by Jeff Ihnen | May 20, 2025 | Energy Rant
I’ll lead with the conclusion: decarbonization will continue if it costs less than conventional sources, with caveats. The caveats are externalities. Thermal sources of electricity, including coal, natural gas, and nuclear, are associated with externalities of...
by Jeff Ihnen | Apr 15, 2025 | Energy Rant
Daylight Savings Rant It’s looking bleak for my annual predictions from January. I must come from behind to realize a 50% hit rate. Last week, Trump implored Congress to make daylight saving permanent. Zerohedge provides a comprehensive assessment of issues from...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 17, 2024 | Energy Rant
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...
by Jeff Ihnen | Dec 9, 2024 | Energy Rant
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...
by Jeff Ihnen | Oct 7, 2024 | Energy Rant
In the first post in this data center series, I introduced the staggering power density of neural computing systems used for artificial intelligence. At the macro level, in Northern Virginia alone, Dominion Energy projects data center load growth to increase from 3.3...
