Reading up on energy
16 deep · digging since jan 02
- Where Are the Most Data Centers Planned?
Rural areas in the southern United States are expected to host the most planned data centers, despite their noise and power demands.
- CrankGPT | Hacker News
Hacker News users roast CrankGPT's scroll-animation-heavy landing page while confirming its hand-crank can power LLM inference on a Pi 5.
- Central Ohio Becomes Hub for Tech and Manufacturing
The Columbus, Ohio area is experiencing a tech and manufacturing boom driven by H1-B and O1-A workers, with local residents seeing no economic benefit but facing doubled power bills.
- In Qatar, Energy Sector Damage Is Severe, and the Way Back Will Be Long
Iranian strikes and a blockade have paralyzed Qatar's gas sector, creating a technical bottleneck that will stall exports for years.
- How Energy Prices Are Driving Demand for Solar Panels and Heat Pumps
European consumers, wary of energy price spikes from geopolitical crises, are increasingly adopting solar panels and heat pumps as a hedge against future cost shocks.
- These Countries Embrace E.V.s to Avoid Oil Price Shocks
Costa Rica and other nations in Latin America, Asia, and Africa are increasingly adopting electric vehicles to reduce vulnerability to fluctuating oil prices.
- America's Electricity Gap - by Joseph Politano
Record US solar and battery investment is still insufficient to close a growing electricity gap driven by AI, manufacturing, and electrification, leading to rising prices and slower coal plant retirements.
- OpenAI Stargate: where the US sites stand
OpenAI's $500 billion Stargate project has seven US sites under construction totaling over 9 GW, with 0.3 GW already operational in Abilene, Texas.
- Heat Wave in California and Other Western States Wilts a More Air-Conditioned U.S. - The New York Times
A heat wave in California and other Western states, with temperatures up to 40 degrees above normal, underscores how more US homes have recently added air-conditioning.
- Does that use a lot of energy?
An interactive calculator lets users compare the energy consumption of everyday activities, including AI queries, to contextualize their relative scale.
- Demand for AI Data Centers Sends Prospectors Hunting for Land and Power - The New York Times
Former Microsoft executive Brian Janous and his firm Cloverleaf act as modern land men, packaging electricity and land to meet AI data center demand.
- Exclusive | A New Threat to Power Grids: Data Centers Unplugging at Once - WSJ
Two incidents in 2024 and 2025 saw clusters of Virginia data centers simultaneously switch to backup power, forcing grid operators into emergency balancing actions.
- January’s Winter Storm Was Brutal. So Are the Heating Bills. - The New York Times
January's winter storm led to high heating bills, but rising energy prices and utility charges may be equally to blame.
- Shivering Americans Snap Up Firewood as Winter Grinds On - The New York Times
Weeks of freezing temperatures and winter storms across the US have driven up demand for firewood and manufactured fire logs.
- Chimney Sweeps Are Making a Comeback in the U.K. as Energy Costs Climb - The New York Times
Rising energy costs in the U.K. are driving a revival of the centuries-old chimney sweeping trade, with modern sweepers adopting new tools.
- Even the Sky May Not Be the Limit for A.I. Data Centers - The New York Times
A.I. data centers may exhaust earth's land and energy, prompting tech leaders to explore orbital deployment for unlimited space and solar power.