Hello there, Voltron! It’s been an interesting week, hasn’t it? A guy writes a tediously long and wonky series on energy transmission and, next thing you know, transmission grids are dominating the news. By now, the story of what happened in Texas last week is familiar: an extraordinary cold snap simultaneously a) raised demand on the grid to well higher than the grid operator’s worst-case winter projections, and b) knocked out more than 30 gigawatts worth of energy generators. Supply and demand...
Feb 24, 2021•19 min
Greetings, People of Volts! We have come at last to the end of Transmission Month, née Week. It’s been quite a journey. Below are links to and summaries of all the transmission posts. Above is a mega-podcast — all the posts, read by me, strung together, for when you have a couple of hours free. * The subscriber-only discussion post that started everything. Thanks for all the ideas! * Why we need more big power lines An explanation for why the US needs more big, long-distance power lines to decar...
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr 51 min
Greetings, faithful Volts readers! Welcome back to the Transmission Week that never ends. The news these last few days has been filled with talk about electricity grids. Texas is suffering from an unprecedented cold snap that has left more than four million people without power for days. It’s a terrible situation. There’s a lot to say about it, what can and can’t be learned, and perhaps I’ll get to it next week. But you didn’t sign up for a breaking-news email, you signed up for Volts! So today ...
Feb 17, 2021•16 min
(If you’d rather listen to this post than read it, just click play above.) Welcome back to Volts, where every week is Transmission Week! In my three transmission posts so far, I have focused mostly on the challenges of building new long-distance energy transmission lines in the US — the poor planning, the inefficient financing, the permitting and siting hassles. Today I’m going to turn to a different subject: the various ways that the performance of the existing transmission system could be upgr...
Feb 12, 2021•27 min
Happy Monday! Welcome back to Transmission Fortnight here at Volts. Today’s a fun one. In my previous post , I described the many difficulties facing new high-voltage, long-distance transmission projects, from planning to financing to permitting and siting. It’s a bureaucratic slog. Today we’re going to look at a clever idea for bypassing many of those problems, namely, stitching together a national power grid by burying power lines along existing rail and road infrastructure, where rights-of-wa...
Feb 01, 2021•17 min
Welcome back to Transmission Week here at Volts! In my previous post , I explained why the US needs lots of new high-voltage power lines. They will help stitch together America’s balkanized grids, connect remote renewable energy to urban load centers, prepare the country for the coming wave of electrification, and relieve grid congestion. And oh yeah — we won’t be able to decarbonize the country without them. Nonetheless, they are not getting built! It’s a problem. Today, we’re going to walk ste...
Jan 27, 2021•32 min
[ If you would rather listen to the post than read it, click play above. ] Hello, Volties, and welcome to Transmission Week here at Volts! It’s been delayed almost as many times as Infrastructure Week, but it’s finally here. All week, we’re going to be digging into the US energy transmission system. For those of you new to the subject, “transmission system” refers to the big, high-voltage power lines that carry electricity over long distances, usually perched along tall metal towers. To use a ro...
Jan 25, 2021•18 min
[ If you don’t feel like reading this post, just click Play above and I’ll read it to you. ] Happy Inauguration Day, Voltsians! I know it’s getting somewhat tedious to keep saying this, but yes, I’m still working on that transmission post . I swore when I started my own publication that I was not going to rush anymore — that I would research and work on stuff until I was happy with it. But I never swore not to be neurotic and apologetic about it! Anyway, it’s in the works. Until then, let’s look...
Jan 20, 2021•11 min
Greetings, peoples of the Volts! I’ve got a special treat for you today. It’s not my first podcast , exactly, but it’s my first Official Podcast, with music and fancy-pants guests and everything. My guests are: * Dr. Leah Stokes , an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of the excellent recent book Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States ; and * Sam Ricketts ...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 17 min
[ If you do not feel like reading today’s post, you can listen to it. Just hit play above. ] Y’all, before we get started today I have to share the funniest thing that’s ever happened. You know how I went on MSNBC a few weeks ago to talk about how Joe Biden should do everything at once ? And you know how former Saturday Night Live comedienne and all-around awesome person Leslie Jones frequently tapes herself watching MSNBC and commenting on people and their rooms? Well get a load of this: Lol. I...
Jan 08, 2021•21 min
Hey, Volts readers, guess what? Now you can be Volts listeners! If you would prefer to hear the post below read aloud, by me, just click play above. And if you like having the posts read like this, let me know. If enough people are into it, I might see about getting some better equipment and actually learning how to edit a sound file. Before we jump in, some housekeeping: * Remember, as of Jan. 1, free subscribers will receive one post a week. The other posts, and the ability to comment on posts...
Dec 30, 2020•21 min
Happy Christmas Eve, everyone. I hope you are somewhere safe and warm. Here’s a little holiday treat for you: I recorded my first Voltscast. Matt Yglesias runs a newsletter called Slow Boring . He is interested in the energy bill that Congress passed this week. I just wrote a long post about that energy bill . We wanted to chat about it. Starting a whole official podcast with professional editing and music and a name and all the rest sounded a bit daunting, so as an experiment, we decided, in th...
Dec 24, 2020•52 min
