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• Bloomberg: Texas Power Use Hits Record as Solar, Wind Keep Grid Running
• Reuters: High river temperatures to limit French nuclear power production
• Utility Dive: Volkswagen overhauls its charging and energy business
• Axios: Expanding heat wave leaves more than 112 million under alerts
• PV-Tech: IEA: solar sector to drive copper demand over 2,000 kilotons by 2035
• Energy Storage News: Eku Energy and Renera to develop 1GW of battery storage in Italy
• Canary Media: Can mobile batteries make dirty diesel generators obsolete?
• PV-Magazine: Florida municipal solar project expands to 600 MW

Opinion

• New York Times: The Energy Transition Is Underway. Fossil Fuel Workers Could Be Left Behind.

Best, Yann

Texas Breaks Records. Hard to fathom that ERCOT is forecasting peak demand of over 82GW several times in the next week. Not just for this individual moment with less than 10% capacity reserve margin but for what that means in the future. This week I wrote about the global temperatures causing family members across Europe to install air conditioners in their homes, when they never had to in the past. Along the electrification that consumers are going through with appliances and electric vehicles, the grid has the added strain of the real energy transition. As a society we will use more and more energy, that’s the natural course of progress. The energy transition is electrification, shifting more of the energy from molecules to electrons and the grid has to be resilient and therefore intelligent enough to let the lights stay on every time the consumer wants or more critical applications like hospitals require. (originally posted on my Linkedin)

The Lender You Can Depend On. In a market that is full of uncertainty, you can rely on Dividend Finance to bring you white glove service to help you reach your long-term goals. Apply Here

• Reuters: Texas power demand to hit record highs again as heat bakes state
• Axios: Why the high price of modernizing the U.S. power grid is worth it
• New York Times: When Climate Change Hits Home
• Bloomberg: AI Trading Is Playing a Growing Role in Europe’s Power Bills
• Energy Storage News: ASEAN regulators’ involvement with energy storage lags behind renewable energy support
• Utility Dive: EV batteries can be repurposed as grid storage to reduce battery supply chain impacts – report
• Canary Media: Biggest offshore wind farm in the US gets the go-ahead
• PV-Magazine: Insurer to cover up to $20 million in damage limits for solar projects

Opinion

• Politico: Utilities to Biden’s carbon capture money – Meh

Best, Yann

Cheaper EVs Driven By Choice And Supply. At last count there are around 60 EV options available to US consumers, more if you count hybrids and more if you expand the global market. In any supply and demand market more choice will create some increased demand and comfort by being a follower, i.e. not an early adopter. But if that demand doesn’t outpace supply, there will be excess inventory that should drive down the price or create additional incentives for consumers to buy the cars (free charging perhaps?). With EVs there’s also the additional layer of charging complexity that follows. First, car dealers still don’t know how to sell EVs and make consumers comfortable owning this new to them technology. Second, more EVs on the road means that charging networks need to keep up, no more 2 or 4 charging pods at Whole Foods, we need an entire row of chargers. I say this noting that the three closest grocery stores to me in Florida have zero combined charging stations in their parking lot. But price elasticity will build more tolerance to the secondary objections that the consumer may have, who doesn’t want a cheaper car that also comes with a massive tax credit. This should build up the EV portfolio on the road AND on the grid. 

The Lender You Can Depend On. In a market that is full of uncertainty, you can rely on Dividend Finance to bring you white glove service to help you reach your long-term goals. Apply Here

• Globe and Mail: Ontario opens door to new wind, solar power projects as electrical demand to grow
• Axios: Unsold electric cars are piling up on dealer lots
• Mercury News: War over new California rooftop solar rules rages on
• GreenBiz: As states shift to clean energy, here’s how corporations can support that agenda
• Utility Dive: DC Circuit backs FERC decision in interconnection dispute between Hecate Energy, NYISO
• Reuters: Iraq, Total Energies sign massive oil, gas, renewables deal
• PV-Tech: Denmark’s CIP closes first round of €13 billion renewables investment fund
• Energy Storage News: UK BESS roundup – Centrica, Pulse Clean Energy, Gore Street projects as operational capacity reaches 3GW
• PV-Magazine: Utility ordered to repay customers for illegal community solar metering

Opinion

• Bloomberg: Capitalism Alone Won’t Save the Planet

Best, Yann

Can’t Stand The Heat. I returned this weekend from a trip. This took me to a location that is not heavily air conditioned, sitting at 46 degrees latitude (similar to Toronto), and the water is about 10 degrees cooler than the South Florida ocean I’m used to. It was however close to 90 degrees, including at night, which made for interesting nights hoping for a breeze to come through. Cities that have never considered air conditioners have to reimagine their needs and even their building codes. Homes in my hometown of Hamburg, Germany, are valued lower if their electricity consumption is high so builders and owners don’t install ACs but is that really livable? Grids that are built for the weak link of cold/icy environments are having some of the biggest issues with strenuous, ongoing heat events like we’re having now. Winter peaks, summer peaks, EV peaks, power plant redundancies, rising cooling liquids for generators globally, are all impacts that a grid operator did not really imagine 10 years ago.

The Piecemeal Approach. We need more deployment for grid infrastructure and we need to take a more strategic approach to it. The massive backlogs are not creating investment certainty for developers, owners, service providers that enable the grids to gain the investments they need in order to keep the lights on. Is there a single point to look at to fix this? No, and that could be a major pain point that may make this hard to solve but I don’t know what the grid will look like in 10 years if we don’t deploy, deploy, deploy.

Support ORKA. I want to introduce you to a new supporter of this newsletter. ORKA Finance is solving a massive need in the commercial solar financing market and you should consider giving them a look if you’re working on helping the largest users of electricity go solar.

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• Axios: Earth saw hottest day yet Thursday, the fourth straight global record
• Utility Dive: ISO New England called energy emergency, turned to operating reserves after transmission failure
• PV-Tech: US to triple solar manufacturing jobs to 120,000 by 2033
• Yahoo! Finance: First Solar Secures $1 Billion Revolving Credit Facility
• New York Times: Yellen Urges China to Step Up Climate Finance Investments
• Reuters: Spain’s PM promises law letting residents choose location of solar, wind farms
• Energy Storage News: Grid storage projects should be ‘immediate priority’ for South Africa to control load-shedding
• Canary Media: Chart – Which states have the most solar and wind power jobs?
• PV-Magazine: Five organizations turning community solar into savings for low-income Americans

Opinion

• Bloomberg: Oil is Hard to Quit, Even in Norway Where Electric Cars Rule the Road

Best, Yann