Auke Hoekstra
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aukehoekstra.bsky.social
Auke Hoekstra
@aukehoekstra.bsky.social
Sharing hope and debunking FUD against electric vehicles and renewable energy. Director NEONresearch.nl @TUeindhoven Founder Zenmo.com.
I'm really glad renewable technology development doesn't depend on the COP negotiations.

Petrostates, fossil fuel companies, and their lackeys can sabotage diplomacy, but it's becoming increasingly transparent what they do is simply evil, while we will ditch fossil fuels anyway.
COP30 BREAKING NEWS: The likely final text of the "global mutirão" has been published, ahead of the closing plenary

Here's the snap analysis from the CB team…see last line

unfccc.int/sites/def...
November 23, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
I'm dying here.
November 22, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
I know how hilarious all of the "getting Grok to say that Elon would be the world's best piss-drinker" is, but from an AI alignment perspective, this sort of stuff is... literally the opposite of alignment?
November 23, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Brexit has caused almost twice as much damage to the UK economy than estimated by official forecasts, according to new paper from a group of experts including a senior Bank of England economist
Brexit Hit to UK Economy Double Official Estimate, Study Finds
Brexit has caused almost twice as much damage to the UK economy than estimated by official forecasts, according to new paper from a group of experts including a senior Bank of England economist.
bloom.bg
November 21, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Agree. But let me add cultured meat and precision fermentation as meat alternatives.
A great summary of why farming insects for protein is probably not a solution to our food security and environmental challenges…

While it might have a niche role, it’s not nearly as effective as other solutions - plant-based diets, reducing food waste, etc.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Have the environmental benefits of insect farming been overstated? A critical review
Insect farming is frequently promoted as a sustainable food solution, yet current evidence challenges many environmental benefits claimed by industry proponents. This review critically examines the s....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Kelly: "I never expected after serving 25 years in the Navy flying combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait, flying the Space Shuttle, that now I've got to worry about my personal safety and that of my wife, Gabby Giffords, who was already nearly assassinated, because of something the president said."
November 21, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
All the rape, torture, and murder will be brushed under the carpet, a great lesson for any future war criminals.
November 21, 2025 at 7:08 AM
I thoroughly disagree with all this LLM bashing in the classroom.
It reminds me of requiring exams without calculators.

LLMs will be a pervasive part of students life in the future.
Teachers can either teach themselves and the pupils entrusted to them to use it well, or fail them.
"I am trained ... to teach students how to understand a narrative, to derive meaning from it with textual analysis and to communicate that meaning in written word. I cannot force them to do any of those things, but I won’t be complicit in exposing them to even more AI in my classroom."
To “my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.”

www.huffpost.com/entry/histor...
November 21, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Here we go again 🤡
November 21, 2025 at 11:50 AM
That countries want to be shielded from vulnerable dependence on e.g. China for their energy is understandable.

But the focus should not be on commodities like raw materials, solar panels, or battery cells, but on the energy management software (EMS) that steers these assets.
🧵
**NEW CHINA SOLAR EXPANSION STORY**

China has doubled the export of solar cells+wafers to assemble abroad in the last several months.

It still exports about the same amount of solar panels.

In October - for the first time - it exported more cell+wafers than panels 🧵
November 21, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Dutch aftermovie of the @urgenda.bsky.social regiotour where @marjanminnesma.bsky.social, yours truly and others explain that solar+wind+batteries are the future and regulation is the problem.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEQ_...
Regiotour Energieopslag: de terugblik
YouTube video by urgenda
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Hmm. I recognize the shape of that chart, and of Dave's EV chart further in the thread.

Unbelievable that the @IEA is still doing this.
Good thread from Dave about the new IEA "Current Policies Scenario" making a lot of the headlines.

Here is a very quick mock-up I made of what this scenario assumes for solar PV additions through to 2035, with historical context.

I'll let you decide whether this seems likely.
November 12, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
NEW: ProPublica examined months of Fox News’ coverage and reviewed over 700 videos posted on social media.

The network used five-year-old footage, mislabeled other dates and implied footage from elsewhere was in Portland.
“Riots Raging”: The Misleading Story Fox News Told About Portland Before Trump Sent Troops
After reviewing coverage from the network and hours of social media videos that preceded Trump’s decision, ProPublica found that Fox’s portrayal of “Portland rioters” routinely instigating violence was misleading.
www.propublica.org
November 12, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Our foreign policy, if that is still the right concept, has three pillars: alienate allies, encourage enemies, and take bribes.
November 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Today on Volts: markets for distributed energy resources (DERs) are usually fragmented & opaque, making it difficult to scale up. A UK startup called Piclo is setting up a marketplace where buyers & sellers of grid flexibility can meet, compare terms, & sign contracts. Much needed, long overdue!
How to make a market for distributed energy flexibility
Piclo has created a marketplace where buyers of grid flexibility can find sellers.
www.volts.wtf
November 12, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
"Much as granaries and refrigeration transformed food markets, storage will turn electricity from perishable to persistent, unlocking a new era of energy abundance."
Silos for Sunshine: we've mastered harvesting the sun, but storage is the gamechanger | Ember
The shift to renewables represents an agricultural revolution for energy, moving from searching and extracting scarce fuels to harvesting abundant sunlight in place.
ember-energy.org
November 12, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
The most horrifying AI slop of ICE raids you can possibly imagine is wildly viral on Facebook, collectively totaling tens of millions of views from a single account. First spotted by @chadloder.bsky.social

www.404media.co/ai-generated...
AI-Generated Videos of ICE Raids Are Wildly Viral on Facebook
An account is spamming horrific, dehumanizing videos of immigration enforcement because the Facebook algorithm is rewarding them for it.
www.404media.co
November 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
This is really quite scandalous... the key assumption that means rising oil demand is that EV sales share will be the same in 2050 as in 2024 in EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (except China+EU) 🤷‍♂️
🤡OIL DEMAND WILL KEEP RISING🤡

What are the IEA assumptions that make rising oil demand so improbable?
November 12, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
The administration is deliberately starving poor people so that Dems will agree to radically slash the healthcare available to poor people.

Do not let its familiarity dull your outrage. This is monstrous, unforgivable shit.
The Trump administration told states that they must “immediately undo” any actions to provide full food stamp benefits to low-income families, in a move that added to the chaos surrounding the nation’s largest anti-hunger program during the government shutdown. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/b...
November 9, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Claims of felling 250 year-old trees + shipping them thousands of miles to burn in a power station, releasing fine particulate pollution linked to breathing + heart conditions.

Perhaps, instead of subsidising this, our tax money could go to treating people with those conditions?

🧵 1/2
Official data from government of British Columbia, along with satellite monitoring, backs claims that a Canadian subsidiary owned by Drax sourced 250-year-old trees to manufacture biomass pellets as recently as this year

www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say
Exclusive: report by Stand.earth says subsidiary of power plant received truckloads of whole logs at biomass pellet sites
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Holy shit. This company claims it has developed an air-source heat pump with a COP of *7* (3-5 is considered good). For you non-nerds, that basically means it produces 7 units of heat for every unit of electricity it consumes. How are they doing it? You're not gonna like this answer, but: it's AI.
Fairland COP7 R290 ATW HeatPump - The Future of AI HeatPump
/PRNewswire/ -- As gentle heat wraps around you, you walk barefoot to bathroom and enjoy an instant hot shower—no waiting, no cold shock. Every corner indoors...
www.prnewswire.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
"Far from a peak, China's gasoline demand is estimated to have fallen 9% in October on the year to 12.5 million tons, with average daily use roughly flat with September..."

China's oil demand is entering structural decline.
EVs put an end to China's usual holiday surge in gasoline use
Tianyu Jiang took a 2,000-km (1,200-mile) road trip this month during China's national holiday week, driving in his electric vehicle from the southwestern Sichuan basin to Beijing for the first time.
www.reuters.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
Yet more science showing that regenerative grazing is overblown as a climate solution.

A better path? Cut back on beef production altogether, and return grazing lands to nature.

iffs.earth/living-repor...
Living Report: Regenerative Agriculture vs. Rewilding
A comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed evidence on regenerative grazing vs. rewilding through dietary shifts that reduce land use and restore soil, water, climate, and biodiversity
iffs.earth
November 8, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Illinois: $1 billion in battery investment will save consumers $13 billion in capacity costs.

This is what @jigarshahdc.bsky.social and I have been talking about the past years. As capacity costs rise while battery costs plummet, we will see more of this.
pv-magazine-usa.com/2025/11/05/i...
Illinois to add 3 GW of batteries, saving consumers $12 billion over 20 years
Illinois is set to issue procurements for 3 GW of battery storage, under a bill expected to be signed by Governor JB Pritzker. Transmission improvements to speed renewable deployment are also in the w...
pv-magazine-usa.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Auke Hoekstra
The world's biggest meatpacker, JBS, claimed in its adverts: "Bacon, chicken wings and steak with net-zero emissions. It’s possible."

But it never seemed to have a plan to make this happen. So now it's paying $1.1 million to settle a false advertising case
newrepublic.com/article/2028...
The Meat Advertising Case That Should Be Talked About at COP30
JBS’s false advertising settlement comes as Big Ag prepares to spread propaganda at the U.N. climate conference.
newrepublic.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:41 PM