My Dad unexpectedly died about a fortnight ago. He was a beautiful and kind man - the greatest father you could have wanted, and big part of who I am. Devastating that I will never be able to talk to him again - I'll miss him for the rest of my life. He had just turned 67.

... um so the placement of AEMO here is pretty bad 😬😬😬 www.afr.com/policy/econo...

'The Coalition has vowed to detonate most of Australia’s efforts to decarbonise its economy “within 30 days” of winning power, incl slowing the advance of renewable energy, supporting nuclear power plants & scrapping the emissions-curbing industrial policy.' reneweconomy.com.au/coalition-vo...

@peterhannam1.bsky.social on NSW coal mine extension following PM'/s remarks on curbing emissions, & need for 'Selflessness. Bravery. Compassion' >"Which of those categories the IPC’s looming approval of the HVO extension will fit into is anybody’s guess" 😅🥲😥 reneweconomy.com.au/biggest-coal...

AI could be a bubble and is not yet making Australia more productive, Michele Bullock says

AI could be a bubble and is not yet making Australia more productive, Michele Bullock says

RBA governor says AI is ‘great white hope’ but its adoption is so far adding to inflation, rather than economic growth The Reserve Bank governor said AI could be a bubble and there was no evidence it is making the economy more efficient, as the Albanese government claims the technology will solve Australia’s economic malaise. Ahead of an expected interest rate rise next week, Michele Bullock also said the slump in house prices was deeper than others in Australia’s recent history. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

Just FYI - there is a cost curve for RE projects ( a fairly basic / uncontroversial point I think!) New loads (...looking at you data centers) necessarily push you along the cost curve. All else being equal, RE used for data centers means more expensive RE for everyone else. Not rocket science.

Wild to me that people are using slop factories to generate statistical representations of *actual real people* - and excellent ones at that - (whose photo's you can literally find on the internet in a second - or better yet you could ask them for)

New record (..that probably won't last long): 80.4% instaneous penetration of RE in the NEM over the weekend. More than half it coming from behind the meter (..rooftop solar) 🔌💡 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The accounting is in: In Oregon there are 111 data centers. The TOTAL number of people employed at data centers is just 2,630, or 0.1% of the labor force. Those 100 data centers consumer 23% of all electricity used in Oregon. Meanwhile, electricity rates skyrocket as more centers are built.

Oregon data centers by the numbers: 111 facilities consume nearly one-quarter of state’s power, according to new report

A first-of-its-kind report details the footprint of the controversial facilities.

opb.org

Something I don't think people realise is that "don't mention climate change" isn't just a US centrist dems position. This is an ideology that has taken root within several very major climate and energy transition advocacy groups. It's getting better, particularly in the last year, but *man*

Anyway!! This lil thread was inspired by my friend @peterhannam1.bsky.social, who writes for @reneweconomy.com.au, and has been one of the few Aussie journos who keeps bringing up climate as a question and angle around load growth, which I think is genuinely great. More of this is very good

“It’s an extremely challenging task. The rate of renewable energy rollout that is now required to hit that target is unbelievable” As in, not believable. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Australia’s renewables transition is well under way – but meeting its 2030 target will be ‘extremely challenging’

A gap looms between the Albanese government’s goal of 82% renewable energy and planned solar and wind projects

theguardian.com

Absolutely horrific: Thanks to a false intelligence "generated with the help of artificial intelligence," the US military nearly carried out an operation aboard a Chinese ship because the incorrect intelligence said it was carrying nukes, according to @cnn.com. edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...

Exclusive: US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say | CNN Politics

The episode shows the risks of using this new, relatively poorly understood technology in the middle of the Iran war

edition.cnn.com

‘Soon we will be able to vilify immigrants and foment hatred without any human involvement whatsoever!’

"... the first stage of the project could be powered by gas, with three major gas power plants within two kilometres of the proposed site" www.smh.com.au/national/que...

Anthropic inks deal for $32 billion mega data centre in Queensland

It is the first deal signed in Australia by the maker of Claude, which is hoping to publicly list the company with a valuation of $2.8 trillion.

smh.com.au

Everything going well then (IEEFA and Green Energy Markets via @ryancropp.bsky.social ) www.afr.com/policy/energ...

▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░ 70.01%

Not quite as low as projected in the end (minus 75MW or so).. Perhaps cloud cover? (.. Or more speculatively - maybe BTM batteries or SSO not well capture by the forecast!)

Dylan McConnell@dylanjmcconnell.bsky.social · last mo.

Likely to be first big negative demand day in SA for about 6 months or so.. (not an overall min demand record per se - but projection suggests ~2x lower than min last Sept) quack 🔌💡

Likely to be first big negative demand day in SA for about 6 months or so.. (not an overall min demand record per se - but projection suggests ~2x lower than min last Sept) quack 🔌💡

NEW: Dozens of AI data centre projects will escape Australia's proposed energy & water restrictions which aren't expected apply to green-lit projects. While the Prime Minister said they're "smaller", these projects are generally bigger and power hungrier www.abc.net.au/news/...

Santos boss Kevin Gallagher spoke at the National Press Club on Wednesday. It'll blow your mind to discover that he spread an awfully large amount of shit. Me in The New Daily:

Profits of doom: Gas boss stretches the truth at press club

Countries across our region are seeing gas as a strategic liability. That’s good for climate and energy security, but bad for gas executives.

thenewdaily.com.au

Incredible moth

New York City is banning the use of generative artificial intelligence for public school students from 2K through 8th grade, part of a larger move to restrict classroom technology in the nation’s largest school district. https://cnn.it/4iGlH79

80% *hourly matching* in Spain (.. some nuance - but all else being equal generally implies quite a bit more RE than required for 100% of annual load supported) renewablesnow.com/news/spain-t...

Spain to require data centres use 80% renewables on hourly basis - report

Spain will require data centres to cover at least 80% of their electricity consumption with new renewable generation on an hourly basis under draft rules aimed at regulating the sector's rapid expansi...

renewablesnow.com

This is set up for laughs, but it’s actually one of the best demonstrations I’ve seen of how being capable of producing convincing sounding language and understanding meaning are two completely different things. A chatbot does not understand you, it just has automated responses based on your words.

Ashley@ashleysays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Chefs kiss

This whole datacentre palaver is a confused mess I do wonder if different elements of the policy proposal are being mixed / conflated - I.e. the REGO / RE-offsetting part, and the RRO-like / firm contracting part. Would make some things make (slightly) more sense www.afr.com/policy/energ...

‘No carve-outs’ for Queensland on data centres, says Bowen

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says states will be able to use non-renewable power for data centres only if they can prove it would be cheaper for household bills.

afr.com

imho this mainly reflects overselling what this was and is. This is pretty much exactly what I would have expected ( it's somewhat analogous to being upset that the default market offer - DMO - is the costliest offer). reneweconomy.com.au/solar-sharer...

You can just ban socially toxic technologies! They were socially banned like twelve years ago with Google Glasses, we can do it again in more formal ways with this latest attempt to push the Pervert's Delight™ onto society. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...

Push for import ban on 'pervert' smart glasses amid privacy concerns

Support is growing for a ban on the import of so-called “smart glasses”, amid an influx of low-cost devices that are being used to film Australians without their consent.

abc.net.au

Line goes up (... and rather fast!)

.. there was actually a significant upwards revision (+30%) in AEMO's projected datacentre demand since their draft in *May*