Frank Muraca

Senior Analyst at Power Brief. Data viz professor at @UNC. Editor of the NC Data Center Newsletter.

[Frank Muraca @FrankMuraca]

Up to 37 days center moratoriums in North Carolina.

[Christian Breyer 🦣 @ChristianOnRE]

The world’s most efficient solar panel goes on sale later this year at https://t.co/v6V4MB4BWP

[Frank Muraca @FrankMuraca]

This and also you can make the case that cell towers have direct benefits on the area. But my photos might be in a data center several states over.

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

It’s forgotten now, but the controversy over cell towers ended not because phone companies won thousands of local permitting fights or the public saw the light … but because Congress passed a law that seriously restricted towns’ authority over them. https://t.co/YJeUAtKz0L

[Frank Muraca @FrankMuraca]

Nice article on how utilities are preparing for quantum computing from @UtilityDive

[Utility Dive @UtilityDive]

Quantum computing is coming fast. Are utilities ready?

“The load profile is different from anything utilities have planned for before,” said Aparna Prabhakar, chief strategy and sustainability officer, energy management, for Schneider Electric.

https://t.co/Lf7G65zmSL

[Frank Muraca @FrankMuraca]

Writing weekly about state data center activity here

https://t.co/caRtFRgFvb

[Frank Muraca @FrankMuraca]

Up to 37 days center moratoriums in North Carolina.

[Curtis L. Tate 🤷‍♂️ @tatecurtis]

Last week, Gov. Andy Beshear directed state agencies to deny permits for data center-related projects if they increased costs for residents or harmed the environment. An application for an air permit for a gas plant could test that executive order. https://t.co/sx35pqUGVr

[Mason Hamilton🛢📊⛽️ @T_Mason_H]

Jones Act Waivers have played a big role keeping the U.S. West and East coasts supplied during the Hormuz disruption.

Key numbers:
109 Waivers and counting
36 shipments to California alone
42 cargoes of gasoline and gasoline blending components

[Liam Donovan @LPDonovan]

Meta coming in at this scale to invest in the local skilled trades pipeline is both practically necessary and politically shrewd. Often lost amid the abstract debates, but buildout only happens with the workforce to sustain it. Win-win-win for industry, workers, and communities.

[Lightcast @LightcastData]

The workforce challenge for data centers isn't actually data center workers.

It's electricians.
And HVAC technicians.
And construction managers.
And inspectors.
And equipment operators.

They're competing against everything. https://t.co/TZLnRKd8Ft

[Jen Zhu @jenzhuscott]

Massive output uptick due to agentic AI. Complete flat adoption.

[David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells]

“The public has swung 49 points against data centers in just nine months, underscoring the heightened political salience of the facilities and the AI industry that they embody.”

[Evan Roth Smith @TheRealERS]

Artificial intelligence is reshaping American life faster than most people feel prepared for, and public opinion is still catching up. Slingshot Strategies' new "focus poll" — combining the depth of a focus group with the scale of a national poll — takes the temperature on where Americans stand on AI.

We surveyed 1,087 U.S. adults, prompting them with open-ended audio questions about AI, with their responses captured by microphone. These responses were then transcribed, categorized, and analyzed.

Then we built this site, so you can see what they said.

https://t.co/6Ai2rEUYCr

[Jordan McGillis @jordanmcgillis]

Among the country's 15 most populous states, the five with the strongest non-healthcare jobs growth since 2022 are:

1) Texas
2) Florida
3) North Carolina
4) Arizona
5) Tennessee

Total Sun Belt Victory

[Gaurab Chakrabarti @Gaurab]

Over 80% of the world's high-purity quartz comes from two mines in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Every boule Shin-Etsu and SUMCO pull sits inside a quartz crucible that the process consumes. TSMC, Samsung, Intel, Apple, and Nvidia all depend on a single white rock from a town of 2,200 people. Sibelco is Belgian. The Quartz Corp is French-Norwegian. Both operate with little public visibility. Spruce Pine's top-grade quartz sells for over $10,000 per ton, more than 200 times the price of standard industrial quartz. The deposits crystallized 380 million years ago, deep in the Appalachian Mountains, away from water. Trace metals barely entered the lattice. Hurricane Helene shut both mines in September 2024. Spruce Pine is a single point of failure for the global chip industry.

[Javier Blas @JavierBlas]

Belgium plans to nationalize all the country's nuclear power reactors, and says that plans to decommission the plants are now "halted with immediate effect."

[Frank Muraca @FrankMuraca]

@ramez We’re deep in this conversation in NC

[Frank Muraca @FrankMuraca]

There are now thirteen municipalities in NC that have passed data center moratoriums. Some have done so in response to proposed projects while others have acted without any in the pipeline.

[Seth Ackerman @SethAckerman]

lol

[Awni Hannun @awnihannun]

Adopting Claude speak in my regular life, episode 1:

Partner: Did you do the dishes tonight?
Me: Yes they're done.
Partner: Why are they still dirty?
Me: You're right to push back. I didn't actually do them.

[Travis Fisher @ts_fisher]

Thanks for writing this piece

There are many layers to the regulatory onion that is electricity policy

Maybe that explains why I want to cry every time I slice into it

Can we please repeal these efficiency mandates?

Curtail executive authority like the DPA while you’re at it!