roth leaving the LA Times. He was the best thing they had going there. I can’t wait to see what his next project will bring.
In the meantime here’s his latest on LA quitting coal for good and setting an example for using green H2 as long duration energy storage.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

GOTV !!!

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

I also hope you will continue to interview people. I really enjoyed your moderated debate style Boiling Point episodes on the contentious issues. You are such a kind and generous moderator.

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Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 2d

I’m not sure it will keep a ton of CO2 in the ground though. I think oil companies will continue to extract the same amount from NM and other reservoirs regardless. I assume it just will just pile on while wasting clean GWhs and allowing even more extraction from easy access depleted wells.

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