Energy

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERSTATE DEFLATIONARY PRESSURES:

ECONOMICS TRUMPS IDEOLOGY:

Faster, and a lot cheaper: First all-electric long haul delivery flags new era in Australia trucking (Giles Parkinson, 30 March 2026, Driven)

The electric trucking company New Energy Transport is claiming the Australian first after organising the delivery of a bulk load of Who Gives A Crap toilet paper from Sydney to Canberra, using an electric prime mover and then a fleet of electric last mile delivery trucks to get the merchandise to the final destination.

According to NET’s Daniel Bleakley the energy costs from the 460 kilometres covered by the Chinese-made Windrose prime mover and the last mile delivery vehicles supplied by logistics group ANC last week were 85 per cent below the cost of a diesel truck.

And it was faster, too. The Windrose electric prime mover (which has a 700 kWh battery) covered the trip from Sydney to Canberra in a single charge. And because it can maintain speed up steep hills – unlike diesel trucks – it completed the trip 25 minutes faster than a diesel truck.

IT’S IMPOSSDIBLE TO OVERSTATE DEFLATIONARY PRESSURES:

Next-generation geothermal power: A commercial readiness assessment (Kenneth Sercy, Jia-Shen Tsai, 3/26/26, Niskanen Center)

With a very large potential market, attractive round-the-clock power generation profile, increased cost competitiveness, and favorable supply chain conditions, NGG is positioned for accelerated growth. However, it faces serious headwinds, including limited large-scale project experience; a lack of capital for project development; broad power-system infrastructure limitations; and challenging regulatory, permitting, and policy environments. Nevertheless, policy reforms could mitigate many of these key risks, creating positive momentum for building more projects and delivering the benefits that come from learning effects.

YOUR NEXT PLANE WILL BE A VOLT:

Hydrogen-powered business jet edges closer to certification (David Szondy, March 26, 2026, New Atlas)

Because of its redundant fuel cell configuration, the six 400-kW cells powering the turbofan motors are claimed to have a system resilience that rivals that of conventional engines. In addition, the zero-emissions powertrain makes the BYA-I immune to carbon taxes and “flight shaming” regulations.

PITY THE POOR MALTHUSIANS:

How M&S fruit picked by a Dyson could save us all money (Ben Spencer, March 21 2026, Times uk)

It is not just the robotic pickers that make the farm so advanced. The glasshouse is also divided into different climatic zones to “trick” the plants into fruiting throughout the year; strawberries are grown on 13ft tall rotating ferris wheels to increase the productivity of the space; UV lights on rails are used at night to tackle mould; and ladybirds are released to eat aphids. “We only use pesticides as a last resort,” said Cross.

The real key, though, is that the entire project is energy self-sufficient. A £16 million anaerobic digester next to the greenhouses takes maize, barley and rye grown in adjacent fields and ferments it in huge vats. The gas produced by the digester is then burnt to heat the greenhouses and generate electricity to meet all the farm’s power needs, with any excess sold back to the grid.

Carbon dioxide is also fed from the digester into the greenhouses via long, leaky tubes woven through the plants, to boost yields and sweetness. And when the feedstock has been digested, the resulting waste is put back onto the fields as a fertiliser.

All this means that when gas prices increase — and they have nearly tripled in the three weeks since the Iran conflict began — the Dyson strawberry operation is cushioned from the increase in costs that are hitting other producers.

ECONOMICS TRUMPS IDEOLOGY:

The ‘Big Beautiful Cook Inlet’ lease sale gets no bids for drilling (Rebecca Palsha, Mar. 4, 2026, KTUU)

The “Big Beautiful Cook Inlet” oil and gas lease sale received no bids for drilling, according to the federal government.

Up for grabs was more than one million acres off Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

In an online statement, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management wrote about the “Big Beautiful Cook Inlet” that “No bids were received.”

Environmental groups responded to the news with applause.

ECONOMICS TRUMPS IDEOLOGY:

Geothermal: Clean Energy for People Who Like to Drill: With AI creating insatiable demand for electricity, an old but clean source is getting a second look thanks to favorable politics and new extraction technology. It’s Landman for environmentalists. (Markos Kounalakis and Theo Jan Snoey, March 12, 2026, Washington Monthly)

This renewable energy technology, once considered a niche, has been revitalized by bipartisan politics, financial backing, and, especially, new drilling technology: Enhanced Geothermal Systems, or EGS. The technology is controversial because it involves fracking. EGS uses techniques from shale extraction—high-skill drilling, subsurface mapping, and controlled stimulation—to create permeability in hot, dry rock. This fluid circulation brings usable heat to the surface as electricity. It’s “fracking” for steam, not oil.

EGS is one of the few ways to harness the existing drilling economy—rigs, crews, geologists, completion services, everything you see on Landman—toward a clean product. To a polity split on renewables and Donald Trump’s administration fetishizing fossil fuels like coal and oil, geothermal’s politics are refreshingly weird: clean energy for people who like to drill. California’s oil-rich Kern County and the state’s Central Valley would gain from a geothermal buildout—in part, by using tapped-out oil wells to store thermal energy and in part by pivoting phased-out oil drilling labor and expertise.

Trump’s Department of the Interior has announced emergency permitting procedures to accelerate geothermal reviews on federal lands, tied to the president’s national energy emergency declaration. Whatever you think of MAGA, the administration’s backing of EGS is a win.

The purveyors of AI should pay for expanding geothermal—and increasingly they are. President Trump’s State of the Union address announced a “ratepayer protection pledge” that major tech players and hyperscalers are expected to sign. That could lower consumer prices, shift demand, and alter funding for other power projects. Unfortunately, there are scant details about the “pledge.” The administration’s plans often have, shall we say, an inability-to-execute problem. But the idea is right: User pays.

THAT WAS EASY:

Trump’s Transportation Secretary Promises the ‘Future of Aviation’ With New eVTOL Program (Matt Novak, March 9, 2026, Gizmodo)

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced eight pilot projects to test Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing vehicles (eVTOL) that’s scheduled to start across 26 states this summer.

Officially known as the Advanced Air Mobility and eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, the Department of Transportation says the futuristic vehicles “have the potential to generate new jobs, connect communities, and strengthen American leadership in aviation.”

PITY THE POOR PETROPHILES:

The strikes on Iran show why quitting oil is more important than ever (Hussein Dia, March 1, 2026, The Conversation)

In 2015, India blocked Nepal’s oil imports, triggering chaos. In response, authorities encouraged the very rapid growth of electric vehicles. Oil imports have begun to fall.

More recently, the Russia–Ukraine war and US strikes on Venezuela and Iran have brought new focus on reducing oil imports and bolstering domestic energy security.

In oil-dependent Cuba, US pressure has slashed the supply of oil. Blackouts are common and cars stay put. In response, authorities and businesses are importing 34 times as many Chinese solar panels as they did a year ago.

It’s not ideology driving this shift – it’s necessity. Electric vehicle imports, too, are soaring. “Cuba may experience the fastest energy transition in the world,” a Cuban economist told The Economist.

Renewables are the only reliable energy source.

THAT WAS EASY:

The Race to Build the World’s First Commercial Fusion Plant Is Heating Up (Gayoung Lee, March 2, 2026, Gizmodo)

Germany is not the first to pursue commercial fusion plants. In the United States, several private companies have expressed interest in realizing commercial fusion plants. For example, Helion intends to complete a fusion plant to power Microsoft buildings as early as 2028, whereas Type One Energy has partnered with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Oak Ridge National Laboratory for its project. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has also explicitly stated it aims to bring fusion power to commercial grids by the mid-2030s.

In that sense, Proxima’s new contract—involving government interests, the country’s most prestigious research institute, and sizable private firms—reflects Germany’s keen interest in getting ahead of the competition. Or at least, to keep up.