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Technology

Geothermal Energy Storage is Making a Big Leap in Texas

On the EarthStore project, nuclear-powered ships, and plastic pollution.

Geothermal Energy Storage is Making a Big Leap in Texas
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Hurricane Ernesto could strengthen into a category 3 storm by Friday • Several days of heavy rain in Majorca, Spain, flooded streets and grounded flights • The heat index is hovering around 115 degrees Fahrenheit for parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Texas to host first grid-connected geothermal energy storage project

Plans are underway in Texas to build what will become the first geothermal energy storage project to deliver power to the grid. The 3-megawatt EarthStore project will be located in Christine, Texas, and operated by Sage Geosystems. It will connect with the ERCOT grid, storing energy to be deployed on demand. Advanced geothermal reservoirs harness the heat under the Earth’s surface to generate energy. They can store power that’s been generated by wind or solar in the form of hot water or steam, and some research suggests this process could be more efficient and perhaps cheaper than using batteries. Either way, as renewable capacity ramps up, the more storage options, the better. The project is expected to be ready by the end of 2024.

2. Greece assesses damage from wildfire near Athens

The wildfire on the outskirts of Athens this week burned 40 square miles of land, or an area about twice the size of Manhattan, according to satellite data from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. One person was killed and at least 78 homes were lost to the flames. Intense drought conditions, combined with soaring temperatures, have turned Greece into a tinderbox, with more than 3,500 fires ignited since May, up nearly 50% from the same period last year. More than one-third of the forests surrounding Athens have been scorched by wildfires over the last eight years.

Copernicus Emergency Management Service

3. Report: U.S. will back global plastics treaty

The U.S. will support a United Nations treaty to cap the amount of new plastic produced annually, Reutersreported. America is one of the world’s most prolific plastic makers, and has previously supported the idea that each country should be able to manage its own production. But many other nations have called for limiting and phasing down new plastic production to curb pollution and toxic chemicals, an initiative the U.S. seems to be warming to. Most plastics are made from fossil fuels, and major producers like China and Saudi Arabia have argued that the focus should be on recycling and reusing, instead of limiting production overall. The final talks over the UN plastics treaty are scheduled for November.

4. Maersk joins initiative to study nuclear-powered ships

Danish shipping giant Maersk is interested in studying the feasibility of nuclear-powered cargo ships. The company will team up with maritime services firm Lloyd’s Register and Core Power to figure out how a nuclear reactor could be fitted on a vessel, plus what kinds of safety precautions and regulations would need to be in place. “Nuclear power holds a number of challenges related to for example safety, waste management, and regulatory acceptance across regions, and so far, the downsides have clearly outweighed the benefits of the technology,” Ole Graa Jakobsen, Maersk’s head of fleet technology, said in a statement. “If these challenges can be addressed by development of the new so-called fourth-generation reactor designs, nuclear power could potentially mature into another possible decarbonization pathway for the logistics industry 10 to 15 years in the future,” he said. The shipping sector accounts for about 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and guidelines from the International Maritime Organization set out in 2023 require companies to cut emissions by 40% by 2030.

5. China’s OceanX floating wind turbine reaches wind farm

This week a giant, two-headed, floating offshore wind turbine has been on a 50-hour, 191-nautical-mile journey from Guangzhou, China, to its final destination in the Qingzhou IV Offshore Wind Farm in Yangjiang. Yesterday it finally arrived safely. The OceanX is the world’s largest floating wind turbine platform in terms of capacity. The company behind it, Mingyang Smart Energy, says the platform can produce 54 million kWh annually, enough to power 30,000 households. It’s made to be used in deep water and the company says it can withstand the kind of high winds and waves generated by typhoons.

THE KICKER

New analysis finds that enacting the policies outlined in the conservative blueprint Project 2025 would result in 1.7 million fewer jobs, 2,000 pollution-related premature deaths, and boost U.S. emissions by about 780 million metric tons per year by 2030.

Yellow

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Politics

AM Briefing: The Megabill Goes to the House

On the budget debate, MethaneSAT’s untimely demise, and Nvidia

House Republicans Are Already Divided on the Megabill
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: The northwestern U.S. faces “above average significant wildfire potential” for July • A month’s worth of rain fell over just 12 hours in China’s Hubei province, forcing evacuations • The top floor of the Eiffel Tower is closed today due to extreme heat.

THE TOP FIVE

1. House takes up GOP’s megabill

The Senate finally passed its version of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tuesday morning, sending the tax package back to the House in hopes of delivering it to Trump by the July 4 holiday. The excise tax on renewables that had been stuffed into the bill over the weekend was removed after Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska struck a deal with the Senate leadership designed to secure her vote. In her piece examining exactly what’s in the bill, Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo explains that even without the excise tax, the bill would “gum up the works for clean energy projects across the spectrum due to new phase-out schedules for tax credits and fast-approaching deadlines to meet complex foreign sourcing rules.” Debate on the legislation begins on the House floor today. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he doesn’t like the legislation, and a handful of other Republicans have already signaled they won’t vote for it.

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Yellow
Podcast

Shift Key Summer School: What Is a Watt?

Jesse teaches Rob the basics of energy, power, and what it all has to do with the grid.

Power lines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

What is the difference between energy and power? How does the power grid work? And what’s the difference between a megawatt and a megawatt-hour?

On this week’s episode, we answer those questions and many, many more. This is the start of a new series: Shift Key Summer School. It’s a series of introductory “lecture conversations” meant to cover the basics of energy and the power grid for listeners of every experience level and background. In less than an hour, we try to get you up to speed on how to think about energy, power, horsepower, volts, amps, and what uses (approximately) 1 watt-hour, 1 kilowatt-hour, 1 megawatt-hour, and 1 gigawatt-hour.

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Electric Vehicles

The Best Time to Buy an EV Is Probably Right Now

If the Senate reconciliation bill gets enacted as written, you’ve got about 92 days left to seal the deal.

A VW ID. Buzz.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

If you were thinking about buying or leasing an electric vehicle at some point, you should probably get on it like, right now. Because while it is not guaranteed that the House will approve the budget reconciliation bill that cleared the Senate Tuesday, it is highly likely. Assuming the bill as it’s currently written becomes law, EV tax credits will be gone as of October 1.

The Senate bill guts the subsidies for consumer purchases of electric vehicles, a longstanding goal of the Trump administration. Specifically, it would scrap the 30D tax credit by September 30 of this year, a harsher cut-off than the version of the bill that passed the House, which would have axed the credit by the end of 2025 except for automakers that had sold fewer than 200,000 electric vehicles. The credit as it exists now is worth up to $7,500 for cars with an MSRP below $55,000 (and trucks and sports utility vehicles under $80,000), and, under the Inflation Reduction Act, would have lasted through the end of 2032. The Senate bill also axes the $4,000 used EV tax credit at the end of September.

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