"This is truly one of the most iconic landscapes in America," said Chance Wilcox, California desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Assn., as he stood atop a rocky slope within the project footprint.
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.
Brookfield Renewable pays a quarterly distribution of $0.392 per unit, annualizing to roughly $1.57. With the stock trading around $39.36, that puts the yield in the neighborhood of 4%, and the company just announced a 5% distribution increase. The next payment hits March 31, 2026.
Monterey Park residents describe their predominantly Asian and Hispanic city as peaceful and quiet, with a convenient location in the San Gabriel Valley near to downtown Los Angeles. The intense data center backlash is prompted by an Australian asset manager's proposed project, a 247,000-square-foot site for computer servers that would also include a new electrical substation and, to stave off power interruptions, around a dozen diesel generators.
They thought he would be too busy and too famous to consider building in Bakersfield. They were wrong. Wright responded to their inquiry and after much correspondence and a few meetings, agreed to the commission, one of his last. He designed the house in 1958 and died the next year at age 91.
TerraPower is one of several companies racing to build smaller, more efficient reactors to augment electrical grids under strain from AI data centers. In a 2024 interview with The Verge, Bill Gates said that he also believes nuclear energy can help solve the climate crisis by using designs that minimize the problem in terms of their safety or fuel use or how they handle waste.
These aren't optional programs - these are investments approved by bipartisan majorities in Congress, and the President doesn't get to cancel them simply because he disagrees with them," Bonta told reporters Wednesday.
The UC Berkeley Chancellor's Fund, the college's attempt at venture capital, has raised more than $250,000 from a single investor. Chancellor Rich Lyons has said he wants to blur the edge between the university and the region's startup ecosystem. (SF Business Times) A man in his 60s was taken to Highland Hospital on Saturday night after a driver struck him in a crosswalk at San Pablo and Ashby avenues. (Berkeley Scanner)
The pioneering technology means one of the oldest forms of energy storage, hydropower, can be used to store and release renewable energy using even gentle slopes rather than the steep dam walls and mountains that are usually required. The design means the principles of hydropower could be used as a form of long duration energy storage in many more locations across the UK, and the world, than traditional hydropower dams. The projects could be quicker and cheaper to build too.
An all-electric, energy-efficient alternative to gas-burning furnaces, heat pumps are widely seen as the climate-friendly home heater of choice. They can do double-duty as both home heaters and AC units and are pretty good at maintaining a constant temperature inside a home without the blast-then-cool-off cycle typical of a furnace.
Fusion power's biggest question remains unanswered: how do you ensure the cost to start the fusion reaction isn't higher than the price at which you can sell the power? Plenty of people have ideas, but no one has cracked it yet. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, for example, is confident enough that it's building a massive reactor that costs several hundred million dollars. But the device won't be turned on until next year, leaving the question unanswered for now.
Despite the Trump administration's opposition to renewables, solar power will likely remain part of datacenter energy supply mix due to its low cost. This is according to financial analyst Jefferies, which says in a research note - shared with The Register - that clean energy companies are going "on the offense" and adapting to the changing times in which they find themselves.
The updated Building Emissions Saving Ordinance (BESO) requires sellers of single family homes or duplexes to complete at least six credits worth of upgrades before final sale or pay $2,500 to the city, which is then funneled to the buyer upon completion of the upgrades. For many sellers, installing a heat pump is the easiest and most efficient way to earn all six credits in one fell swoop, while also significantly increasing the appeal of the property, notes Grimsich, CEO of 1-888-Heat-Pumps.
If you're a typical American, you get home from work and start flipping switches and turning knobs-doing laundry, cooking dinner, watching TV. With so many other folks doing the same, the strain on the electrical grid in residential areas is highest at this time. That demand will only grow as the world moves away from fossil fuels, with more people buying induction stoves, heat pumps, and electric vehicles.
