Tech companies are making bold bets on reaching the “Holy Grail” of energy, nuclear fusion. It’s a dream scientists have been chasing for decades, and that many believe is still decades away at best. Nevertheless, the energy needs of AI and an arms race with China are pumping billions of dollars into efforts to make fusion power a reality.
[washingtonpost.com]
Senate Republicans’ version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — similar to the bill the House passed last month — would slash tax incentives for electric vehicles, wind, and solar power.
Industry leaders warn that it could be a killer blow to new energy projects and factories in the US. “This bill will end any hope of onshoring domestic manufacturing,” Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, said in a press statement today.
This saga has spanned several administrations since President Obama first tried to enact limits on greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Donald Trump tried to replace those rules with his own, weaker standards, only to be stymied by Joe Biden changing course.
“We are proposing to repeal Obama and Biden rules that have been criticized as regulating coal, oil, and gas out of existence,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced today.
[politico.com]
While sales of Tesla cars have suffered greatly since Elon Musk extended his arm and wallet to politics globally, his Starlink and Tesla Energy products have continued to do well. There’s lots of EV competition, but zero alternatives for cheap and fast consumer internet that can be quickly deployed in data dead zones, or whole home battery backup systems with a proven track record and terrific user experience. Although the competitors are quickly gearing up to address the latter.
2024 holds the current record, beating 2023. Now, there’s an 80 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will take the title, according to a recent forecast from the World Meteorological Organization.
Unless countries can transition to carbon pollution-free energy like wind and solar power, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels will keep on heating up our planet.
The Environmental Protection Agency is crafting a plan to eliminate greenhouse gas pollution limits on coal and gas-fired plants, the New York Times reports. Power plant emissions account for about a quarter of the nation’s planet-heating emissions.
He signed a series of executive orders today meant to revive the nuclear energy industry in the US, which has struggled to compete with cheaper sources of electricity. The president could also hit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with layoffs as part of a broader reorganization of the agency.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins claim to have developed a solid-state refrigeration tech that could increase efficiency by 70 percent compared to traditional thermoelectric materials.
The thin-film material called “controlled hierarchically engineered superlattice structures” (CHESS for short) is a thermoelectric material that could be used to make super-energy-efficient, super-slim fridges. And they might come from Samsung.
Samsung Research was part of the project, and the electronics giant just launched a new line of fridges with a thermoelectric Peltier module.
Updated May 22nd to clarify the efficiency comparison.
The Empire Wind project off the coast of New York can restart construction, about a month after the Trump administration abruptly issued a stop work order. The project was reportedly bleeding $50 million a week during the pause as President Trump waged his war against windmills.
The company building it had considered taking legal action against the Trump administration; it already had federal and state permits in place and construction is roughly 30 percent complete.
Microsoft, TikTok, and other big names have signed deals with Climeworks, a company developing technologies to filter CO2 out of the air, as a way to try to clean up some of their planet-heating pollution. But Climeworks hasn’t even been able to capture enough CO2 to offset its own carbon footprint yet.
The climate tech company announced layoffs as it faces “a challenging time” that includes uncertainty around the future of its projects in the US.
[heimildin.is]
Teen Vogue points out the irony of turning to water-intensive and energy-hungry generative AI in a recent op-ed. The rush to build massive new AI data centers is driving up electricity demand, prolonging the use of fossil fuels, and hitting nearby communities with more pollution.
New wind farms are still being built, but they’ll have to weather the storm of the Trump administration.
House Republicans proposed cutting crucial Biden-era tax credits for wind, solar, and geothermal energy even though Republican districts have the most to gain from investments in renewables.
The company announced a new agreement with project developer Elementl Power to prepare three different sites for next-generation nuclear power plants. Google and other tech giants are putting their faith — and capital— in new nuclear technologies they hope can provide enough electricity for AI data centers.
