Some Stats For You. Electricity demand in 2022 was up 0.5% and grids are estimating a growth rate of 2-5% over the next ten years. But did you know that data centers will use 6% of energy demand in two years? Did you know that your ChatGPT query uses 9 times more energy than your google search? The CCA in Silicon Valley estimates it’s load to double by 2035. All of this will put enormous pressure on planners to figure out a way to say yes to growth opportunities because no Governor wants to hear that a data center didn’t come to their State because no connection was available.

• Utility Dive: IRA implementation is still suffering from regulatory uncertainty, executives say
• Heatmap News: Electricity Demand Is Surging for the First Time Since the 1990s
• Bloomberg: Europe’s Unusually Mild Winter Is Set to Extend Into March
• Politico: EU presses countries to rescue drowning solar industry
• Axios: EPA tries the Goldilocks route on power plants
• Solar Power World: Senate Democrats ask Treasury to require American-made wafers for solar panel domestic content bonus
• Energy Storage News: UK’s Harmony Energy expects ‘attractive returns’ in 2024 as BESS trading conditions improve
• PV-Magazine: Alberta lifts moratorium on renewable energy projects

Opinion

• Reuters: Yellen vows to work for closer ties, work on green energy in visit to Chile

Best, Yann

Happy Friday! Question for you, would you drive a Chinese car? Would your siblings, parents or kids?

Biden’s Energy Market. I don’t quite understand the politics of not taking credit for the energy independence the Country is currently benefitting from but I assume it has to do with young Americans upset with the lack of climate change progress. If you had the audience, how would you tell the President to talk about energy today?

• Heatmap News: Biden Knows Tariffs Won’t Stop Chinese EVs
• Reuters: Biden nominates two Democrats, one Republican to federal energy regulator
• New York Times: Biden’s Energy Balancing Act
• Canary Media: Two major New York offshore wind projects are back on track
• Utility Dive: Crypto miners, Biden administration appear to reach agreement over energy data collection
• PV-Tech: Polysilicon exports to China lowest since 2011 due to US import laws – Bernreuter
• Axios: Six different countries facing same climate risks
• PV-magazine: Shell to sell 25% of its U.S. solar assets, said Reuters

Opinion

• Energy Storage News: The reasons why investors are busy buying BESS developers in the UK and Germany

Best, Yann

• Utility Dive: DOE, NARUC publish cybersecurity ‘baselines’ for utilities, distributed energy resources
• Axios: Wildfire in Texas Panhandle explodes into state’s second-largest blaze
• PV-Tech: Array Technologies reports US$1.58 billion in revenue in 2023
• Reuters: First Solar swings to quarterly profit, forecasts higher sales in 2024
• Bloomberg: NRG Targeting $900 Million From Texas for New Gas Plants
• Energy Storage News: Europe – Rising battery storage markets playing catch-up to the UK’s lead
• Heatmap News: The Next Big Climate Tool – Little Chunks of Rock
• PV-Magazine: U.S. solar up 52% in 2023 as nation deploys 35.3 GW of capacity

Opinion

• Renew Economy: How Australia’s newest big battery has cashed in on market volatility

Best, Yann

• PV-Tech: SunPower announces departure of CEO Peter Faricy
• PV-Magazine: Massachusetts lawmakers urged to adopt “million solar roofs” equivalent
• Bridge Michigan: $900M solar component factory to add 1,100 clean energy jobs in Michigan
• Utility Dive: Congressional action on energy permitting remains stuck, but states, developers are finding solutions
• BLoomberg: Trump’s Green-Bashing and Europe’s Right Put Climate Goals at Risk
• Reuters: US unveils $366 mln for clean energy in underserved, remote areas
• Energy Storage News: ‘Battery developers were biggest winners’ in UK’s T-1 Capacity Market auction last week
• Canary Media: This report puts a price tag on the climate impacts of US LNG exports

Opinion

• Heatmap News: Even Warren Buffett Thinks the Era of Private Utilities Is Over

Best, Yann