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What you need to know

We ain’t bringing manufacturing back west

Want to move clean energy manufacturing here? Not happening. Too expensive: Manufacturing is 2x higher, materials up to 60%.
How dependent are we on China? Entirely: 90% of solar, 70-90% of EV battery materials, and 60-70% of wind turbines.
Read more: ThunderSaidEnergy

Nuclear power: Back and bigger than ever

Building again? In 2025 nuclear power will set a new record output.
Where? Everywhere. 40 countries are developing new plants.
But won’t nukes kill us all? No. In 18,500 reactors-years so far, only been two accidents (Chernobyl and Fukushima). Death rate is 99% lower than coal, 97% lower than gas (WNA)
Read more: IEA’s The Path to a New Era for Nuclear Energy

UK heat pumps get going, sort of

Why this matters? To move homes off gas, we need heat pumps: high-efficiency electrical heating. But the UK’s been lagging.
Catching up? Installations up 43% to 60,000 in 2024. Good, but target is 600,000 per year by 2028….
Read more: The Standard

One thing to worry about

2024 numbers are in.

Not only is CO2 is still going up, but it’s going up faster than ever.

Carbon Brief has sobering analysis.

One thing to be optimistic about

In sunny places, solar is cheaper than gas:

• Egypt: Deserts & Sun & Cheap Solar = Plan to replace $1B gas imports (Reuters)

• Pakistan: Expensive + Unreliable Grid = 22GW of solar installed in 2024 alone (WEF)

• Abu Dhabi: New solar & batteries project 13x bigger than any other in the world (Energy Storage News)

• Reports say half of China’s solar exports are going to the global south (@laurimyllyvirta)

If you’ve got more time, read these…

Where will temperature increases take us?

We don’t know.

• New Scientist worries the jet steam is changing critical weather patterns

• Reality is worse than predications, says The Atlantic: climate models didn’t predict it this bad, this fast

• Climate change is here: The New York Times reports on the Mediterranean’s catastrophic year

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