Reading and Podcast Picks is a collection of what we’ve been reading and listening to over the last week or so about energy topics.
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Texas’ halt on powering data centers reflects US reckoning over ‘ghost’ demand | Reuters
Nobody actually knows how much of the data center planning hitting grid operators right now is real. Drawing on Governor Abbott’s data center moratorium, Reuters looks at why this is a national problem, not just a Texas one.
The uncertainty around data center electricity use, said Tyson Slocum, director of the Energy Program at consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, raises the risk that utilities either under-build and threaten the stability of the grid, or overbuild to serve projects that never materialize, leaving average Americans footing the bill.
“I think part of what (Texas) is trying to do is to create some order, and impose some transparency, on an industry that in much of the country is still like the Wild West,” Slocum said.
Tesla ditches solar roof — and embraces regular solar panels | Canary Media
Tesla’s solar roof never really took off as the company anticipated. Canary Media reports the company is now putting its marketing behind standard solar panels instead, with a possible Texas factory in the mix.
Tesla’s Texas solar factory — if built — would be an enormous, though not inconceivably large, investment relative to the domestic supply chain. The filing does not disclose capacity figures, though it notes the facility would create nearly 10,000 full-time jobs. In May, trade publication PV Magazine reported that the U.S. had, in total, $14.5 billion worth of operational solar manufacturing facilities. Another $22.2 billion were under construction.
