Brian W. Maxwell

Energy Abundance.

[Sam @SlBrandin]

The big unlock in energy is more about process optimization and risk management at scale rather than technology

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@elonmusk The communist’s mistake was that labor is just a form of useful energy. We need an update: “The Energy Manifesto”

[jack @jack]

the act of creation is the only thing that justifies existence

[Meredith Angwin @MeredithAngwin]

Data centers will have their own generation sources.
Doug Sheridan on data centers and the grid:
"The smart play for Big Tech is going to be avoiding the grid altogether... lest they be blamed for every blackout, brownout, blinkout and rate increase to come over the next 20 years."
https://t.co/2dVy8xCPzn

[Mike Solana @micsolana]

we gotta get back into blimps

[Joshua Kushner @JoshuaKushner]

the goal of life is to be excited to go to work and excited to go home

[Sherman McCoy @wasphyxiation]

This is the craziest photo ever taken. It blows my mind every time I see it

> two brothers, from the middle of nowhere
> testing their flying machine off the coast of nowhere
> achieving a dream man has had for millennia
> despite having no college degree
> one of the five people there happened to have a camera

[Dr. M.F. Khan @Dr_TheHistories]

The World’s Largest Floating Dry Dock Was Towed Across the Atlantic to Bermuda in 1869 -

When Britain needed a solution for ship repairs in the Atlantic, engineers in the 1860s built the largest floating dry dock ever attempted, a 380-foot iron structure weighing over 8,000 tons.

Constructed near Woolwich on the Thames, the dock was designed to lift 10,000-ton ironclads like HMS Warrior and withstand the fouling threats of Bermuda’s warm waters.

Unable to build a conventional dry dock due to porous sandstone, the British opted for mobility and scale, creating a self-contained U-shaped platform that could sink and raise vessels from the sea with ballast compartments and powerful pumps.

In June 1869, this massive dock embarked on a nearly 4,000-nautical-mile journey to Bermuda, towed in stages by Britain’s heaviest ironclads—Agincourt, Northumberland, Warrior, and Black Prince—assisted by HMS Terrible.

With closed ends to reduce drag and a sail rigged inside to capture tailwinds, the voyage reached speeds of over 6 knots.

Once in service, it supported Royal Navy operations for over thirty years before being replaced in 1906.

#drthehistories

[Alex Trembath @atrembath]

Wind and solar are mature industries. They don't need perpetual subsidies but neither should they be excise taxed/FEOC'd/material assistance'd into oblivion.

This should not be this hard.

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@JessePeltan Do you build enough batteries for seasonal storage or curtail during long periods in winter with low sun?

[Casey Handmer @CJHandmer]

On the one hand, the grid allows you to receive power from a long way away if for some reason your local generation and storage fails.

On the other hand, it massively increases your exposure to risks from distant weather, poor governance, systemic failures.

Why yes, I would like to subscribe to a system where a momentary 0.3% supply/demand mismatch bricks my entire country's critical infrastructure, and that only exists because 100 years ago power plants were far too polluting and unreliable to put anywhere near cities and also we didn't have magnets batteries or chips.

It's the ultimate path dependency. What fraction of global grids will endure this kind of catastrophic failure before enough people buy distributed battery storage that the grids' continued costs can no longer be justified?

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@rebeccakaden @usv Congratulations Rebecca!

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@pmarca How does this change the expected power demand for AI?

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@GeoffLewisOrg Solid insight.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Solar power will be the vast majority of power generation in the future

[Morgan Housel @morganhousel]

"The nation’s crude output has risen to a record 13.3 million barrels a day, 48% more than Saudi Arabia."

https://t.co/WQhUE7STYo

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@paulg @Scientific_Bird Do we have overall population numbers to overlap with these type of graphs? I’ve started to believe perhaps the “Dark Ages” were simply an era of lower/falling overall population numbers.

[Jesse Peltan @JessePeltan]

Technology changes fast in solar.

For years, polycrystalline silicon dominated. It was cheaper than monocrystalline, but then solar got so cheap that higher efficiency of mono won out.

The whole industry shifted in ~5 years.

We saw a similar rate of change with PERC. And now n-type silicon is doing the same thing.

Bifacial glass/glass panels harvest light from both sides and solved the problem of back sheet degradation.

N-type silicon similarly improves both efficiency and longevity.

Older panels typically guaranteed ~80% of initial output after 25 years.

Modern n-type glass/glass modules have warranties of 85-90% after 30 years.

A panel from 10 years ago would start at ~16% efficiency and work at ~13% after 25 years.

A panel today starts at ~22%, and will work at ~20% after 30 years.

A current generation panel will produce ~25% more power per square meter after 30 years than a brand new panel from 10 years ago.

There are panels from the 1970's that are still operating today. Solar panels can be designed to last a very long time.

When panels do eventually fail, they'll be replaced with better technology that costs less, produces more power, and lasts longer.

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@MLiebreich Salt caverns are very cheap at scale and have minimal losses. You can store TWh for very long durations. H2 + salt storage is probably the only way to get to a 100% renewable grid.

[Brian W. Maxwell @Brian_Maxwell]

@MLiebreich Also none of the other projects utilize salt storage which is the keystone to low-cost green H2.