by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 17, 2023 | Energy Rant
Last week I read a statement from a retail energy provider. It said, “100% green rates, always.” It doesn’t work that way. An aggregation of power sources, including renewable, nuclear, coal, and natural gas, are supplying the grid at any given time. The little...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 10, 2023 | Energy Rant
A Twelve-Pack for 2023 Last year Las Vegas booked my predictions at 1:1.5 odds. This year I’m being more aggressive and expect something closer to a 3:1 weighted average. Below, I include my estimates for each forecast. Ukraine War I’ll get the tough stuff out of the...
by Elisabeth Bischoff | Jan 10, 2023 | Awards
Our VP of Marketing, Liz Haworth, won the Rising Stars in Energy award by CHARGE for her unique approach to branding in energy. CHARGE works with energy companies from across the globe who are trailblazers, all committed to advancing their brand and strengthening...
by Jeff Ihnen | Jan 3, 2023 | Energy Rant
This post features the results of my Lucky 7 predictions I made a year ago, a grade for each omen, and a little sass here and there. Coal Record Prediction: Annual worldwide coal consumption will pass the all-time high set in 2014. Result: The Internation Energy...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 27, 2022 | Energy Rant
With most people off this week, it is a good time to probe the mysteries of life that I have accumulated in recent years. Food Let’s start with a great food mystery; the hamburger. Every other burger has the key ingredient in the name: turkey burger, walnut burger,...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 20, 2022 | Energy Rant
Just before last week’s finale on permanent peak demand reduction went to press, news dropped that nuclear fusion was successfully pulled off in the Livermore Laboratory in California. A controlled fusion reaction “produced more energy than it consumed,” according to...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 13, 2022 | Energy Rant
The last few posts[1][2] featured an overview and complete report card on load management to get beyond net zero to real zero, a term I discovered last week. As promised, I will describe some permanent peak load reduction opportunities this week. Like many efficiency...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 6, 2022 | Energy Rant
This is the third installment of this series in demand response (DR) and load management. In the first post, Curing Net Zero described why net zero is not the answer: everyone over-generates with solar or wind simultaneously, and later, everyone needs power from...
by Jeff Ihnen | Nov 29, 2022 | Energy Rant
Last week I described how net zero sounds grand, it’s easy to do, but it doesn’t work to support the transition to a clean-energy grid. The reason is that everyone, whether utilities or customers, overproduces simultaneously, and then later, customers all need energy...
by Jeff Ihnen | Nov 21, 2022 | Energy Rant
I lambasted net zero many times, one time calling it an unserious weapon against climate change. Why is that? We’re going to see in this post. What is net zero? Simply, it is a building or property that produces as much renewable energy on-site as it consumes,...
