Alexander C. Kaufman

Calvin Coolidge, the last president *this* important

U.S. Solar Installation Just Inched Past Last Year’s Tally On MARVEL’s market, a climate retraction, and Eavor’s geothermal milestone

In Heatmap AM today:

☀️ US solar installations set to surpass last year
🔙 Leading science journal retracts climate catastrophe study
🔁 Geothermal startup Eavor’s closed-loop well starts commercial operation

Read more from @alexckaufman.bsky.social:

heatmap.news/am/us-solar-...

Since you were obviously wondering, no I don’t consider it a burden to have taste this good but thank you for asking

Thanks for sharing the piece, Sammy!

Zanskar claims major geothermal discovery in Nevada The firm says it has found an unknown, untapped geothermal resource that is viable using conventional drilling — a first in the U.S. in more than 30 years.

Big if true: Clean energy start-up Zanskar says it's discovered a huge new conventional geothermal reservoir in Nevada. www.canarymedia.com/articles/geo... via @alexckaufman.bsky.social

As solar booms and coal fades, Greece’s mining region struggles to… Next year, Greece will complete its coal phaseout, a success for the energy transition. But Western Macedonia residents feel left behind.

Killer dispatch by @danmccarthy.bsky.social on Greece's shift away from coal:

“Everybody knew that the coal would have to end. But nobody did anything to prevent the disaster. It’s like the Titanic — everybody dancing on board, but the disaster is coming.” www.canarymedia.com/articles/jus...

Exactly

The Aircraft Impact Assessment Rule The regulations in 10 CFR 50.150, “Aircraft impact assessment,” are safety enhancements that are not necessary for the NRC to meet its statutory mission under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection from radiological hazards. When the rule was promulgated, the NRC quantified the costs of the rule but did not quantify the benefits and concluded that the key qualitative benefit of the rule was an “improvement in knowledge” of how a new reactor would address beyond-design-basis hazards, such as a deliberate large aircraft impact. At the time, the NRC concluded that qualitative benefits outweighed the cost of the rule. However, if reconsidered today, the cost of implementation would not be justified by the increase in safety for future reactors. Other more recently developed regulations ( i.e.,10 CFR 50.155, “Mitigation of beyond-design-basis events,” and proposed 10 CFR part 53) provide alternative approaches to understand how newly licensed plants would address those beyond-design-basis hazards. Because the analyses required by this regulation are incorporated into plants' licensing bases and are now required by other more comprehensive regulations, sunsetting this provision will not decrease safety at any operating facility. Thus, while this provision constituted part of the NRC's permitting regime authorized by statute, it is no longer needed. A sunset date will allow this outdated and duplicative regulation to roll off the books. At the same time, if evidence emerges in the interim indicating a continued need for this regulation, the agency can extend the sunset date as appropriate.

The NRC has submitted a menu of regulations to automatically expire under a Sunset Rule

One of the regs now set to expire in 2027 is the Aircraft Impact Assessment, which is a significant cost driver for nuclear construction. This is a BIG deal.

🔌💡 www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Good point. U.S. is No. 1 for capacity but it's just 0.4% of total generation.

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. is by far in the lead. But I wouldn't have correctly guessed second, third, and fourth place.

Usually when you hear about countries with a lot of geothermal, you think about those that have a generate a disproportionate share of their electricity from the Earth's heat, such as Iceland or Kenya. But those are relatively small countries. This chart nicely shows countries by installed capacity:

With the news of our acquisition of Resideo Grid Services,
@latitudemedia.bsky.social’s @alexckaufman.bsky.social
looks at how the move accelerates device-enabled grid flexibility.

Read the full story: www.latitudemedia.com/news/energyh...

Exclusive: U.S. Startup Lands Deal to Develop International AI-for-Nuclear Rules Atomic Canyon is set to announce the deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

EXCLUSIVE: AI-for-nuclear startup Atomic Canyon has inked a deal with the UN's nuclear agency to develop a set of international standards on the new technology.

Here's @alexckaufman.bsky.social with more:

heatmap.news/energy/atomi...

Energy Department Pumps $800 Million Into Two Nuclear Projects On black lung, blackouts, and Bill Gates’ reactor startup

Today’s midweek Heatmap AM:

🤏 Energy Department doles out $800 million for small nuclear reactors
🫁 Trump may roll back black lung regulations for coal mining
🔦 2024 had the longest U.S. power outages in a decade

Read the top stories from @alexckaufman.bsky.social:

heatmap.news/am/energy-de...

Big news:

The Energy Dept. is giving $400 million to the TVA to fund its construction of GE-Hitachi small modular reactors.

It's also giving Holtec another $400M to build its 300MW SMRs at the Palisades nuclear plant, the single reactor of which the company is currently working to restart.

Great piece from @alexckaufman.bsky.social last week on the Trump administration's nuclear plans.

Glad to be featured in @latitudemedia.bsky.social arguing that, if nuclear developers and utilities do not know how Japan's promised $80 billion will be structured, they cannot prepare their projects:

Data Centers May Need 40% More Power Than Previously Thought On NREL’s rebrand, British LNG wariness, and Japan’s DAC embrace

In today's Heatmap AM:

📈 Data center demand projection 40% higher than in April
🏔️ NREL renamed National Lab of the Rockies
🇲🇿 UK pulls out of contested Mozambique LNG terminal

Read all about it from @alexckaufman.bsky.social:

heatmap.news/am/data-cent...

Exxon halts massive Texas low-carbon hydrogen facility The sector has faced setbacks under the Trump administration, which pulled funding for Exxon’s “blue” hydrogen project earlier this year.

New from @alexckaufman.bsky.social: Exxon Mobil has pulled the plug on plans for one of the world’s largest hydrogen plants, citing a failure to find customers.

Distribution grids may be a barrier to residential electrification Replacing fossil-fueled machines with electric alternatives can reduce emissions, but Priyadarshan et al. find that reinforcing United States distribution grids to accommodate complete home and vehicl...

1) The editor of Cell Reports Sustainable, a new open-access journal from Cell Press, graciously invited me to do a short Q&A about our new paper, "Distribution grids may be a barrier to residential electrification." Pasting the Q&A in a short 🧵 if anyone's interested.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

PJM Warned Against Adding New Data Centers On NYPA nuclear staffing, Zillow listings, and European wood

Happy December! In Heatmap AM today:

🙅 PJM watchdog urges grid operator to stop adding data centers
⏱️ EPA punts methane reduction rule to 2027
🏡 Zillow cuts climate risk data from platform

Read @alexckaufman.bsky.social for your post-holiday climate digest:

heatmap.news/am/pjm-data-...

👀 via @alexckaufman.bsky.social

Conspiracy theorists think ‘they’ are spraying the skies to stop us seeing ‘Planet X’ Some incredibly bonkers ideas here

the more you know! uk.news.yahoo.com/conspiracy-t...

May HaShem someday grant me the hubris of a conspiracy theorist.

China Forms a 10-Nation Fusion Energy Alliance On Beijing’s coal dip, Iran’s environmental ‘catastrophe,’ and Thanksgiving carbon footprint

NEW in Heatmap AM:

⚛️ China forms 10-country fusion coalition
🌊 Interior Department won’t do NEPA review on offshore drilling plan
🇮🇷 Iran’s president says nation’s capital will have to move due to sinking

@alexckaufman.bsky.social has the pre-Thanksgiving roundup:

heatmap.news/am/china-nuc...

The Department of the Interior's policy, basically:

Canceled Data Centers Curb Georgia’s Projected Power Surge On California solar eating gas, China’s newest reactor, and GOP vs. CCS

Today in Heatmap AM:

🪒 Canceled data centers shave 6 GW off Georgia demand
☀️ Solar supplies more California power as gas decreases: EIA study
🇨🇳 China connects new nuclear reactor to grid

Read all about it from @alexckaufman.bsky.social:

heatmap.news/am/georgia-d...

What FY26 Senate Energy and Water appropriations mean for LPO Updating the LPO appropriations outlook

Via: substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Congress is not going along with the Trump administration's vision of focus the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office almost entirely on nuclear power.

Here's an update on what's in the FY26 Energy & Water Bill:

Even Westinghouse co-owner Cameco, which only bought its 49% stake in 2022, didn't believe the company would ever build another AP1000 until now.

Infographic from The Big Green Machine showing clean energy manufacturing investments that have advanced and slowed since Trump 47 took office.

US clean energy manufacturing investments slowed again last month.

We are now tracking 64 projects, $66.8B in investment, and 66,488 jobs at The Big Green Machine that have been delayed, shrunk, paused, or cancelled since Trump took office.

www.the-big-green-machine.com/post-trump-s...

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