Tessera

Efforts to cut lead times for US mineral projects must go beyond NEPA reform. New white paper by @cookpj.bsky.social and myself lays out a menu of options: enhanced mineral mapping $$, reforms to General Mining Law, improved BLM + Forest Service regs, and more. thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...

Reducing Critical Mineral Project Lead Times

thebreakthrough.org

Statement by @thebti.bsky.social with my remarks applauding the newly introduced SECURE Minerals Act of 2026 by Rep. Wittman, Rep. Moolenaar, Sen. Shaheen, and Sen. Young establishing a U.S. Strategic Resilience Reserve Corporation with $2.5B in initial capital. thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...

RELEASE: The SECURE Minerals Act Equips U.S. Critical Minerals…

thebreakthrough.org

Efforts to cut lead times for US mineral projects must go beyond NEPA reform. New white paper by @cookpj.bsky.social and myself lays out a menu of options: enhanced mineral mapping $$, reforms to General Mining Law, improved BLM + Forest Service regs, and more. thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...

Reducing Critical Mineral Project Lead Times

thebreakthrough.org

Statement by @thebti.bsky.social with my remarks applauding the newly introduced SECURE Minerals Act of 2026 by Rep. Wittman, Rep. Moolenaar, Sen. Shaheen, and Sen. Young establishing a U.S. Strategic Resilience Reserve Corporation with $2.5B in initial capital. thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...

RELEASE: The SECURE Minerals Act Equips U.S. Critical Minerals…

thebreakthrough.org

Seaver Wang@wang-seaver.bsky.social · last yr.

Given today's absurd U.S. Greenland envoy news, re-upping an older thread by me on why Greenland's mineral resources simply wouldn't be useful to the U.S. anytime in the near-to-medium term. That's on top of the sheer idiocy of continuing to pester European allies with such stunts, of course.

Mining in Greenland? Resource quality may be good, but logistics + lack of infrastructure drive costs up again quickly. Greenland's most mature active mine: "only accessible by boat or helicopter... the site includes a deep water port that is frozen during the winter months."

New work from my colleague @cookpj.bsky.social as the year winds down: what unconventional mineral resources could help take the US from import dependence to surplus in certain critical commodities? Byproduct recovery, waste mining, new deposit types: www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/could-the-...

Could the U.S. Unlock a Shale Revolution for Critical Minerals?

Tapping new critical mineral resources with technology and innovation

breakthroughjournal.org

"Beautiful clean coal" with Chinese characteristics: "Environmentally leading, towards the green future" (环保先行绿色未来) is painted over the carbon anode furnaces at Xinjiang Qiya Aluminum & Power--powered by 6 onsite coal units (2160MW) with another 2x660MW on the way.

"Beautiful clean coal" with Chinese characteristics: "Environmentally leading, towards the green future" (环保先行绿色未来) is painted over the carbon anode furnaces at Xinjiang Qiya Aluminum & Power--powered by 6 onsite coal units (2160MW) with another 2x660MW on the way.

New work from my colleague @cookpj.bsky.social as the year winds down: what unconventional mineral resources could help take the US from import dependence to surplus in certain critical commodities? Byproduct recovery, waste mining, new deposit types: www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/could-the-...

Could the U.S. Unlock a Shale Revolution for Critical Minerals?

Tapping new critical mineral resources with technology and innovation

breakthroughjournal.org

Sophie Richardson @sophiedrich.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Kudos to @ember-energy.org for rapidly fixing an error in their widely-read China Energy Transition report. A key graph on industrial electrification had an error making electrification look *far* larger: really a 8.1 EJ reduction in coal final energy, not an erroneous >23 EJ drop.

Required reading on #China #climate—facts to displace fictions, propaganda, “greenwashing”—from @wang-seaver.bsky.social @tednordhaus.bsky.social @vijramachandran. thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...

Greenwashing With Chinese Characteristics

thebreakthrough.org

Sarah Sax @sarahlsax.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The second is a deep dive into the numbers - and lives - behind China's renewable energy surge by @wang-seaver.bsky.social and @tednordhaus.bsky.social. --> www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/greenwashi...

Greenwashing With Chinese Characteristics

China's "Green Electrostate" Is Neither

breakthroughjournal.org

Sarah Sax @sarahlsax.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Two great pieces just dropped that lift the veil on the story of China as a "green" saviour. Worth the read! First one by @sophiedrich.bsky.social @climaterights.bsky.social on what China showed - and obfuscated - at the most recent COP. climaterightsinternational.substack.com/p/china-cop3...

China COP30 Cop Out

By Sophie Richardson

climaterightsinternational.substack.com

A partial industrial revival in Weirton, West Virginia. In 2003, Weirton Steel declared bankruptcy, shutting down its blast furnaces by 2005. Today, US iron-air battery manufacturer Form Energy has built its first factory on the same site, with plans to expand. 40.418, -80.593

New piece from me: Fish larvae are not a good reason for the California Coastal Commission to delay approval of a key permit California's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant needs to continue operating. thebreakthrough.org/articles/why...

Why California’s Coastal Commission Should Let Diablo Canyon Keep…

thebreakthrough.org

In a testament to the speed + boldness of Chinese companies in rapidly expanding beyond their "core competencies", my grandma is still working her way through a stash of BYD face masks from August 2020, when BYD quickly became one of the world's largest mask manufacturers.

An interesting observation: Japan + Germany are about tied for the 4th + 5th most solar PV capacity globally at ~91+GWdc each, but Japan only has two PV farms >200MW and Germany only one. Relatively few superlarge deployments. Land-abundant countries have it easier I guess. 🧵

John Smillie@johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 8mo ago

A friggin exciting breakthrough in clean aluminum smelting. Reducing the power consumption of this new cell technology is more straightforward. The daunting obstacle is that this cell type is not drop-in compatible for existing facilities, so we're talking all-new plants globally (or more tweaking).

More on Elysis and their cleaner Alum. smelting process. Interesting that it increases energy used, because you aren't getting the chemical energy from the carbon. Thus, it is more more vital to use clean power. www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

"Wetlands? Who needs those?" For all the China infrastructure simping on here among ex-China climate/enviro folks, y’all don’t have the guts to actually copy it. Ezhou Huahu ('flower lake') Int’l Airport, "China's 1st cargo-focused int’l airport" east of Wuhan. 30.331, 115.036

Seaver Wang@wang-seaver.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Hearing that Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan has received approval from Niigata prefecture to restart, re-upping my recent thread on the status of Japan's reactors under construction + awaiting restart: (K-K Units 6 + 7 already have safety approvals to restart)

Some recent buzz re: a possible new Japan nuclear build, but what's the update on JP nuclear restarts + projects being built? TEPCO's Higashidori site near the idled but operable Tohoku plant hasn't even poured a concrete basemat yet. Debatable to say it's under construction.🧵

This morning's quick research dive: as best as I can tell, large reservoir hydroelectric dams require on average ~5x the concrete per GW of generation capacity that nuclear does. The variation among dams is also remarkable. Baihetan and Xiluodu relatively efficient.

Seaver Wang@wang-seaver.bsky.social · 9mo ago

LNG tankers + storage tanks use thin foil layers of a special alloy called Invar with a low coefficient of thermal expansion, 36% nickel with some grades ~5% cobalt. Anyone know if liquified hydrogen tanks use Invar, or is a different alloy needed? I'm seeing different things.

"China builds the world's biggest energy projects" with a twist. Unless Chinese firms have started selling them abroad, I believe China is the only country operating the world’s largest 270000 cubic m LNG storage tanks, now built at a few new terminal phases all <2 yrs old.

Commercial Solar Guy @commercialsolarguy.com · 9mo ago

"China builds the world's biggest energy projects" with a twist. Unless Chinese firms have started selling them abroad, I believe China is the only country operating the world’s largest 270000 cubic m LNG storage tanks, now built at a few new terminal phases all <2 yrs old.

‘Corning’s Michigan facility began producing silicon ingots & wafers Q3’2025…plans to ramp daily production to 1 million wafers in Q4…first domestic production of ingots/wafers in nearly a decade…publicly announced 10/2024 - construction likely commenced prior…remarkably fast by U.S. standards’

Corning Leads U.S. Domestic PV Wafer Supply|Manufacturing|Solarbe Global

By the end of October 2025, Corning announced that its Michigan facility had begun producing silicon ingots and wafers in the third quarter of 2025, with pl ...

solarbeglobal.com

Crystalline silicon solar doesn't use cadmium. None. Zero. This myth arose from confusion over different solar techs 15 yrs ago but won't die. Electric connex in panels may use some lead-tin solder, but one should worry more about lead/solder/brass fittings in home/local water pipes. And paint.

I don't suppose anyone is aware of a database or resource that records the brand and model of solar PV modules used in specific big utility-scale solar installations? I expect no global database exists, but curious if there is one for the EU, US, other countries, or states.

Korea is flexing here with this highly artistic floating solar farm, newly commissioned days ago. 47.2 MW of capacity located near the 50 MW Imha hydroelectric dam. The modules are arranged into the shape of Korea’s flag and the Mugunghwa, Korea’s national flower.

Chatting with many international peers in recent months (Taiwan/JPN/Indonesia/range of EU) and many feel geothermal is desirable as an idea but see their domestic potential as limited to a few 100s of MW/maybe a GW... Geothermal may have to challenge those conceptions to grow globally?