Will utility ratepayers foot the bill for the data center boom?

Wisconsin utilities are gearing up to provide power for several proposed data centers, each of which could use as much electricity as an entire city.

Wisconsin Watch's Bennet Goldstein interviewed Harvard's Ari Peskoe, one of the nation's leading scholars on utility law, who have shown how existing customers often end up subsidizing projects that support multi-trillion dollar tech companies while generating outsized profits for utility companies. Peskoe discusses regulatory reforms that could protect ratepayers.

Inertia and the Iberian blackout

As European grid operators investigate the cause of a regional blackout that hit much of Spain and Portugal on Monday, clean energy opponents are already blaming the region's heavy reliance on solar energy. Many things can trigger blackouts, including transmission bottlenecks, storms, and extreme temperatures (see Texas, Feb. 2021). One factor that can put grids at risk is a lack of inertia from big spinning turbines. Heatmap's Matthew Zeitlin has a level-headed explanation of inertia, how it keeps the grid balanced, and how grid engineers are working to come up with other ways to ensure stability.

Over at Reuters, Ron Bousso argues that the problem isn't reliance on renewables but how they're managed. Bousso makes the case that grid upgrades — and in particular battery storage — should go hand in hand with clean energy buildout.

Wither the IRA?

If you're wondering what will become of the myriad clean energy incentives authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act you're not alone.

Republicans, who control both houses of Congress, are split on the tax credits, which support things like wind and solar energy and electric vehicles as well as construction of new factories, hydrogen production hubs, nuclear energy and other priorities of the current administration. The IRA also supports rebates for home weatherization, heaters, appliances, solar panels, and other energy efficiency projects for individuals and businesses.)

Investments have flowed disproportionately to red-leaning districts, but Republicans are looking for ways to offset major tax cuts, and clean energy is a perennial target for many on the right.

Heatmap has the latest on the wrangling going on in the House Ways and Means Committee, which could end up deciding the law's fate, as well as some of the potential ramifications.

Climate data visualized

I love data visualization, which also happens to be an effective tool for communicating climate change.

Climate scientist and Climate Brink co-author Zeke Hausfather recently posted some "tree ring" graphs of global surface temperatures over the past 85 years. These are fun and visually engaging variations on the familiar "climate stripes" graph.

Climate scientists typically focus on temperature anomalies (the difference relative to some point in history), but this visualization of absolute temperature is really interesting. It clearly shows the intensification of summer heat and moderation of winter cold, but it also shows how winter is shrinking.