Eric Wesoff

Director at Canary Media, reporting on climate change, electrification, decarbonization @CanaryMediaInc.

[scaryjello @scaryjellomj]

Doesn't blip people's radar that the nuclear fleet operators in United States of America are expressing zero interest in micro-reactors. Full speed ahead!

Post pics of warehouse; call it speedy reindustrialization. Get Rod Adams to repost it. Post photo of Carhartt guys in shop

[Joshua D. Rhodes @joshdr83]

"Because of how much uncertainty there is about how many data centers are real, about how much load is going to be connected, it has kind of paralyzed a lot of the processes," said Josh Rhodes, an energy expert at the University of Texas at Austin.

https://t.co/JvrO5yvAM5

[Canary Media @CanaryMediaInc]

The House just passed a bipartisan package of bills to accelerate geothermal energy development — a big step for the clean, 24/7 power source.
https://t.co/es50ZloUfH

[Canary Media @CanaryMediaInc]

Want to swap fossil fuel heating for something cleaner? You can’t count on federal support anymore.

From @InsideClimate:
https://t.co/6TBoz0RZyO

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Pete Hegseth has never been fit to run the Pentagon. This week proves it again.

He just blocked nine Navy officers from promotions they earned. A board of senior admirals picked them on merit.

Three are women.

Two are Black men.

The result is a 22-person admiral list with zero women, in a Navy that’s 21% women and 38% sailors of color.

Pentagon rules are clear. A Secretary can only pull an officer for serious failings of character, conduct, or competence. These officers had none. Their crime?
Attending a diversity event years ago. One was flagged for recruitment outreach she did TWENTY YEARS AGO.

Nearly 60% of the senior officers Hegseth has fired are women or Black.

He purged a chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

He pushed out the first woman ever to lead the Navy.

And he won’t explain himself. Not to Democrats. Not even to Republicans.
Then he reportedly tried to muscle his own aide onto the list. A guy who didn’t even qualify.

So let’s be honest about what this is.

He isn’t raising the bar. He’s rigging it.

He isn’t picking the best. He’s picking his own. Every officer who serves with honor now has to wonder if merit even matters anymore.

This man should never have been confirmed. He should not be Secretary of anything. He is gutting the finest military on earth to fight a culture war. Our service members will pay for it. So will our security.

He should resign in disgrace. https://t.co/PMUJ3UtrCW

[Michael Thomas @curious_founder]

Data center developers have said they want to build 90 GW of their own power plants. But how many of these will actually get built?

I reviewed hundreds of documents and satellite images to try to answer that question.

Earlier this year, I published a report and dataset about this trend of "behind-the-meter" data centers. For all the hype about the trend, there was little documentation of how these massive facilities would get built.

What I found was surprising. Rather than wait for a grid connection, developers were planning to stick gas turbines on the back of semi-trucks and park them outside their data centers. Some planned to use repurposed jet engines that once powered Boeing 747 airplanes.

That report received a lot of attention. It was covered by dozens of national media outlets, including NYT, Axios, Politico, and NPR. The US Senate asked me to brief them on the trend and subsequently launched a probe into a half dozen companies.

Today I'm releasing an updated version of the report on this trend that aims to answer the question of how many of these things are actually getting built.

Every week it seems like someone announces a new “world’s largest off-grid data center” project. But the difference between the press release and reality on some of these projects can be significant.

Fermi America writes on its website that Project Matador—"the world's largest private grid"—is under construction. But satellite images reveal a different story. There hasn’t been noticeable construction activity on the site for months because Fermi still hasn’t signed a tenant.

Some analysts have argued that Fermi is evidence that the whole BTM trend is all hype. But this dismissal overlooks the projects that have already been built and the ones that are actively under construction.

In the last 18 months, developers have already built 4 behind-the-meter data centers with a combined capacity of 2 GW—equivalent to two nuclear power plants.

Using satellite images—and counting turbines one by one—I identified another 6 projects that are under construction and nearly complete. By the end of 2026, when these projects come online, the amount of behind-the-meter data center capacity will grow to ~3 GW.

After 2026, the range of possible outcomes grows significantly. If all projects with signed tenants reach their construction timelines, then another 10 GW could come online in 2027—equivalent to the power demand of New York City.

It’s unlikely that all of these projects will finish on time. I found multiple projects that are already behind schedule due to permitting delays.

On the lower end, cumulative behind-the-meter capacity could reach just 5 GW by the end of 2027—5% of the total capacity that has been announced.

Those are a few takeaways from the 75-page report and analysis of the 59-project dataset. The full report is available to purchase on the Cleanview website.

If you have questions about this trend, I can try to answer them in the comments below.

[Joshua D. Rhodes @joshdr83]

ERCOT low key sitting with the highest reserve margin of the major North American grids this summer according to NERC:

Given an Anticipated Reserve Margin of 67.9% and Reference Reserve Margin of 13.75%, ERCOT expects to have sufficient operating reserves...

https://t.co/xiYXOcreq8

[Autumn T. Johnson @autumntjohnson]

“Nor is there any published evidence that solar farms have a negative impact on potato farming, according to experts consulted for this story. On the contrary, there is agrivoltaics research showing that potatoes — and many other crops — can benefit from growing alongside shade-making solar panels.” https://t.co/aCPXbv6DOP #energy #solar #agrivoltaics

[Canary Media @CanaryMediaInc]

NEW: The Trump administration is paying energy firms to abandon their offshore wind leases. Seven states are fighting back.
https://t.co/Z35yZAg5rS

[Kevin Leahy @KevinSLeahy]

@JesseJenkins @JEBistline

[Quincy Lee @QuincyEdmundLee]

renewable power has become insanely cheap

legacy energy sources are being competed out of the market year by year starting with coal

[AukeHoekstra @AukeHoekstra]

For a while "only gas and nuclear can provide needed firm power" was the "serious" position in the US.

It's why people like @mzjacobson were attacked as if they were "heretics". Turns out the heretics were right.

[Canary Media @CanaryMediaInc]

The Trump administration ordered this Indiana coal plant to keep running. It hasn’t been.
https://t.co/8FNhKSwGhj

[Soy Cowboy @gregsunvibe]

@ewesoff @CanaryMediaInc Frito-Lay isn't banning solar potatoes. I build on farmland; modules don't leach. Farmers get lease revenue and agrivoltaic data shows potatoes do fine. This myth is fiction.

[TBPN @tbpn]

Gigascale Founder and former Meta CTO @schrep says new solar startups will go after installation costs rather than compete with China on solar panels.

"If you look at a solar farm, you lay down all this steel and put up all this framing for the panels. When that panel was the most expensive thing on the field, then [startups producing solar panels] made sense."

"But solar panels are now the cheapest thing in the field. All the rest of the stuff costs more than the panel."

"I think what we're going to see is startups saying, 'Let's rethink how we actually deploy solar from a form-factor and automation perspective. And just go after installation costs.'"

[Eric Wesoff @ewesoff]

Our power grid is in better shape this summer, thanks to solar and batteries https://t.co/KIOotPo6ez via @MotherJones

[Tommy Vietor @TVietor08]

Literally the only explanation for why Trump would install Pulte in this position is to have him use the resources and authorities of the US intelligence community against his political enemies. Democrats should fight this tooth and nail starting with Section 702 reauthorization

[The Green Dragon Tavern @greendragonhq]

Family wealth generated while holding office.

We are not angry enough about this.

[Eric Wesoff @ewesoff]

In new attack on solar, lawmakers spread myths about potato farms @CanaryMediaInc https://t.co/iGLjQOuVOT

[Canary Media @CanaryMediaInc]

Frito-Lay isn’t categorically refusing to buy potatoes grown on farms with solar installations.

But that anti-renewables myth is still making the rounds, propelled by social media and state lawmakers.
https://t.co/BUUFq2Phv3