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Energy Rant

This is a satirical and at times humorous but critical commentary on energy efficiency issues of the day.

“Keep up the good work! I like the variety of topics; never boring. It's like a Box of Energy Chocolates.... you never know what you're gonna get!”

Mike MernickSenior Vice President, ICF
Jeff Ihnen
By In Energy Rant

Are You Serious About the Climate Apocalypse?

Washington Post headline last week: “World is on brink of catastrophic warming, U.N. climate change report says.” Wolf! Wolf! People…
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Feb 18
Love120

Boring DERs, Saving Billions with Geothermal Heat Pumps

By Energy Rant No Comments
Over the many years I have taught electrification basics for the Wisconsin Public Utilities Institute’s (WPUI) Energy Utilities Basics course, I dive deeply into heat pumps and their impact on the grid. I explain the messy chart in Figure 1 like a palm reader, except I have engineering behind my assertions rather than mystical conjectures. Cold-Climate, Air-Source Heat Pump Performance As outdoor temperatures fall below zero Fahrenheit, as they do from the panhandle of Idaho and Wyoming across the country to Maine and Massachusetts, cold-climate air source heat pump (CCHP) performance and capacity dive while heating loads increase. The chart…
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Feb 11
Love119

Trump’s Energy Emergency – A Mystic’s Perspective

By Energy Rant No Comments
Last week, I described elements of Trump's Unleashing American Energy executive order. It: Expands oil and gas exploration on federal lands Promotes mining and recovery of rare and exotic earth minerals for manufacturing leadership Targets federal spending on electric car infrastructure and EV mandates Something about lightbulb and appliance standards that is OBE (overtaken by events) Pauses spending for portions of the Investment Reduction Act (IRA) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) I surmised that this EO only affects spending in the short term. Tax deductions and credits cannot be signed away with the President's Sharpie Armada without Congressional…
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Feb 04
Love118

Ins and Outs of Trump’s American Energy Executive Order

By Energy Rant No Comments
President Trump's top priorities include closing the border and restoring "energy dominance." Readers know he ran on "drill baby, drill" and ending wind generation and electric vehicle subsidies, but what are some of the finer points? His day-one "Unleashing American Energy" executive order (EO) provides some insights. Although it would be a massive undertaking to drill down on all of it, I will describe some iceberg tips that I see. The Hit List I see four targets of the EO and one dragnet as follows. Access to Federal Lands The EO encourages "energy exploration and production on Federal lands and…
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Jan 27
Love118

Polar Vortex Reality Check

By Energy Rant No Comments
I was triggered a couple of weeks ago by this article in The Wall Street Journal: 2024 Was the Hottest Year. Here Are Climate Trends to Watch in 2025. I’m not debating that 2024 was the hottest year on record. My micro observation is that our winters in the Midwest have become cream puffs compared to 40-50 years ago. Warning, old man—talk straight ahead. A Dismal Winter Indeed, last winter was the mildest I can recall. We had winter for about 15 days, starting with significant snow, followed by frigid temperatures that shattered tough plastics, like my dog Sunny’s Chuck-It…
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Jan 21
Love117

Lithium-Ion Lessons

By Energy Rant No Comments
I bet you didn’t see or hear on your favorite news platform, whether it’s NPR, MSNBC, CNN, FNC, Axios, Facebook 🙄, the big three networks, or some dying newspaper platforms, that one of the largest lithium-ion electricity storage plants in the world caught fire and burned uncontrollably at Vistra’s Moss Landing, California site. I have often visited Moss Landing Harbor, where honking, slobbering, rude, and amusing sea lions took over the public fishing pier (Figure 1). This local natural attraction features a profuse abundance of wildlife species and activity. It is a kayaking destination. The fiery Vistra plant, spewing a…
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Jan 13
Love116

Rumblings of Utility Reregulation

By Energy Rant No Comments
Eight and a half years ago in Betting with Deregulation – A Risky Proposition, I wrote the following in this blog, “Companies who want deregulation of anything must be prepared for eventual pain – just ask the major airlines and a bunch of telecom companies, many of which no longer exist. There will be pluses and minuses for producers and customers alike. For example, the industry is now flooding into natural gas and renewables because they’re cheap. The market is de-diversifying, and at some point, probably within a decade, that will not end well for consumers. Deregulated markets don’t care…
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Jan 07
Love115

2025 In One Word: Dowzh

By Energy Rant No Comments
These are quite the times in which we live, energy and otherwise. It makes predictions tricky, especially when business titans Vivek Ramaswami and Elon Musk hone their meat axes for the federal government. The administrative branch doesn’t pass budgets and write tax law, but… there is a lot it can do, and I suspect it will chop and cleave while stretching up against legal precedents. Impoundment Will See Court Testing For instance, the word impoundment and its connected legal implications will become familiar as cable news networks invite guest attorneys to haggle over impoundment’s Constitutionality. Impoundment refers to the administrative…
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Dec 30
Love114

Seven Chicken Bones Scorecard

By Energy Rant No Comments
Here is my annual scorecard against energy predictions I made 51 weeks ago in Seven Chicken Bones for 2024. Chicken Bone One There would be at least five clean energy curtailments of at least $100 million apiece in 2024. On December 2, 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors is backing out of a nearly completed battery plant in Lansing, MI, and offloading its stake to Korea's LG Energy Solution. The facility covers 30 football fields worth $2.6 billion, or $1,500 per square foot. On April 22, 2024, Utility Dive reported the New York State Energy Research and…
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Dec 17
Love113

A Better Value of Economic Dispatch

By Energy Rant No Comments
Last week and many other times, I've written about soaring electricity loads and prices climbing even faster. The reality is prices are rising much quicker than load. For example, grid loads in Oregon have increased at a compounded rate of a modest 2%, while prices have risen by a compounded rate of nearly 9% in the same period. Why is that? Wholesale Electricity Supply Curve A year ago, I demonstrated using a typical generation supply stack from PJM, reposted in Figure 1. Each dot shown represents a generator. Refer to one of my concluding questions last week, "Will stakeholders increase,…
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Dec 09
Love113

Two Questions for Electric Utility Stakeholders

By Energy Rant No Comments
Remember the theory that deregulation in the late 1990s would waive the need for energy efficiency programs? If not, you can read up on the Great Depression in Energy Efficiency, the origins of which began with the 1992 Energy Policy Act. I believe the theory at the time was that electricity prices would be so low that energy efficiency couldn't possibly compete. Or maybe the theory was, "We're deregulating; efficiency programs are a regulatory thing, so we no longer need them." I've written this blog for over 15 years, producing roughly 700 posts. I can't say that I've written a…
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All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

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