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Mar 11
Love125

Externalities In Your Grill

By Energy Rant No Comments
Before getting to the main topic this week, I wanted to give an update on the Moss Landing battery fire. Is the fire out? What did investigators find? My investigation took on a life of its own. In my search, I found a webpage from Moss Landing plant-owner Vistra Energy, Moss Landing Fire Update – Everything You Need To Know. Everything? Mmm, I don’t think so. That’s the plant-owner side of the story. Here’s an interview with Erin Brockovich in The Mercury News, dated Sunday, March 9, 2025. Mmm, I don’t think so. This is the no-pander zone in either…
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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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Apr 29
Love79

Theory #2 For Batteries Increasing Emissions

By Energy Rant No Comments
As a glutton for punishment (I look forward to getting past sciatica so I can run marathons again), I tasked myself with getting to the technical bottom of this article from Utility Dive: Energy storage for grid reliability can increase carbon emissions: University of Michigan study. The article doesn't get into the details, so I dived into the source document sponsored by the University of Michigan – a brutal read – like the last miles of a marathon, maybe Heartbreak Hill or Central Park. I spare readers the pain so they can follow along from their La-Z-Boys.  I know enough about wholesale electricity markets to use terminology and…
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Apr 05
Love1

A Franchise Organization for Decarb

By Energy Rant No Comments
About every six months, while participating in a strategic planning, leadership, marketing, or business development meeting, I hear “we should be doing decarb,” or “we’ve been talking about decarb for years, and that’s all we do is talk about it.” “We’ll be right back here talking about it a year from now.” Whoa! First, what is decarb? My guess is most people would say reducing the consumption of hydrocarbons in a catalytic process with airborne oxygen to produce heat which may be used for heating, power generation, or locomotion – while producing coproducts of gaseous water, carbon dioxide, and minuscule…
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Apr 04
Love0
energy storage

Energy Storage with Doug Houseman

By Energy Rant No Comments
In this week's Energy Rant, Jeff Ihnen (CEO at Michaels Energy) interviews Doug Houseman (Principal Consultant at Burns & McDonnell) about energy storage. Doug is a leader and visionary in grid and utility modernization. You'll quickly get a sense of his wealth of knowledge as we take you through our interview-style conversation.
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Apr 08
Love0

Fascination: Battery Storage Increases Carbon Emissions

By Energy Rant One Comment
“Casual observers are often wrong.”  Why didn’t I think of this for a tagline?  It is a line inked by utility veteran Charles Bayless in the March issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly.  His article, “Does Storage Increase Carbon?” is the basis of this post.  By the way, many politicians make policy and law without knowing anything about that which they are making policy or laws – as though engineers, scientists, and the private sector simply aren’t trying.  Sure.  We’re not trying to cure cancer or produce affordable and reliable zero-emission energy.  No.  There would be no money or fame in…
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All things energy. That’s our jam.

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

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