Not to dunk on this but it isn't really true that the Hormuz oil crisis is driving a solar boom. Here's this chart updated to June of China solar exports, showing that the March spike in exports has subsided and was therefore mostly just export tax rebate effects.

Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d ago

Absolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West

Linked to article is lying about stories. I assume AI - maybe human. The project reported on (and linked to) is *cranberries* (not blue). The ‘sweeter’ berries claim is made up. The reference linked to with claims of testing is a solar project database site. Nothing related to fruit testing.

In Massachusetts, a solar farm was raised nine feet above blueberry fields, and its shade is changing how the fruit grows and tastes

In Massachusetts, a solar farm was raised nine feet above some blueberry fields, and its shade is changing how the fruit grows and even how it tastes.

ecoportal.net

Unlike that of the rest of southeast Asia, Pakistan's gas demand has been falling. Pakistan's solar boom is partly attributable to excellent do-it-yourself videos on Tiktok and youtube, and partly to two other factors, says Zainaab Basil in an interview with BNEF. www.bnef.com/insights/40017

Reached home at midnight after driving 800km through France with a baby and an 8-year-old. EV charging: pretty good, a few moments of inexperience panic when the interface was slow or there was a disorganised queue for chargers. But generally kids have to stop more often than an EV.

We are driving the EV back to Switzerland from Kent, and wow this is a huge solar structure in a random place. ( @bjoernstats.bsky.social is running down the car battery more than I feel comfortable with).

Yeah, not bad! (although the editor is so unaccustomed to the subject they let "renewal" slide for "renewable", and the situation in Kenya is a bit more complex than that, and I wouldn't use quite those terms for Pakistan's boom...)

Leo Hickman@leohickman.carbonbrief.org · last wk.

++BREAKING++ The Daily Telegraph has... *rubs eyes* ...published something sensible about climate change: "I’m coming to the view that the Online Right is going wrong, eschewing compassion or charm, talking itself into corners of angry irrelevance. Take climate change."

*sigh* the Bloomberg system is flagging my emails for obscenity because a large excel I am trying to send contains a reference to the "Longyan Yongding District Fengguang Jimei Foda Rooftop Distributed PV Plant" (solar plant in China), and apparently "Foda" is an obscene term in Portuguese.

Ooof those are some torn-up solar carports.

Commercial Solar Guy@commercialsolarguy.com · 2w ago

I hate insurance companies. ‘Our commercial liability insurance provider declared we were not at fault — not a situation where the system was installed improperly…created a gap where the system had not transferred title to the owner yet for the purposes of being covered by their property insurance’

Me trying to explain to a client the last ten years of solar auction prices, including developers in Portugal bidding to supply solar at negative prices to win access to a grid connection they could use for a larger project: "it got weird". Well, it *did*.

Nice charts. I continue to be frustrated that coverage of the relatively minor grid issues in Europe during the heatwave rather miss the point that solar and batteries were *helping*.

Tom Haddon@tomh-analyst.bsky.social · 2w ago

There will be distributed energy/renewables narrative trying to emerge (the likely lads are trying to portray this as a Spain version two) but it's clearly nonsense. Wind output forecast missed by ~2 GW (room for improvement there I think!), but solar PV and BESS nailed the brief.

What I have learned from observing project development for over 20 years: always file for land and interconnection permits even if the project is highly uncertain, you might be able to sell to someone. Or, a hydrogen firm actually makes some money. www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/plug...

Plug Power sells Texas site to Stream Data Centers

Land in Graham earmarked for hydrogen plant set to host data centers

datacenterdynamics.com

Seeking recommendations for podcasts about science or nature, suitable for an 8-year-old. We enjoy "Lachlabor" and "Anna und die Wilden Tiere" in German but haven't tried much in English. (We are planning to drive the EV from Switzerland to the UK, and it's going to be a long trip.)

Also they are right. The baby is annoyed that we ask on EVERY page "where's Spot?" when he keeps trying to show us that Spot is on the back cover like last time. We could conduct bedtime much more efficiently if we listened to him.

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 3w ago

My theory of why toddlers are so condescending is that they remember the period when they were doing proto-speak, and they think the issue is that us adults are clowns who don’t understand simple concepts.

From timing park visits to cold showers, parenting in Madrid offers a preview of how climate change is reshaping family life across Europe Read my latest story on @bloomberg.com for FREE! www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

How to Raise Young Children in One of Europe’s Hottest Capitals

From timing park visits to cold showers, parenting in Madrid offers a preview of how climate change is reshaping family life across Europe.

bloomberg.com

Just got a slightly concerning invitation from Eurostar to reschedule a trip to London next week to later for free, if I wanted to, because "we are currently experiencing hot weather". I do not think my employer will look kindly on me rescheduling to miss our training week, though.

Katie Martin@katie0martin.ft.com · 4w ago

this is fine giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Not really a dispute, but it's also a function of Germany doing much of the work before 2019; on *electricity production*, RE+ nuclear in Germany went from 53% in 2019 to 58% in 2025. Coal from 28% to 21%. See chart "Bruttostromerzeugung" here: www.bdew.de/energie/erne...

Dossier: Erneuerbare Energien

Alles zu erneuerbaren Energien in Deutschland: Entwicklungen, Potenziale und Positionen des BDEW im Überblick.

bdew.de

Lauri Myllyvirta@laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 4w ago

Where's Germany in these charts? Nowhere, for two reasons. The nuclear phase-out, obviously, but the country also failed to build renewables at scale, as we keep highlighting. Germany's status in people's (incl. many Germans') minds as renewables champion is a decade out of date.

Minutes of a market's peak solar output that can be stored in total battery capacity, end of 2025. Hawaii was the highest I could find, at 92 minutes, while the EU-27 aggregate is just 8 minutes.

Yeah, these numbers absolutely exist! And weirdly nobody bothers to compute "how much water has been saved by renewables and by coal-to-gas switching so far"... probably because it's basically nothing in the wider context of what agriculture and lawns use?

Jeffrey Winters@jeffreywinters.bsky.social · 4w ago

There’s this passage (not in chart form) from the EIA (www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...). Was thinking I could just look up the data in Form EIA-923 and pull together a quick water consumption/power output, but those numbers are on other spreadsheets and boy howdy are there a lot of lines.

This seems like a good reason to build renewables, since the water they're talking about is from fossil fuel power generation. It's not specific to data centers.

Antonia Juhasz@antoniajuhasz.bsky.social · 4w ago

AI Data Centers Use Far More Water Than Most Tech Giants Report. (gift link) www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-d...

The baby is big enough to be on a bike! He seems resigned about it.

Yay we are relevant enough to be news! Notoreity isn't as good as fame, but it's much better than indifference.

The Telegraph@telegraph.co.uk · last mo.

The progressive version of Twitter offers a world of vicious, sneering odium that only those who see themselves as kinder humans dish out 🔗 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/03/is-there-anything-more-pathetic-than-a-bluesky-user/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_li_pathetic-than-a-bluesky-user/

Seems worth bookmarking if you want to know about vehicle registration data by type (and who doesn't?)

Robbie Andrew@robbieandrew.bsky.social · last mo.

Countries that have already reported June data: Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland

Australia (well, three states of it) mandates three free hours of electricity every day from tomorrow, up to 24kWh. This is a pretty good explainer. lenergy.com.au/free-daytime...

Free Daytime Electricity Is Coming. How It Actually Works

The Solar Sharer Offer launches 1 July 2026. Here's what changed, how the cap works, and how to maximise free daytime electricity for your home.

lenergy.com.au

It does feel insane that none of "the progressive case for aircon" mentions solar. If this heatwave had happened in 2010, the European grid would have buckled in the daytime! As it is, there were some issues in the evening when the sun went down. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Not just for rich people: the progressive case for air conditioning | Phineas Harper

Air conditioning can bring significant benefits but also real harms. The answer is for it to take its place alongside a comprehensive state plan for climate adaptation, says writer and curator Phineas...

theguardian.com

I'm not sure that "Hitzenflaute" is a word we need, surely this is just a duck curve? And much easier to fix with a moderate amount of batteries than a dunkelflaute. (Good article though). www.pv-magazine.de/2026/06/26/w...

Was gegen die Hitzeflaute in Europa hilft - pv magazine Deutschland

Der Bundesverband Neue Energiewirtschaft hat, ähnlich wie vor Pfingsten, als lange Phasen mit negativen Strompreisen anstanden, die Bundesregierung erneut zum Handeln aufgefordert. Die Maßnahmen, die ...

pv-magazine.de

I am glad the boss is doing this. While as analysts we try to maintain a little distance with the renewable energy industry associations, it is very important for our fractured sector to have ways to unite against the much tighter fossil fuel lobbies. www.ft.com/content/5d02...

Michael Bloomberg arms green lobby for fight against oil interests

Billionaire pledges $285mn to renewable industry associations as nations face energy policy decisions in wake of Iran war

ft.com

Thanks to solar it absolutely can. The evenings may require batteries, but even without them, cooling until the sun goes down will save a great deal of suffering. (My solar house is cheerfully producing three times as much electricity as the aircon is using).

Channel 4 News@channel4news.bsky.social · last mo.

UK cannot ‘air con its way’ out of this heatwave says Professor www.channel4.com/news/uk-cann...

Bit late to this, but it's striking and might cause me to update my priors around heat waves and the grid slightly... NESO has issued an Electricity Margin Notice (i.e., worried about having enough power) for 7pm - 10pm this evening. Also, the spot power price surged to over £500/MWh yesterday 😱

Mordant Muppetry@mordantmuppetry.bsky.social · last mo.

UK National Grid issuing a system margin notice for Wednesday evening.

Before I head back to the sweatbath that is Intersolar: funniest conversations have been with solar manufacturers boasting that they have small solar capacity and actually their main businesses are something else. This makes them better solar manufacturers apparently.

See this is a fairly blunt but probably effective mechanism to integrate more renewables into the grid! (I worry a bit that if everyone schedules their EV to charge from 11am sharp it's going to cause ramping issues, but the principle is there).

Andrew Starr@ajsta.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here's one I just signed up to in Melbourne Australia. 11am-2pm free 3-9pm AUD0.32/kWh (USD0.23) Other times AUD0.20/kWh (USD0.14)