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On powering data centers, China exports, and surprising pollinators
Current conditions: Monsoon rains caused severe flooding in Thailand and Malaysia that left more than 30 people dead • In Germany, a recent wind lull known as a “Dunkelflaute” has led to a drop in wind power and a rise in gas-fired electricity production • It is chilly and cloudy in Paris, where French lawmakers will vote today on whether to topple the government.
Facebook parent Meta put out a call yesterday for nuclear energy developers who can add 1-4 gigawatts of new nuclear generation capacity by the early 2030s to power the tech giant’s data centers. “Advancing the technologies that will build the future of human connection — including the next wave of AI innovation — requires electric grids to expand and embrace new sources of reliable, clean and renewable energy,” the company said in its announcement. Interested developers are asked to basically write a pitch explaining their qualifications and why they should be considered for the job, with proposals due by February 7 of next year. Other big tech companies, including Amazon and Google, are also relying on nuclear to satisfy their growing energy needs as AI becomes more prevalent.
Somewhat relatedly, the International Energy Agency is hosting a conference on energy and AI today and tomorrow. Experts from the tech and energy industries (including Google’s chief sustainability officer Kate Brandt and Kairos’ head of power commercial team Jeffrey Olson) will discuss “how artificial intelligence could transform global energy systems, exploring the key opportunities and challenges ahead.”
China is banning exports of some critical minerals to the U.S. in retaliation for the Biden administration’s latest decision to curb China’s access to American-made memory chips. The tit-for-tat move bans exports of gallium, germanium, antimony. These materials are key components in semiconductors, and have many varied applications in clean tech. Gallium, for example, is used in solar panels, and antimony is used to make EV battery alloys. A recent report from the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that a total Chinese export ban on gallium and germanium could cut U.S. GDP by $3.4 billion.
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Speaking of China, General Motors is shaking up its operations in the country, sustaining more than $5 billion in losses. The company’s Chinese joint venture, known as SAIC-GM, has gone from being a success to a liability in recent years, losing ground to Chinese competitors that poured money into producing EVs and hybrids. Electric vehicles make up more than half of all car sales in China. “Almost all foreign automakers there, including European, Japanese, and South Korean companies, are struggling as increasingly ambitious Chinese car companies like BYD and Geely introduce new models and slash prices,” reportedThe New York Times, noting that BYD is likely to overtake Ford this year in global sales.
The Biden administration this week is celebrating the milestone of awarding more than $100 billion in grants as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. “Crossing the milestone of $100 billion awarded shows just how quickly we’re getting these funds out the door and into communities so they can make a real difference for the American people,” climate envoy John Podesta toldReuters. And another official said the administration will exceed its goal of obligating more than 80% of the available IRA grant money by the end of Biden’s term, explaining that this would mean the funds are protected: “They are subject to the terms of the contract, so when those contracts are signed and executed, this becomes a matter of contract law more than a matter of politics.”
The Arctic could experience its first ice-free summer day before 2030, perhaps even by 2027, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications. The international research team behind the study used multiple computer models and simulations to make the projection, which is “unlikely” but becoming more plausible as greenhouse gas emissions rise. Extreme weather events – like a series of exceptionally warm years – could trigger rapid melting leading to an ice-free day or days. Such an event could “have cascading effects on the rest of the climate system,” the authors wrote. “It would notably enhance the warming of the upper ocean, accelerating sea ice loss year round and therefore further accelerating climate change, and could also induce more extreme events at mid-latitudes.”
Recent research suggests rare wolves in Ethiopia feed on the sweet nectar of plants known as red hot poker flowers, becoming covered in pollen in the process. This unusual behavior would make the wolves perhaps the first known large carnivores to be plant pollinators.
Ecology journal
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Did a battery plant disaster in California spark a PR crisis on the East Coast?
Battery fire fears are fomenting a storage backlash in New York City – and it risks turning into fresh PR hell for the industry.
Aggrieved neighbors, anti-BESS activists, and Republican politicians are galvanizing more opposition to battery storage in pockets of the five boroughs where development is actually happening, capturing rapt attention from other residents as well as members of the media. In Staten Island, a petition against a NineDot Energy battery project has received more than 1,300 signatures in a little over two months. Two weeks ago, advocates – backed by representatives of local politicians including Rep. Nicole Mallitokis – swarmed a public meeting on the project, getting a local community board to vote unanimously against the project.
According to Heatmap Pro’s proprietary modeling of local opinion around battery storage, there are likely twice as many strong opponents than strong supporters in the area:
Heatmap Pro
Yesterday, leaders in the Queens community of Hempstead enacted a year-long ban on BESS for at least a year after GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, other local politicians, and a slew of aggrieved residents testified in favor of a moratorium. The day before, officials in the Long Island town of Southampton said at a public meeting they were ready to extend their battery storage ban until they enshrined a more restrictive development code – even as many energy companies testified against doing so, including NineDot and solar plus storage developer Key Capture Energy. Yonkers also recently extended its own battery moratorium.
This flurry of activity follows the Moss Landing battery plant fire in California, a rather exceptional event caused by tech that was extremely old and a battery chemistry that is no longer popular in the sector. But opponents of battery storage don’t care – they’re telling their friends to stop the community from becoming the next Moss Landing. The longer this goes on without a fulsome, strident response from the industry, the more communities may rally against them. Making matters even worse, as I explained in The Fight earlier this year, we’re seeing battery fire concerns impact solar projects too.
“This is a huge problem for solar. If [fires] start regularly happening, communities are going to say hey, you can’t put that there,” Derek Chase, CEO of battery fire smoke detection tech company OnSight Technologies, told me at Intersolar this week. “It’s going to be really detrimental.”
I’ve long worried New York City in particular may be a powder keg for the battery storage sector given its omnipresence as a popular media environment. If it happens in New York, the rest of the world learns about it.
I feel like the power of the New York media environment is not lost on Staten Island borough president Vito Fossella, a de facto leader of the anti-BESS movement in the boroughs. Last fall I interviewed Fossella, whose rhetorical strategy often leans on painting Staten Island as an overburdened community. (At least 13 battery storage projects have been in the works in Staten Island according to recent reporting. Fossella claims that is far more than any amount proposed elsewhere in the city.) He often points to battery blazes that happen elsewhere in the country, as well as fears about lithium-ion scooters that have caught fire. His goal is to enact very large setback distance requirements for battery storage, at a minimum.
“You can still put them throughout the city but you can’t put them next to people’s homes – what happens if one of these goes on fire next to a gas station,” he told me at the time, chalking the wider city government’s reluctance to capitulate on batteries to a “political problem.”
Well, I’m going to hold my breath for the real political problem in waiting – the inevitable backlash that happens when Mallitokis, D’Esposito, and others take this fight to Congress and the national stage. I bet that’s probably why American Clean Power just sent me a notice for a press briefing on battery safety next week …
And more of the week’s top conflicts around renewable energy.
1. Queen Anne’s County, Maryland – They really don’t want you to sign a solar lease out in the rural parts of this otherwise very pro-renewables state.
2. Logan County, Ohio – Staff for the Ohio Power Siting Board have recommended it reject Open Road Renewables’ Grange Solar agrivoltaics project.
3. Bandera County, Texas – On a slightly brighter note for solar, it appears that Pine Gate Renewables’ Rio Lago solar project might just be safe from county restrictions.
Here’s what else we’re watching…
In Illinois, Armoracia Solar is struggling to get necessary permits from Madison County.
In Kentucky, the mayor of Lexington is getting into a public spat with East Kentucky Power Cooperative over solar.
In Michigan, Livingston County is now backing the legal challenge to Michigan’s state permitting primacy law.
On the week’s top news around renewable energy policy.
1. IRA funding freeze update – Money is starting to get out the door, finally: the EPA unfroze most of its climate grant funding it had paused after Trump entered office.
2. Scalpel vs. sledgehammer – House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled Republicans in Congress may take a broader approach to repealing the Inflation Reduction Act than previously expected in tax talks.
3. Endangerment in danger – The EPA is reportedly urging the White House to back reversing its 2009 “endangerment” finding on air pollutants and climate change, a linchpin in the agency’s overall CO2 and climate regulatory scheme.