Mike Lau

Excited to share a new paper I got to help out with!

How much emissions do EVs cause through the electricity they consume? How do we know?

Our paper shows that frequently used metrics *over*-estimate EV emissions.

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1... by Riti Bhandarkar, Qian Luo, @jessedjenkins.com

Genuine question: what sort of climate policy do you think would not have become vulnerable to similar intervention/malfeasance by fossil interests given dems electoral losses in 2024? Both executive and legislative regulatory actions are clearly similarly vulnerable.

I am happy to announce that the final piece of my doctoral work on next-generation geothermal technologies has been accepted for publication as a research article in 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘦, with an open-access manuscript available at doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We do need more BCA of rooftop solar, but this article doesn’t do that. They don’t model anything and cherry pick evidence without contending with the core issue: net metering of rooftop solar pays several times the wholesale value of that electricity, and that money comes from other customers bills

"The populist right is powered by scarcity. When there is not enough to go around, we look with suspicion on anyone who might take what we have. That suspicion is the fuel of Trump’s politics. (...)

The answer to a politics of scarcity is a politics of abundance."

House Democrats try, and fail, to subpoena Musk Notably missing the vote was Rep. Ro Khanna, who is close to Musk.

As far as I’m aware, they tried to subpoena him in committee, but failed. Largely because Ro Khanna didn’t show up.
www.politico.com/live-updates...

Very simple, non-ironic, non-judgemental, practical 🧵 for all Dems to start TODAY-
Contact your local Emergency Managers.
Congresspeople- all of the EMs in your district.
Senators- your state EMs
Any states with wildland firefighters- contact them.

Ask them what is being cut
1/🧵

Everyone seems to be framing Trump's freeze on federal grants as a Constitutional fight over powers of the purse & whether presidents can disregard Congressional appropriations. It is that. But also at stake is the fundamental validity of government contracts! I see much less discussion on this... 🧵

All federal grants and loan disbursement paused by White House | CNN Politics The White House budget office has ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, according to an internal memorandum sent Monday.

The reality of this hasn't sunk in for Americans yet. It needs to: "The White House budget office ordered a pause on all federal grants & loans Monday potentially impacting trillions in government spending and halting public programs that affect millions of Americans." www.cnn.com/2025/01/27/p... 🔌💡

Worth noting that at least one assessment from Rhodium group finds repealing the IRA will meaningfully increase residential energy bills.

bsky.app/profile/jess...

Peoples Gas uses algorithms to identify Allegheny County customers in need Pittsburgh-based utility Peoples Natural Gas is partnering with a local startup to identify customers who need aid and sign them up for available assistance programs.

"This really is an opportunity to utilize data in a really great way” said Elizabeth Marx, executive director of the PA Utility Law Project “And I hope more utilities will take advantage of the same kind of tactics to make sure that we're reaching underserved populations” www.wesa.fm/environment-...

Breathe easy | Rewiring America Household electrification as a public health intervention to improve outdoor air quality.

New research shows that electrifying US appliances would dramatically improve *outdoor* air quality, to the tune of about $40 billion in health benefits per year. www.rewiringamerica.org/research/hom...

These are totally new capabilities in energy system planning! Our methods can also be applied to almost any planning context providing the underlying model is convex.

Very excited to see what others do with this work!
(End thread)

Using convexity, we enable users to create new, feasible portfolios and evaluate their performance in hundredths of a second. Users can even incorporate additional constraints or new convex objectives – allowing them to visualize portfolios that fit their desires and restrictions in a live setting.

Planning energy systems everyone can live with is difficult. We developed a method to enable people to interactively explore available options, make their own portfolios, and view the impacts of each portfolio.

And it all runs in fractions of a second on a laptop with free software!

Modelling to Generate Continuous Alternatives: Enabling Real-Time Feasible Portfolio Generation in Convex Planning Models Decarbonization provides new opportunities to plan energy systems for improved health, resilience, equity, and environmental outcomes, but challenges in siting and social acceptance of transition goal...

New Preprint!

@jessedjenkins.com, Xin Wang, Neha Patankar, and I share new methods to allow anyone to design and share visions of energy systems that match their needs and desires. Imagine being able to show your utility a modelled grid that you want! 🧵 🔌💡

Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2411.16887

A bit late on the announcement, but I'm happy to say that I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation, "Hot Rocks and H2: Modeling the Role of Emerging Technologies in the Electricity Sector," last month!

We're so proud of Dr. Ricks! Our first ZERO Lab doctorate. And an outstanding set of research on the potential of enhanced geothermal energy and rules to guide clean electricity procurement by hydrogen producers, data centers are more. See below for links to @wilsonar.bsky.social's excellent work...

Thanks for putting this together! I’d love to be added if possible!

Congrats Emil! Excited to work with you soon!

Can’t take EGS for granite!

Totally agree that demand side measures should be taken (generally for quality of life and sustainability, not just in substituting for transmission), but really curious how the emissions math pencils in this context.

Thanks for this! One quick q: @jessedjenkins.com showed a halving of transmission buildout loses out on 800MT/yr of gains under the IRA. Do you know if there have been studies modelling emissions impactions of the IRA with constrained transmission and large amounts of demand-side flexibility?

Oh hold on, wait. It's open source. We offer **everyone** a free licence for PyPSA. That's the point. Everyone, regardless of background and means, should be able to model the transformation of their energy systems, see what the code is doing, and modify it if need be.

github.com/pypsa/pypsa

🔌💡

Worth remembering the incentive structure here: many IOUs, like Georgia Power, have a cost-plus remuneration structure. Cost-plus gives utilities return guarantees based on the size of their “rate base”, of “used and useful” investments! For these utilities projecting lots of load = greater returns

What if you want to procure clean electricity to meet your demand, hour-by-hour, but you don't know precisely what your demand profile is? Can it still work? A new ZERO Lab report on 24/7 carbon-free electricityu procurment led by @wilsonar.bsky.social finds out... 🔌💡

A wake-up call theory of climate change A low-carbon future is preferable with or without climate change.

Now more than ever, it is worth emphasizing that fighting climate change is an opportunity for the U.S. and nations around the world, contrary to how it is often framed in both academia and government. 🧵1/10

medium.com/@EmilDimanch...

We've got the #s to back up @leahstokes.bsky.social on this one!

Our tracking and analysis at The Big Green Machine show that 78% of $126.3 billion in post-IRA investments in batteries, EVs, wind, and solar supply chains have gone to Republican districts. 1/3

www.the-big-green-machine.com