#energy-strain

#energy-strain

"A stellarator is a thing that is objectively very difficult to design, objectively very difficult to build, but if it works, it can control the burning hot plasma better than a tokamak."

The country is at risk of 'stagflation' - where slow economic growth is combined with rising inflation - as the energy crunch brought about by the war in the Middle East hits.

Burning gas and propane for cooking, water heating and space heating in California homes and businesses creates 10% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. It also releases pollutants indoors.

First Solar closed FY2025 with $9.54 billion in shareholder equity, $2.80 billion in cash, and total liabilities that fell 8.77% year over year, showcasing a stable and strengthening balance sheet.

Noor, meaning light in Arabic, is a solar facility that produces enough energy to power more than a million homes, utilizing concentrated solar power instead of traditional PV panels.

"The nuclear power technology that is most common - light water reactors - was originally invented for nuclear submarines. There has actually always been a history of basically pre-fabbing it and looking at it in a shipyard context."

"We were considering multiple forms of capital when we started. It just felt like the opportunity is so large that venture capital gives us the opportunity to take those risks upfront and have the possibility to generate an outsized return."

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says it is the 'largest supply disruption in history'. With the disruption expected to have a lasting impact on prices, governments around the world have introduced measures to limit the impact on consumers and the economy.

Data centers accounted for around 50% of all electricity demand growth in the U.S. last year, according to the IEA, far surpassing the rise in electricity usage in the residential, industrial, and transport sectors.

In Europe, we have maybe six weeks or so (of) jet fuel left. If we are not able to open the Strait of Hormuz ... I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel.

The group points out, correctly, that the grid is designed for brief bursts of high demand; most of the time there's lots of capacity that goes unused. Utilize thinks that should change. The group argues that smarter ways to use that capacity already exist. Utilize name checks a number of those solutions, including battery storage, demand response, and virtual power plants, all of which have emerged en masse over the last decade, but remain under utilized.

The US is now leading a global surge in new gas power plants being built in large part to satisfy growing energy demand for data centers. And more gas means more planet-heating pollution. Gas-fired power generation in development globally rose by 31 percent in 2025. Almost a quarter of that added capacity is slated for the US, which has surpassed China with the biggest increase of any country.