Today's Energy Pulse
Scania pilots megawatt‑scale V2G for heavy‑duty electric trucks
Scania demonstrated one of the first vehicle‑to‑grid systems for heavy‑duty electric trucks using the Megawatt Charging System (MCS). The pilot showed bi‑directional power flow, allowing trucks parked at depots to feed electricity back to the grid, with real‑time communication between the truck, charger and energy‑management platform enabling dynamic charging and discharging. The test marks a step toward integrating large‑capacity EVs into grid balancing.
Also developing:
Fervo Energy Secures 1.7 GW Turbine Deal with Turboden
Fervo Energy and Turboden, a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unit, have signed a three‑year framework agreement to deliver Organic Rankine Cycle turbines for up to 1.7 GW of geothermal power. The deal locks in domestic turbine capacity for 35 standardized 50 MW GeoBlocks, accelerating the rollout of next‑generation geothermal projects across the United States.
Merino Energy Launches $3,800 Professional‑Grade Heat Pump, Exits Stealth Mode
Merino Energy, a San Francisco‑based climate‑hardware startup, emerged from stealth this week with the Merino Mono, a $3,800 professional‑grade heat‑pump system that includes installation and can be set up in under an hour. The product targets multi‑unit buildings and older...
Oil & Iran War Context Weekly (W15)
Oil prices plunged more than $14 per barrel after the Iran‑Israel ceasefire announcement, marking the steepest weekly drop since the conflict began. Brent prompt futures settled near $97/bbl while Dated Brent spot hovered around $130 after hitting a record $144.46....
Why Opening the Strait of Hormuz Won’t Immediately Lower Gas Prices
The New York Times explains that even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens, gasoline prices will not fall right away. While the waterway carries roughly 20% of global oil shipments, damage to dozens of Gulf refineries, pipelines and export terminals...
Wisconsin’s New Vantage Data Center Threatens Water and Power Supplies
Vantage Data Centers announced a four‑building hyperscale campus in Port Washington that will host Oracle and OpenAI workloads, prompting local residents to warn that the project could overwhelm Wisconsin’s water and electricity systems. The dispute highlights a clash between rapid...
Residential Rooftop Solar Nightmare In Massachusetts
Massachusetts homeowner Abe Walters spent eight months securing a $100,000 loan for a rooftop solar and battery system, only to be hit with a surprise $12,000 transformer upgrade fee from National Grid. The fee, not covered by his loan, threatens...
Small Oil Refinery in Outback Queensland Could Be on Cusp of Expansion
Inland Oil Refinery (IOR) in Eromanga, Queensland, has run since 1986 producing up to 1,250 barrels of diesel, solvents and heating oil per day. The Queensland government’s recent approval of the Taroom Trough oil‑and‑gas exploration area could supply additional crude,...
Oil Fuels Endless Wars, Death, and Climate Crisis
Life of a barrel of oil: - war fought to secure the oil fields - multiple wars fought to keep said oil fields - destroy the land to pump the oil - cause climate change and human health crisises - more wars to steal or...
India’s Nuclear Bet Is Starting To Pay Off
India’s 500‑megawatt fast‑breeder reactor in Tamil Nadu reached criticality this month, becoming self‑sustaining and only the world’s second commercial breeder plant. The milestone advances India’s ambition to expand nuclear capacity from roughly 9 GW today to 100 GW by 2047, bolstering its clean‑energy...
Strait of Hormuz Constraints Keep Oil Prices Elevated
Oil prices hover near $100 per barrel despite the U.S.–Iran cease‑fire, because the Strait of Hormuz remains tightly controlled by Iran’s IRGC. Traffic through the chokepoint is limited to managed routes, preventing a return to normal commercial shipping. Analysts from...
The Diffusion Problem
The article defines the “diffusion problem” – the gap between powerful AI tools for climate and energy and their limited real‑world impact. While AI can now forecast electricity loads, detect methane from space, and map emissions with unprecedented precision, institutional...
U.S. Offshore Wind Sees First Lease Buyout
The Trump administration’s aggressive regulatory stance has stalled U.S. offshore wind projects, prompting the Department of the Interior to purchase TotalEnergies' offshore wind leases for $928 million. TotalEnergies will redeploy the proceeds into LNG and Gulf of Mexico oil production. The...
Chhangani Cited in House of Saud Article on How Iran Avoids US Sanctions and Sell Oil to China
Alisha Chhangani was quoted in a House of Saud analysis describing how Iran circumvents U.S. sanctions to continue oil shipments to China. The piece outlines Tehran's use of covert shipping routes, shell companies, and diplomatic channels to mask the origin...
The Future of the Strait of Hormuz
The Strait of Hormuz remains technically open but is functionally constrained as Iran imposes coordination requirements and quasi‑tolls, turning the waterway into a tool of economic coercion. Shipping volumes have fallen sharply as insurers and operators avoid the heightened risk....
Crude Oil Futures Settles at $96.57. Down Sharply on the Week
Crude oil futures settled at $96.57 on Friday, down 1.33% for the day and 14.3% for the week. Prices remain below the 100‑hour ($102.87) and 200‑hour ($103.57) moving averages, reflecting market discounting a potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz...
New Regulatory Approvals Power NUKZ Performance
Regulatory momentum is reshaping the nuclear sector as the NRC granted a 20‑year license renewal for California’s Diablo Canyon plant, extending its carbon‑free output to 2045. Parallel approvals in Poland and Canada signal a global push for both large reactors...
West Virginia Law Sets 50-Gigawatt Energy Expansion Goal
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey signed House Bill 5381, establishing a long‑term plan to lift the state’s generation capacity from 16 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts by 2050. The legislation consolidates fragmented statutes, mandates a five‑year energy development plan, and prioritizes...
How AI Data Centers Are Fueling Energy Infrastructure ETFs
AI‑driven data centers are prompting developers to build dedicated natural‑gas power plants, bypassing strained utility grids. SoftBank’s 9.2‑GW Ohio project includes a $33 billion gas plant with Kinder Morgan as the sole midstream partner, while NextEra and Entergy are launching similar hubs...
I Used This EcoFlow Battery to Run My 3,000-Sq-Ft Home in a Blackout - Here's How It Kept My AC...
EcoFlow’s Delta Pro Ultra X (DPUX) paired with the Smart Home Panel 3 delivers a modular, whole‑home battery backup capable of 12‑36 kW output and up to 180 kWh storage. In real‑world tests during two hot‑weather outages, the system kept a 3,000‑sq‑ft house—including two air...
The Race to Build New Nuclear Reactors — Fast
Executives in the nuclear sector are racing to construct new reactors at unprecedented speed to meet the surging electricity demand from AI data centers. The industry faces mounting regulatory, supply‑chain, and financing hurdles, prompting a shift toward standardized, factory‑built designs...
Cheap Solar, Batteries, EVs Outpace Fossils in Emerging Markets
Emerging Markets Choosing Cheap Solar, Batteries, EVs Over Fossil Fuels Electrotech prices collapsed over the past few years. Now, energy-poor countries are adopting electric because it's cheap and scalable. #electrotech https://youtu.be/4LZ7hDsIoiE
Daily Energy Report
The United States is set to ship a record 5 million barrels of crude per day from the Gulf Coast in May 2026, up from 4.9 mb/d in April and 3.97 mb/d in March. The surge follows a sharp decline in exports that...
Hardly Any Ships Getting Through Strait of Hormuz
Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has plummeted to historic lows, with daily transits now under ten vessels—a roughly 70% decline from pre‑conflict levels. The slowdown follows heightened Iranian missile threats and tighter naval inspections, prompting many carriers to...
JPMorgan: 'National Security Risk' In Aging Grid
JPMorgan Chase warns that the United States’ aging electricity grid has become a national security risk, vulnerable to extreme weather, cyber‑attacks and equipment failure. The bank’s internal report, seen by Bloomberg, highlights that many transmission and distribution assets are decades...
The Carbon Bureaucracy Nobody Voted For
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is drafting a global carbon accounting framework that could become the default metric for U.S. corporations’ emissions reporting. The initiative is proceeding behind the scenes in Geneva, with no public hearings or congressional oversight....
Data Centers Are on the Ballot in 2026 — and Just Failed the First Test
AI‑driven demand is spurring a wave of new data‑center construction, but communities are pushing back. In Port Washington, Wisconsin, voters approved a measure requiring voter approval before granting tax breaks to data‑center projects, a direct response to a $15 billion OpenAI‑Oracle...
Nigeria a Net Gasoline Exporter for First Time in March
Nigeria became a net exporter of gasoline in March, the first time since the Dangote refinery began operations. The refinery processed 565,000 barrels per day of crude, producing 44,000 barrels per day of gasoline, of which 40,000 b/d were exported,...
Texas Investigates Battery Project Over China Fears
Texas Attorney General Will Wassdorf announced an investigation into Finnish firm Taaleri’s battery storage project after a complaint alleged that Chinese‑made CATL cells could let Beijing monitor or control the Texas grid. The probe marks the first state‑level action targeting...
Iran War Drives Deeper Oil Shock Than Prices Reveal
The Iran‑Israel conflict has pushed the physical spot price of crude to a record $145 a barrel, more than double the level before the Feb. 28 attacks, while the widely quoted Brent futures linger around $109. The widening gap between futures...
Why Investing in Wind and Solar to Avoid Gas Shocks Hasn’t Added Up for Some
Europe’s aggressive rollout of wind and solar has not uniformly shielded countries from soaring gas‑driven electricity prices. Germany now boasts more renewable capacity than Spain, yet its wholesale power costs still surge when natural‑gas prices spike. By contrast, Spain’s electricity...
Baker Hughes Rig Count -3 at 545
The Baker Hughes weekly rig count slipped by three to a total of 545 rigs, with oil rigs unchanged at 411 and natural‑gas rigs falling to 127. Crude oil prices nudged up $0.57 to $98.45 per barrel, yet the weekly...
Solid Oxide Cell Research Needs Unified Materials and Systems Design, Review Argues
A new review from Northwestern Polytechnical University and Fuzhou University argues that solid‑oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and solid‑oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) have stalled because research treats materials, electrochemistry, and system engineering as separate problems. The authors map recent advances in...
DRC Expands Solar Power Capacity with Major 120 MWp Renewable Energy Deal in Lualaba
Democratic Republic of the Congo’s National Agency for Rural Electrification and Energy Services (ANSER) signed a strategic agreement with Propav Infrastructure Limited to build two solar farms in Lualaba province, delivering a combined 120 MWp of capacity. The sites—55.4 MWp at Kyamasumba...
Modular Solar‑Battery‑Hydrogen Nanogrids Replace Diesel Generators
Today on Volts: in difficult places where power needs to be portable & reliable -- think disaster recovery, or forward military bases -- diesel generators have been the standard answer. I talk today with someone making modular, portable, self-contained nanogrids...
Oil Prices Drop After Iran Ceasefire, Hormuz Still Closed
🛢️ OIL & IRAN WAR CONTEXT WEEKLY 🛢️ Crude prices collapsed following the announcement of an Iran War ceasefire, during which attacks have continued, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed; all eyes on weekend negotiations Summary below, full report...
US Might Use Goldfinger‑Style Tactics on Iranian Energy
How many have considered the US could employ a modified Goldfinger strategy as it relates Iranian energy…?
Panel Greenlights Another Large Battery Despite Distant Critics
Independent panel approves another big battery sent for review by long-distance haters #energysky -- via Renew Economy: https://t.co/jYoHwGXYTm https://t.co/hox5iKl25O
France to Almost Double Electric Power Subsidies by 2030
France plans to nearly double its fiscal support for switch to electric power by 2030 https://t.co/oO2cBkxLUW via @WHorobin @FrancoisDeBeaup https://t.co/kDXRBVJ1xD
US Offshore Wind Gets Critical Policy Boost
The US offshore wind industry finally gets a break #energysky -- via Canary Media: https://t.co/PZJHpxjo3b
Earn Money Using Electricity with Octopus Agile
truly the best times on Octopus Agile at the moment. Getting paid to use electricity in the UK thanks to investments in wind 💨 and solar ☀️ https://t.co/mDjH6UUwEo
No Middle Ground: Draw Stocks or Destroy Demand
The world has only two options: draw inventories or destroy demand. There is no third option. And while many people point to “global inventories” as a source of comfort, not every barrel in storage is truly available. This is a...
Swiss Startup Guarantees Lifetime on Second‑life Batteries
Swiss startup offers lifetime guarantee for second-life batteries #energysky -- via pv magazine global: https://t.co/SO6Izgz4Th
Energy Spot Index Surges 50% in 2026
Time to get excited about energy markets? The Bloomberg Energy Spot Subindex is up almost 50% in 2026, to unchanged since 2005! https://t.co/mPF44O7Vkt
Oil Prices Higher Under Biden, Not Just Trump
this weekend at your cocktail party🍸when they tell you oil prices soared because of Trump, just laugh, tell them oil prices were higher 4-years ago under Biden and move on to the next conversation... https://t.co/PO4tICGIJz
Empty VLCCs Rush to US, Relieving Hormuz‑Starved Markets
Very cool seeing the wave of empty tankers heading to the US to pick up some desperately needed crude for Hormuz-starved markets. All the tankers on the map below are empty VLCCs (~2 million barrel capacity each) currently heading for the...
Most U.S. Solar, Wind Projects Get Timely Permits
Most state-permitted U.S. solar and wind projects in 19 states received a timely permit #energysky -- via pv magazine usa: https://t.co/arqMrsRyzc
East Coast Gasoline Imports Dip; West Coast Imports Surge Early
East Coast vs. West Coast - Gasoline Imports Edition: Interesting trend developing in weekly data. The U.S. East Coast, typically the region that imports the most, has imports falling counter-seasonally. The West Coast, which has growing imports, has imports increasing...
Transformer Shortage Sparks Surge of Energy Startups
America’s Transformer Crisis Has Supercharged a Wave of New Startups #energysky -- via Heatmap News https://t.co/mVSTPVomG8 https://t.co/n88HhSKiEx
Weekly Trade Data Noisy; Rely on Monthly Figures
Reminder: Weekly export/import data is very noisy. Not because of bad data, but more practical reasons. As weekly export data comes in, just remember to revert back to the more robust Monthly data once they are released. https://t.co/2YmazyDDYX
Iran's Straight Flush: Dominating the Hormuz Strait
"Iran has no cards"...except for the straight flush it happens to be holding with control of Hormuz