Vikas Mehta

Two companies are responsible for 50% of the world's battery deployment so far this year. Both are, of course, Chinese.

Industrious Labs Putting climate solutions to work.

Hey, so we have a bunch of open positions right now, working on cement, chemicals, clean energy (gosh, do we need a lot to electrify industry), and leading our Michigan work. These jobs will take you from the Central Valley in California to green cement plants in Tanzania, and beyond. Know anyone?

We are going to live in a world where the the marginal cost of electricity is very close to zero

Same

For years, Australians have been been installing solar panels at a rapid clip. Now that investment is paying off. The Australian government announced this week that electricity customers in three states will get free electricity for up to three hours per day starting in July 2026.

The Solar Sharer plan will be available to everyone in New South Wales, South Australia, and in the southeastern part of Queensland to start; more regions will be added later. Households won’t need to have solar on their rooftops to qualify, though they will need a smart meter installed. The plan will help those who live in apartments or don’t have a suitable rooftop to benefit from their neighbors’ panels, Bowen said. Although the government hasn’t said which hours in the middle of the day will qualify, the hours between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. are the most likely candidates. Customers will have to opt in to the new plan, which is meant to encourage people to shift their energy use to peak solar-production hours. Smart appliances can help people make the most of this by allowing them to time charging their EVs or running loads of laundry.

How's this for energy abundance? Millions of Aussies will start receiving three hours of free power each day in 2026. This is what happens when you make rooftop solar less than a buck a watt!!

"Rooftop solar installations cost about $840 (U.S.) per kilowatt of capacity before rebates." 🤯
🔌💡

Energy retailers to be directed to offer free power three hours a day Saying there is enough solar power for everyone in the daytime, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen will direct retailers to provide three hours of free power every day to consumers.

Absolutely amazing: they've got so much solar in Australia that they need more people to use more of it, so the gov't has instructed energy retailers to offer *at least three hours of free power* during the middle of the day.

Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...

🇨🇳 🇺🇳 NEW | Report: Assessing China’s overseas coal power ban 4 years on

Following President Xi's 2021 pledge of no new overseas coal projects, 59.3GW of projects have been cancelled, or 6.1bn tonnes of avoided lifetime carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, yet loopholes persist

Deepti, Shafali star as India savour World Cup glory Women's World Cup 2025/26, IND Women vs SA Women Match Report: Laura Wolvaardt backed up a century in the semi-final with another one in the final but South Africa fell short in a chase of 299

No offense to the “World Series”, but this actual World Cup series feels way more satisfying. I assume 1.5 billion people will agree.
www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-w...

Anyone who has experience in an abusive household, or who has worked with people in them, or has read a lot about them, will be familiar with a particular dynamic:

Dad is full of loud passions & intense moods, sweeping through like a thunderstorm, unpredictable, volatile, often violent. He is ...

Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on climate change: If Trump’s denialism is dangerous, Bill Gates’s complacency is more so Gates’s argument, Trump’s appropriation notwithstanding, is not denialist. Nor is it a call to ignore climate change. Yet his reframing of priorities is, in some ways, more insidious

Personally, I have seen little climate denialism outside the US and Western Europe. Climate change is a lived reality already in Asia and Africa at least. False trade offs can make dealing with it a lot harder.
indianexpress.com/article/opin...

Graph showing: Monthly Indian fossil CO2 emissions

The high rainfall in May was a result of an early monsoon, which led to cooler temperatures in the hottest months of May and June, in turn leading to less use of air conditioning, and less power demand. This is a core reason why India's emissions have grown much less so far this year.

Sumant Sinha: Renewables can’t keep up with India’s surging power needs ReNew Energy founder and co-chair of the Alliance of CEO climate leaders on the clean energy opportunity in India

[India] "This is something the western world is now beginning to realise. That we are not pushing coal, but using it only to meet the demand that renewables are currently unable to."
www.ft.com/content/4d4f...

NEW: Global offshore wind targets will help to propel a tripling of global offshore wind capacity in just 6 years💪

Although many countries may achieve their 2030 target slightly later than planned, the US is the only country that has effectively deserted its target...🧵

Worried about electricity demand? Look where data centers are on this chart. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

NEW from us: current clean energy targets and trends enable China, India, and Indonesia to peak power sector emissions by 2030. This would be a global breakthrough given that these nations have been the largest growth markets for coal in the decade since the Paris Agreement.
bsky.app/profile/crea...

Do populists always crash the economy? Argentina is counting the cost of its turn to Javier Milei. Politicians from Donald Trump to Giorgia Meloni and Nigel Farage will be closely watching what happens next

Check your temptations: "The evidence suggests neither left nor right populists tend to fare well when faced with real-world challenges."

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

There’s a reason electricity prices are rising. And it’s not data centers. It’s not data centers or AI, it’s something else.

It's been a while since I've done a non-political nerd thread. And I wish I could do them more often! So let's do a palette cleanse to talk about this article from WaPo that is technically true, but deeply misinformative about US electric markets. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

This startup is about to conduct the biggest real-world test of aluminum as a zero-carbon fuel We got a sneak peek inside Found Energy’s lab, just as it gears up to supply heat and hydrogen to its first customer.

There's a really cool sub-industry of metal and metal oxide innovation going on, with electricity being directly used to reduce metals, vice versa reduced metals being used as "batteries" for clean electricity. The power density & heat potential is huge www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/23/1...

Alaska Tests a Theory: Solar Farms Help Nearby Crops Grow

In Alaska, solar panels are actively helping crops grow.

Surely human ingenuity, but one has to definitely question these solutions over tech available today to end the use of fossil fuels that cause the planet to heat in the first place.

India Draft Plan Reveals $21 Trillion Net-Zero Investment Need India will need as much as $21 trillion to achieve its climate goals and lift its population out of poverty, according to a draft government plan seen by Bloomberg.

Regardless of climate goals, “India will rely heavily on electrification.”

🎁🔗 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Global Investors Are Pouring More Money into Climate Tech Clean energy companies, EV makers and other green firms attracted $56 billion in the first nine months of 2025 — more than in all of 2024.

"Global investment in green technology for the first three quarters of the year has already surpassed all of 2024. The fortunes of the sector have been in decline for three years, but explosive energy demand fueled by data centers has sparked a reversal."

Captive plants aren’t uncommon, but all new builds should be solar plus storage. Faster to build, cheaper to run, easier to maintain, and cleaner.
Data centers, developers and investors should see the opportunity here.

The ‘profound’ global impact of China’s rise as an electrostate The country’s companies now dominate many clean technology industries

“I actually don’t think Washington has really woken up to just how popular these new energy and electro technologies that China is exporting are.” FT on the "profound" global impact of China's rise as an electrostate www.ft.com/content/013e... 🔌💡

China’s New Weapon in US Trade Talks: Batteries The US is heavily reliant on Chinese batteries as it seeks to stabilize the grid and support explosive data center demand for power.

In the first seven months of 2025, Chinese grid-scale lithium-ion batteries accounted for about 65% of US imports, according to the most recent data available from BNEF.

Report: Tesla planning cheaper ‘Sub-Standard’ Model Y without battery, seats and screen — BBC Top Gear Magazine New trim level also strips out armrest and functioning boot to cut cost

apple.news/AQ-61fhrgRtC...

Carmakers demand EU eases ‘rigid’ 2035 petrol car ban Environmental groups say carmakers’ demands risk halving electric vehicle sales in Europe

If you want an explanation of why China is kicking the EU car industry to the curb, look no further than the criminally knuckle dragging EU car makers demanding new loopholes so they don't have to meet any meaningful low emission targets for cars in the EU.
www.ft.com/cIfontent/5a...

Oil and gas industry’s marginal share of global renewable energy Nature Sustainability - The decarbonization of oil and gas companies may not be as speedy or robust as advertised. This analysis finds that renewable energies make up just a minor fraction of the...

Oil and gas companies will often claim to be partners in the clean energy transition, when it is politically expedient to do so, but new research finds their actual contributions are marginal:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

JHC. The US fed govt is immolating its nascent clean manufacturing sector.

NEW: GLOBAL RENEWABLES OVERTAKES COAL

How the heck did that happen so quickly?!...🧵