Energy

DONALD WHO?:

Trump vowed to kill wind power. Under his watch, America will produce more than ever (David Charter, May 29 2026, The Times uk)

The United States will have the capacity to produce record amounts of wind power under President Trump despite his vow to “terminate” all renewable energy windmills.

Experts say the industry is “winning” a fightback in the courts against Trump’s war on wind, with offshore wind farms expected to generate six gigawatts of energy by the end of Trump’s term — 34 times the capacity of the 174 megawatts in place when he came to office in January 2025.

THE SUN SHINES ON THE SAME DOG ALL DAY EVERY DAY:

24/7 renewables could happen sooner than you think (Julian Spector, 21 May 2026, Canary Media)

As technology prices fall and industry prowess compounds, a new type of clean megaproject is starting to look not only possible but also economically attractive. These projects would load up the sunniest and windiest places on Earth with enough solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries to deliver ​“firm power” 24 hours a day.

Such firm renewable projects could already compete with the cost of building a new coal- or gas-fired power plant in many regions, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency. It may sound fanciful to American ears, but projects resembling what IRENA describes are already getting built elsewhere in the world.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERSTATE DEFLATIONARY PRESSURES:

The case for clean energy abundance: It’s a good idea — and strikingly different from conventional environmentalism. (Matthew Yglesias, May 14, 2026, Slow Boring)

But while this is all offered in good faith, I think it fundamentally underrates the merits of energy abundance.

For example, despite the considerable progress that’s been made with batteries, we are nowhere near being able to electrify things like aviation and maritime shipping. It is, however, chemically possible to manufacture liquid hydrocarbons (including jet fuel, bunker oil, and so forth) out of the carbon dioxide present in the air.

This is a lossy, energy-inefficient process for reasons of fundamental physics. If you snapped your fingers and generated enough clean energy to replace all the coal and gas currently burned to make electricity without raising prices for consumers and then snapped again to generate enough clean energy to electrify all cars and trucks and home heating, that would still leave you with electricity that’s wildly too expensive to make jet fuel.

But if electricity were abundant — too cheap to meter — then it wouldn’t matter that using electricity to manufacture liquid hydrocarbons is inefficient. It would still be cheaper to do it that way than to drill for oil and refine it. The problems of the “hard to decarbonize” sectors would be solved.

This is why, again, despite my disagreeable insistence on saying that clean energy abundance is different from conventional green politics, I sincerely think most adherents to conventional green politics should switch sides. A genuine abundance approach can solve the problem they’re trying to solve, and tweaking utility regulation or getting people to use better-insulated windows can’t.

Removing externalities multiplies abundance.

PITY THE POOR PETROPHILES:

Floating wave energy converter deployed at sea to test performance in challenging environments (Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, May 16, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

Called MARMOK A 5, the wave energy converter (WEC) will be electrically connected to the network through the Lab platform, integrated into the BiMEP infrastructures.

The device will be evaluated in real operating conditions, with the aim of verifying its performance, robustness, reliability and ease of maintenance in the demanding marine environment. The data obtained will be fundamental to evaluate the design and move towards future pre-commercial phases of the technology.

THE FUTURE ALWAYS HAPPENS FASTER THAN YOU EXPECT:

US nuclear fusion firm begins installing final 48-ton vacuum vessel half for net energy (Aman Tripathi, May 15, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

The completed 96-ton steel chamber is designed to house plasma heated to 100 million degrees Celsius. CFS plans to start operations in 2027, with the objective of achieving a net energy gain, known as Q>1, where the machine produces more energy than it consumes.

“Ultimately, the goal of SPARC is to get to Q>1 as fast as we can so that we can get to the next step — to build ARC, our fusion power plant,” said CFS Chief Science Officer and Co-founder Brandon Sorbom in a press release.

YOUR NEXT PLANE WILL BE A VOLT:

First hydrogen helicopter just proved it can fly a real mission (Omar Kardoudi, May 11, 2026, New Atlas)

Last month, a modified Robinson R44 lifted off from Roland-Désourdy Airport in Bromont, Quebec, and completed what may be the most consequential short flight in rotorcraft history. It was the first hydrogen-powered helicopter to complete a full operational circuit – takeoff, climb, pattern flight, approach, and landing – under real-world conditions.

THE FUTURE ALWAYS HAPPENS FASTER THAN YOU EXPECT:

Trump Is Losing His War on Renewables: This is the second war Trump is losing. Last year solar and wind power accounted for 99 percent of the growth in world electricity supply, while generation using fossil fuels declined. (Paul Krugman , 5/08/26, NY Times)

The global energy transition — the shift from fossil fuels to electrotech, which uses solar, wind and batteries to power an electrified economy — is accelerating. It’s now clear that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz marks an inflection point: the global green energy curve, which was already on a rapidly rising trajectory, has suddenly become even steeper. “Investors,” reports the Financial Times, “are piling into clean energy funds.”

This acceleration isn’t just a consequence of soaring fossil fuel prices. It is also the result of the worldwide realization that, with the end of Pax Americana, depending on imported hydrocarbons is a risk not worth taking. The United States cannot be relied on to keep sea lanes open when cheap drones can take out an oil tanker or a major pipeline. Even relying on oil and gas from America itself is dangerous, since one never knows when an erratic U.S. government – now under the control of a twice-elected malignant narcissist — will try to use energy as a tool of coercion.

Despite the perversity of its causes, the current acceleration of electrotech is overwhelmingly positive for the world as a whole. It will slow climate change and reduce pollution. It will diminish the power of anti-democratic petrostates and limit the vulnerability of the world economy to disruptions at choke points like Hormuz. It will democratize access to cheap energy sources in places like Africa.

There is another positive consequence of the clean energy boom: the diminishment of the carbon coalition — the interest groups and ideologues who hate renewable energy and want the world to keep burning fossil fuels.

Economics trumps ideology.

YOUR NEXT PLANE WILL BE A VOLT:

New solar-powered airship stays airborne for 12 days at 52,000-ft altitude in test: The company’s airships could eventually fly for years at a time, providing crucial data for disaster response. (Chris Young, Apr 14, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

According to a press statement, Sceye’s airships are designed to stay aloft for months or even years at a time. The 270-ft-long SE2 has solar cells on its upper side that generate power to charge lithium-sulfur batteries. These 425-Wh/kg batteries provide power for an electrically driven tail-mounted propeller.

During its 12-day journey, SE2 completed one full day-night diurnal cycle over New Mexico and three consecutive diurnals off the Brazilian coast. Sceye claimed that it now has all the data its needs to advance to months-long flights.

THE FUTURE ALWAYS HAPPENS FASTER THAN PREDICTED:

Plug-In Power Signals An Energy Future Very Different From The Present (John Tamny, Apr 27, 2026, Forbes)

With a growing number of states allowing what the Post describes as “plug-in-solar” for houses, and as a way of shrinking monthly electricity bills, it’s no reach to suggest that homeowners themselves will morph into providers of crucial, low-cost power for other commercial entities in need of enhanced energy production themselves. Will precisely this happen? It’s impossible to know exactly because a commercial future that never resembles the present is opaque by the previous description.

Just the same, it’s notable that these solar plug-ins are low cost (as low as $400) presently, and their low costs mean installation doesn’t require substantial, politically toxic government subsidy. Better yet, and assuming growing usage of plug-ins that will lower electricity bills, is that the cost of them is poised to shrink alongside what one guesses will be increased energy production from them.

DADDY, WHAT WAS GAS?:

The U.S. Is Manufacturing a Ton of Grid Batteries ( Julian Spector, April 17, 2026, Reasons to be Cheerful)

Batteries were always crucial for the effort to scale up renewable energy production, but they have taken on even more significance as AI leaders look for quick-to-build power sources to supply their headlong data center expansion.

That’s why batteries will account for some 28 percent of new U.S. power plant capacity built this year. For the first time, the country will be able to produce enough grid batteries to meet that surging demand on its own, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Storage Coalition, an industry group.