energy and electricity

value Adventure›Exploration

subject How we live together›Earth & what we build on it›Energy

created 2026/03/31 modified 2026/09/19

Net-Zero America: quantifies five distinct technological pathways, all using technologies known today, by which the US could decarbonize its entire economy
A primer on lithium-ion batteries — David Roberts
The dirty details of lithium mining — WIRED
The plan to build a global network of floating power stations: harness the thermal energy of the ocean with a person-sized device filled with wax that sinks/cools then rises/heats, powering a generator — Daniel Oberhaus, WIRED
A musical explainer on nuclear reactors
David Roberts interviews the CEO of KoBold, a startup using AI to optimize discovery of rare minerals — four key metals for electrification (lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper) are hard to find and hard to replace; cost of the gap between what electrification needs by 2050 and what current mines can supply is >$15 trillion
Cobalt Red — Siddharth Kara, on how "artisanal" cobalt mining for batteries/electrification devastates the Democratic Republic of the Congo
We're living in the invisible age of copper — Works in Progress
Scientists have modified solar cells to produce electricity at night, by harnessing the energy of radiative cooling — Anthropocene Magazine
A cool alternative to dams: electric trucks running downhill — Anthropocene Magazine
New potential for geothermal energy, maybe transformative for our energy grid — Grist

Electrification of everything

Solution to climate change: electricity has to come from renewables, and then everything that can be electrified must be (NYT, Ezra Klein thread)

You're thinking about home heating wrong — The Atlantic
A better way to implement a carbon tax — Vox
Span — a smart electric panel (interview with founders, link needed)
Volts podcast: Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich on the promise of electrification: more support for electrifying everything (DNF, but interesting!)
- Vision = "virtual power plants" for distributed networks of solar energy, to power homes that will require much more electricity once everything is electrified
- Houses with solar → assets to the grid
- Sunrun as the preferred EV charger installer → facilitates addition of cheapest solar kW, since the biggest costs are actually visiting the houses

Microwave = 1200 W → 1 min = 0.02 kWh = 0.014 kg CO₂ (≈ 0.035 mile drive, 1.8 smartphones charged)
Washing machine (LG front load) = 1700 W → 56 min = 1.59 kWh = 1.1 kg CO₂ (≈ 2.8 mile drive, 143 smartphones charged)
Dryer = 7200 W → 1 hour = 7.2 kWh = 5.1 kg CO₂ (≈ 12.6 mile drive, 5.6 lb coal burned)
Dishwasher = 1800 W avg → 3 hours = 5.4 kWh = 3.8 kg CO₂ (≈ 9.5 mile drive, 0.43 gallons gas)

Market accounting for a power plant's ability to generate electricity in the future; prices include some or all of fixed costs of building/maintaining a facility
- Risks: drive excess capacity, less flexible markets if capacity of different generation types are not accounted for
- Pros: help ensure reliability
Vs. energy-only electricity markets (e.g. TX), which rely on price spikes during shortage to cover fixed costs
Role of capacity vs. energy markets is evolving as renewables comprise more generation — higher upfront cost but cheaper long-term
Millions of Texans are freezing right now — our deregulated electrical grid is to blame: the state of our nation's electric grids — Fred Stafford, Jacobin

Compression → increases temperature (same energy of molecules in smaller space)
Evaporation → decreases temperature for the converse reason, and because it takes an external energy source to convert liquid to gas (to overcome latent heat of vaporization)
In a closed system of pipes:
- Refrigerant/coolant = liquid with low boiling point, easy to convert between gas and liquid
- Pipes inside fridge widen after expansion valve — partial conversion to gas at first, then completely boils; gas cools as it expands
- Compressor outside pressurizes gas to hot gas; as it flows through condenser it turns back to liquid and releases heat