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The Right Voices on Climate

Conservatives have been vocal about our climate for years. Those voices won’t be ignored any longer.

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Driven by data centers and transportation electrification, U.S. electricity demand will increase 2% annually and 50% by 2050, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association said in a study published Monday.

Improvements to energy efficiency will mute some potential demand gains, leaving the electrical manufacturing group’s projections “somewhere in the middle” compared with other recent studies, NEMA President and CEO Debra Phillips said in a Friday discussion of the report.

The analysis, completed for NEMA by PA Consulting, anticipates 300% growth in data center energy consumption over next 10 years and 9,000% projected growth in e-mobility power consumption through 2050.

Read more in Utility Dive here.

US electricity demand will grow 50% by 2050, electrical manufacturer study finds

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The UK government has shortlisted 27 hydrogen-powered projects in its second Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2).

The selected projects will boost low-carbon hydrogen production within the UK.

The initiative is part of the government’s Plan for Change and aims to cut carbon emissions while creating thousands of jobs.

The UK’s hydrogen sector has the potential to attract more than £1bn ($1.28bn) of private sector investment by 2029.

The sector has already drawn £400m of private sector investment into areas such as Milford Haven in Wales and High Marnham in Nottinghamshire, generating more than 700 direct jobs in construction and operations.

Read more in Power Technology here.

UK shortlists 27 hydrogen projects for clean energy growth

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U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday will launch a nearly two-week tour of three Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia, marking his first visit as a U.S. official to the de facto leader of the OPEC oil producer group, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The trip, which will also include visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is expected to help lay the groundwork for President Donald Trump’s own visit to those countries likely in mid-May. It comes at a critical time, on the heels of Trump’s surprise announcement on Monday that the U.S. and Iran are having direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear program and as global oil prices hit a near four-year low.

Oil prices have fallen on worries that Trump’s latest tariffs could push economies around the world into recession at the same time OPEC+ oil producers speed up increases in production.

Read more in Reuters here.

US energy chief Wright heads to Middle East for nearly two weeks, source says

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American drivers kill an estimated one million animals every day. While most animals hit are small, large wild animals account for about one to two million annual collisions. Vehicle collisions do not just have a devastating impact on wildlife—they also cause approximately 200 human deaths, 26,000 injuries, and $8 billion in property damage every year. 

Collisions with wildlife are a massive problem for human welfare and the animals that roam our country’s wild spaces. And while solutions like wildlife crossings are undoubtedly effective at redirecting animals off roads, they come with very high price tags to build. Now, an automaker is trying a new tactic: developing an alarm that can startle animals off the road before a car drives through. 

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Nissan partnered with researchers, government officials, and designers to create a solution for wildlife collisions. Nissan is a Japanese company, and like the United States, Japan has a problem with animals causing car accidents. However, one of Japan’s greatest concerns is protecting a beloved endangered species: the Amami rabbit. Accidents involving these rabbits have increased year over year for seven consecutive years, and drivers killed 147 animals in 2023 alone. While Nissan’s motivation might be to protect an endangered species in Japan, drivers worldwide could benefit from the research team’s innovation. 

The current prototype of the animal alarm is adapted from Nissan’s innovative Approaching Vehicle Sound for Pedestrian Systems (VSP), originally developed to address the silent nature of electric vehicles (EVs). This system alerts pedestrians to approaching EVs, and now it’s being repurposed to warn animals. 

From there, Animalert was born. The prototype is a high-frequency alarm mounted to the front of a vehicle. The team developed a frequency that would be inaudible to humans but would present Amami rabbits with a sound they had never heard before, one that would hopefully scare them off roads. 

Early testing in Nissan’s research and development facilities, in the wild, and on the road have all been promising. Night tests aimed at measuring the response of the nocturnal rabbits showed that individual animals left the area almost immediately when they heard the noise. The team has also tested these frequencies on deer, wild boars, and birds. One of the great things about this system is that the sound lasts only momentarily, long enough to do the necessary job of scaring animals off roads but not so long that it causes any harm. Trees and grass absorb excess sound, so only animals near the car would be impacted. 

There’s a long way to go before this technology becomes commonplace. More testing is needed, and the best frequencies to deter wildlife will likely need more study, too. Even though there is a long road ahead, wildlife lovers can rejoice at the prospect. 

This innovation could save millions of animals while preventing human death and property loss. That is something worth getting excited about.

Nissan’s Alarm Innovation Could Save Human and Animal Lives

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A recent study published by NatureServe delivers a critical insight for businesses tied to agriculture, land management, and sustainability initiatives: over 22% of North America’s native pollinator species are now facing elevated extinction risks. The research spans nearly 1,600 species—including bees, beetles, and butterflies—signaling a growing vulnerability within the continent’s ecological and economic infrastructure.

Particularly concerning are native bee populations, where 34.7% of species studied are experiencing significant population declines. While western honey bees remain dominant in managed pollination services, experts caution against overdependence on a single species. A lack of pollinator diversity exposes agricultural operations to systemic risk—akin to putting all investments into one volatile asset.

Read more in E+E Leader here.

Native Pollinator Decline Poses Risk to Agriculture

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The Energy Department (DOE) considers more than 40 percent of its staffers to be nonessential — meaning these people could be on the chopping block — as mass layoffs loom at the agency and across the federal government.

A document viewed by The Hill on Friday states that out of the agency’s current headcount of 15,994 positions — 9,004 are essential, meaning some 7,000 other positions are not. 

The approximately 16,000 total positions listed by the agency does include nearly 1,300 people who are currently on leave because they accepted the “Fork in the Road” buyout or because their roles related to diversity, equity and inclusion, which the administration sought to eliminate from the government. 

It’s not immediately clear whether everyone deemed nonessential will be laid off. A spokesperson for the Energy Department said that no final decisions have been made as of Friday evening. 

Read more in The Hill here.

Energy Department considers more than 40 percent of its staff nonessential as layoffs loom

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Chinese liquefied petroleum gas buyers have prompted a price surge as they scramble to replace US supplies of the widely used fuel following Beijing’s tough response last week to Washington’s punitive tariffs.

Buyers are trying to swap US cargoes that have already been purchased with alternatives, including LPG from the Middle East, traders said. But swaps, diversions or outright purchases of shipments from other origins will come at a hefty price, they added, due to the sudden nature of China’s requests and the large volumes involved.

The premium of Middle East-origin LPG compared to all shipments delivered into East Asia — including US cargoes — widened to over $100 per metric tonne late on Friday, said traders. The price spread, known to the industry as the Saudi contract price vs Argus Far East Index swap differential, remained at that level in early Monday trade.

Read more in Bloomberg here.

China LPG Buyers’ Rush to Replace US Flows Sends Prices Soaring

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America’s aging power grid system has energy experts worried. The U.S. transmission and distribution (T&D) network faces two key challenges: increased demand from energy-intensive technology like data centers and a surge in renewable energy added to the grid. Red tape has slowed down grid improvements for years, leaving us with a T&D network that needs to be modernized and expanded. Until we see widespread grid improvements, we must ask a necessary question: Can we get aging infrastructure to work harder? 

Some innovators think the answer is yes. Here are some key proposals to increase existing grid capacity: 

Distributed Storage

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are expanding across the United States—in 2024, the country deployed nearly 12 gigawatts of storage capacity. Utilities are increasingly relying on these systems as backups. Surplus clean energy, such as wind or solar, can be stored when energy demand is low and utilized as demand increases. 

These distributed storage systems can bring stability and reliability to the T&D network. Increased clean energy generation has a place to go without overloading the system, and increased power demand can be easily met. Enhanced reliability at the lowest possible cost through renewables combined with battery storage will be most effective when taxpayer-funded tax credits are not distorting investments.  

Preemptive Maintenance 

When the power grid is already strained, you don’t want to wait for something to fail—grid operators should aim to catch problems before they become disasters by performing preemptive maintenance. VIE Technologies can help operators do just that. The California-based company uses a blend of artificial intelligence (AI) models and sensors to help avoid critical failures of any part of a power grid. 

“VIE Technologies is revolutionizing transformer monitoring with the industry’s first non-invasive, AI-powered predictive maintenance solution,” the company explained. “Using advanced IoT sensors, continuous monitoring and condition-based insights, our solutions detect equipment issues well before human operators or traditional methods can.”

Proactive, informed maintenance can help prevent critical shutdowns or major repairs, allowing even aging infrastructure to keep working. 

Adapting to Weather Patterns

Weather can have a significant impact on power lines. Extreme weather can knock down power lines and cause outages for days or weeks. Sometimes, however, weather can be helpful for the grid. Wind can help cool down lines and prime them to handle a higher energy load. An Estonia-based company has now developed software to help grid operators utilize wind patterns. 

Gridraven is currently expanding into the United States. The company has developed a new joint way of looking at weather models and grid power flow forecasts called Dynamic Line Ratings, which can help increase grid transmission capacity by up to 30 percent without additional infrastructure. “Power lines are limited by overheating,” Gridhaven explained. With the company’s method, wind might become a significant asset in helping increase grid capacity. 

Until the United States has a modernized, expanded, and reliable power grid, we have to do our best with what we currently have. These proposals could help meet growing energy demand and increase renewable energy generation, even with our aging grid system. 

Can An Aging Grid System Work Harder?

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China announced additional tariffs of 34% on U.S. goods on Friday, the most serious escalation in a trade war with President Donald Trump that has fed fears of a recession and triggered a global stock market rout.

In the standoff between the world’s top two economies, Beijing also announced controls on exports of some rare earths and filed a complaint at the World Trade Organisation.

Read more in Reuters here.

China hits back hard in global trade war with tariffs on US goods

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The Trump administration identified 16 sites for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers Thursday on land owned by the Department of Energy.

The centers comprise rows of servers providing processing capacity for machine learning, cloud storage and AI systems that require massive amounts of electricity and computing power.

“The global race for AI dominance is the next Manhattan project, and with President Trump’s leadership and the innovation of our National Labs, the United States can and will win,” Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a Thursday statement. 

Read more in The Hill here.

Trump administration announces plans to build AI data centers on federal land

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