Blair Willcox
@currenttech.energy
Energy nerd, Michigan sports, skiing.
Working to let market signals tell us when to use electricity to electrify and decarbonize process and space heating (including steam!)
Working to let market signals tell us when to use electricity to electrify and decarbonize process and space heating (including steam!)
Pinned
Blair Willcox
@currenttech.energy
· Dec 9
Let's also be real -- they saw the budget to replace steam with low temp hot water and freaked. No one starts from a design principal of "let's use renewable diesel." There are electrification options that keep steam and avoid the massive cost to retrofit all downstream infrastructure.
🔌💡 University campuses are almost always heated with steam systems. To decarb, campuses have been strategizing how to replace steam w low temp hot water so that they can use heat pumps (great!). The challenge is replacing steam with low temp HW requires a replacement of _all_ heating infrastructure
Reposted by Blair Willcox
The most insanely frustrating thing about the #ClimateCrisis is how the breakthrough we so clearly need isn’t technological. It’s just a collective willingness, a determination even, to change in ways that would clearly be SO MUCH BETTER than the clear and obvious consequences of NOT changing.
October 29, 2025 at 7:09 PM
The most insanely frustrating thing about the #ClimateCrisis is how the breakthrough we so clearly need isn’t technological. It’s just a collective willingness, a determination even, to change in ways that would clearly be SO MUCH BETTER than the clear and obvious consequences of NOT changing.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
dawg not the steakhouse wedding font
November 5, 2025 at 3:33 PM
dawg not the steakhouse wedding font
Reposted by Blair Willcox
My fellow dudes, take the hint
WOW. 81% of women 18-29 voted for Mamdani, 80% for Sherril, and 78% for Spanberger.
Gen Z women aren't playing around.
Gen Z women aren't playing around.
November 5, 2025 at 4:11 AM
My fellow dudes, take the hint
Reposted by Blair Willcox
We were told that our video of the emissions at Elon Musk's xAI facility in Memphis has been taken down at Twitter/X.
At least we can share it freely here. Please do.
More communities will be poisoned by data centers replicating this model.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWg...
At least we can share it freely here. Please do.
More communities will be poisoned by data centers replicating this model.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWg...
xAI Colossus Data Center Memphis Tennessee 05/13/2025
YouTube video by Oilfield Witness
www.youtube.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
We were told that our video of the emissions at Elon Musk's xAI facility in Memphis has been taken down at Twitter/X.
At least we can share it freely here. Please do.
More communities will be poisoned by data centers replicating this model.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWg...
At least we can share it freely here. Please do.
More communities will be poisoned by data centers replicating this model.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWg...
This plus price cannibalization and interconnection delays (mentioned further in the thread) are flipping utility scale solar on its head. We’re starting to see more off-grid solutions in high energy spaces like industrial heating. www.rondo.com/news-press/r...
October 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM
This plus price cannibalization and interconnection delays (mentioned further in the thread) are flipping utility scale solar on its head. We’re starting to see more off-grid solutions in high energy spaces like industrial heating. www.rondo.com/news-press/r...
Reposted by Blair Willcox
1. To opinions! Solar is the cheapest source of bulk electricity in many countries, and the quickest to deploy, and now you couldn't stop it being built if you wanted to. The limits to PV build in most places are grid access, permitting, and sometimes installation labour.
October 20, 2025 at 7:44 AM
1. To opinions! Solar is the cheapest source of bulk electricity in many countries, and the quickest to deploy, and now you couldn't stop it being built if you wanted to. The limits to PV build in most places are grid access, permitting, and sometimes installation labour.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Time for 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of November 2025.
www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...
www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...
Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon
www.worldscientific.com
October 20, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Time for 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of November 2025.
www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...
www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...
Reposted by Blair Willcox
After Trump got his Covid shot, he chose to fire the scientists protecting the rest of us from diseases.
October 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
After Trump got his Covid shot, he chose to fire the scientists protecting the rest of us from diseases.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
THEY CLOSED PUBLIC POOLS RATHER THAN SWIM WITH BLACK PEOPLE
YOU ARE DEALING WITH THE SAME GROUP OF PEOPLE AS THE FOLKS WHO DID THIS
PLEASE WAKE THE FUCK UP
YOU ARE DEALING WITH THE SAME GROUP OF PEOPLE AS THE FOLKS WHO DID THIS
PLEASE WAKE THE FUCK UP
September 30, 2025 at 8:58 PM
THEY CLOSED PUBLIC POOLS RATHER THAN SWIM WITH BLACK PEOPLE
YOU ARE DEALING WITH THE SAME GROUP OF PEOPLE AS THE FOLKS WHO DID THIS
PLEASE WAKE THE FUCK UP
YOU ARE DEALING WITH THE SAME GROUP OF PEOPLE AS THE FOLKS WHO DID THIS
PLEASE WAKE THE FUCK UP
Reposted by Blair Willcox
I don't think we'll ever get another sentence which sums up everything the New York Times embodies quite like "Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians".
hey @nytimes.com: there is no counterpoint here. There are no credible legal experts who would EVER say that the US military has any right or authority to blow civilian craft out of the Caribbean and kill their crews from afar without any provocation. There is no other side to this question.
September 30, 2025 at 3:06 AM
I don't think we'll ever get another sentence which sums up everything the New York Times embodies quite like "Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians".
Reposted by Blair Willcox
More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site
As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald.
www.miamiherald.com
September 23, 2025 at 5:39 PM
More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Rep. Jim Himes: "Having the Defense Department kill alleged drug runners in the Caribbean is illegal...These folks are committing murder — murder defined as killing without a legal basis. I am mystified over why the rest of the chain of command is quite comfortable with it."
September 21, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Rep. Jim Himes: "Having the Defense Department kill alleged drug runners in the Caribbean is illegal...These folks are committing murder — murder defined as killing without a legal basis. I am mystified over why the rest of the chain of command is quite comfortable with it."
Reposted by Blair Willcox
What America is going through is not unusual in historical terms. Plenty of examples like it today elsewhere in the world.
What makes it unusual is the rapid collapse from a set of widely espoused norms and values that centered on liberty. It is the sacking of the shining city on hill that shocks.
What makes it unusual is the rapid collapse from a set of widely espoused norms and values that centered on liberty. It is the sacking of the shining city on hill that shocks.
September 18, 2025 at 12:10 AM
What America is going through is not unusual in historical terms. Plenty of examples like it today elsewhere in the world.
What makes it unusual is the rapid collapse from a set of widely espoused norms and values that centered on liberty. It is the sacking of the shining city on hill that shocks.
What makes it unusual is the rapid collapse from a set of widely espoused norms and values that centered on liberty. It is the sacking of the shining city on hill that shocks.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
White House Officials Vow Vast Crackdown on Liberal Groups
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...
Open authoritarianism. Happening right in front of us.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...
Open authoritarianism. Happening right in front of us.
September 15, 2025 at 8:06 PM
White House Officials Vow Vast Crackdown on Liberal Groups
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...
Open authoritarianism. Happening right in front of us.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...
Open authoritarianism. Happening right in front of us.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Sure seems like Big Pharma spent way way more energy, money and lobbying capital on fighting Dems on prescription drugs than doing anything about the Secretary of HHS casually, and without any real evidence, telling everyone their products kill kids and give them autism.
September 9, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Sure seems like Big Pharma spent way way more energy, money and lobbying capital on fighting Dems on prescription drugs than doing anything about the Secretary of HHS casually, and without any real evidence, telling everyone their products kill kids and give them autism.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
UAW statement: "Unfortunately, the militarized federal crackdown on these workers further hurts safety at Hyundai. Workers are not the problem. Exploitative corporations are. The UAW will always stand with all workers—immigrant and native-born alike" uaw.org/uaw-issues-s...
UAW Issues Statement Condemning Dangerous Working Conditions and Immigration Raid at Hyundai - UAW | United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
The UAW condemns Hyundai’s disgraceful record on worker safety. For years, Hyundai—including its joint ventures and the suppliers that work in its plants—cut corners on industry-standard safety precau...
uaw.org
September 9, 2025 at 2:34 AM
UAW statement: "Unfortunately, the militarized federal crackdown on these workers further hurts safety at Hyundai. Workers are not the problem. Exploitative corporations are. The UAW will always stand with all workers—immigrant and native-born alike" uaw.org/uaw-issues-s...
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Normally I’m meh on BIPV because so much of my world’s building stock has been constructed…but India:
‘potential >300 GW of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) on existing buildings..per World Bank 70% of the buildings India will need to become a developed nation by 2047 haven’t been built’
‘potential >300 GW of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) on existing buildings..per World Bank 70% of the buildings India will need to become a developed nation by 2047 haven’t been built’
Building a new solar industry segment
A study conducted by the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in collaboration with India-based think tank the Center for Study of Science, Technolog...
www.pv-magazine.com
September 8, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Normally I’m meh on BIPV because so much of my world’s building stock has been constructed…but India:
‘potential >300 GW of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) on existing buildings..per World Bank 70% of the buildings India will need to become a developed nation by 2047 haven’t been built’
‘potential >300 GW of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) on existing buildings..per World Bank 70% of the buildings India will need to become a developed nation by 2047 haven’t been built’
Reposted by Blair Willcox
www.nrel.gov/news/detail/...
Some updates on Blue Frontier's promising air conditioning technology. This uses liquid dessicants as a form of energy storage, separating the dehumidification and cooling processes, and allowing for the energy intensive portion of dehumidification to be done off-peak.
Some updates on Blue Frontier's promising air conditioning technology. This uses liquid dessicants as a form of energy storage, separating the dehumidification and cooling processes, and allowing for the energy intensive portion of dehumidification to be done off-peak.
Cooler Buildings, Stronger Grid: A New Approach to Air Conditioning With Built-In Energy Storage | NREL
www.nrel.gov
September 7, 2025 at 6:58 PM
www.nrel.gov/news/detail/...
Some updates on Blue Frontier's promising air conditioning technology. This uses liquid dessicants as a form of energy storage, separating the dehumidification and cooling processes, and allowing for the energy intensive portion of dehumidification to be done off-peak.
Some updates on Blue Frontier's promising air conditioning technology. This uses liquid dessicants as a form of energy storage, separating the dehumidification and cooling processes, and allowing for the energy intensive portion of dehumidification to be done off-peak.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Now you C-D-See it, now you don't.
@theonion.com
@theonion.com
September 5, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Now you C-D-See it, now you don't.
@theonion.com
@theonion.com
Reposted by Blair Willcox
The Pentagon is literally just now, after the fact, coming up with an excuse to justify murdering those people
September 4, 2025 at 4:01 AM
The Pentagon is literally just now, after the fact, coming up with an excuse to justify murdering those people
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Q: On the Venezuela vessel strike, what legal authority were you guys working under?
JD VANCE: The legal authority is there are people who are bringing -- literal terrorists -- who are bringing deadly drugs into our country
JD VANCE: The legal authority is there are people who are bringing -- literal terrorists -- who are bringing deadly drugs into our country
September 3, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Q: On the Venezuela vessel strike, what legal authority were you guys working under?
JD VANCE: The legal authority is there are people who are bringing -- literal terrorists -- who are bringing deadly drugs into our country
JD VANCE: The legal authority is there are people who are bringing -- literal terrorists -- who are bringing deadly drugs into our country
Reposted by Blair Willcox
the best thing going for the renewable industry these days is that the gas industry has been happy to keep capacity tight. that may be starting to change
heatmap.news/energy/mitsu...
heatmap.news/energy/mitsu...
The Gas Turbine Crisis May Be Ending
Mitsubishi Heavy Industry is planning a big expansion.
heatmap.news
September 2, 2025 at 10:09 PM
the best thing going for the renewable industry these days is that the gas industry has been happy to keep capacity tight. that may be starting to change
heatmap.news/energy/mitsu...
heatmap.news/energy/mitsu...
Reposted by Blair Willcox
"Not enough people is the number one threat to the West, followed closely by too many people."
(Or are there some adjectives missing?)
(Or are there some adjectives missing?)
Concern over low birth rates was what the theocracy in Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale used to come to power.
September 2, 2025 at 1:58 PM
"Not enough people is the number one threat to the West, followed closely by too many people."
(Or are there some adjectives missing?)
(Or are there some adjectives missing?)
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Somehow our diseased information environment has produced the net outcome that *the pandemic is considered a political problem for Dems*, not the party that lied about it & got people killed at every juncture. The party that tried, but not perfectly, to save lives, is being forced to apologize.
September 1, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Somehow our diseased information environment has produced the net outcome that *the pandemic is considered a political problem for Dems*, not the party that lied about it & got people killed at every juncture. The party that tried, but not perfectly, to save lives, is being forced to apologize.
Reposted by Blair Willcox
Millions of your tax dollars are going to new ICE vehicles in DC.
ICE is seeking to spend millions of dollars on SUVs and custom, gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND.”
ICE is seeking to spend millions of dollars on SUVs and custom, gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND.”
ICE aims to spend millions on decked-out vehicles for D.C. operation
Documents show the agency is seeking to purchase two dozen SUVs, along with gold-detailed custom wraps.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 25, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Millions of your tax dollars are going to new ICE vehicles in DC.
ICE is seeking to spend millions of dollars on SUVs and custom, gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND.”
ICE is seeking to spend millions of dollars on SUVs and custom, gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND.”