Today's Energy Pulse
Scania pilots vehicle‑to‑grid power for heavy‑duty electric trucks
Scania showcased one of the first V2G systems for heavy‑duty electric trucks using the Megawatt Charging System (MCS). The pilot demonstrated bi‑directional power flow, letting trucks feed stored electricity back to the grid while parked, with real‑time communication enabling dynamic charging and discharging. The company also opened orders for trucks equipped with an extra battery pack and MCS.
Also developing:
Will the Iran War Redraw the Global Energy Map?
The Iran‑Israel conflict has forced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, instantly choking a key artery for global oil shipments. The disruption has triggered a sharp supply shock, pushing crude prices higher and exposing Asia’s heavy reliance on Middle‑East oil. Experts on the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center warn the crisis could linger, reshaping trade routes and prompting a reassessment of U.S. energy dependencies. The podcast explores how these dynamics may redraw the global energy map for years to come.
XCharge NA + JOJO Launch EV Fast Chargers in Illinois – First Sites Live
XCharge North America and JOJO Superfast have begun deploying an EV fast‑charging network across Illinois, launching nine sites with two already operational. Each location will feature four 200 kW C6 Smart DC chargers, primarily installed at Menards home‑improvement stores to capture...
How Electricity Prices Fuel Data Center Opposition
Data center developer Hut 8 faced fierce opposition in Logan County, Illinois, after residents linked a proposed AI‑focused facility to rising electricity costs. Heatmap Pro’s opposition index gave the county a score of 69, placing it just outside the top ten...
Commonwealth Fusion Systems Shifts to Magnet Sales, Securing Near‑Term Revenue
Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced it will begin selling its high‑temperature superconducting magnets to Realta Fusion, the largest such deal for the company. The move leverages CFS’s multi‑year $3 billion fundraising and a near‑complete Sparc demo reactor to generate cash while the...
New PECO Rate Hike Request Includes Proposal for Peak-Shaving Distributed Battery Program
PECO, the Philadelphia‑area utility, has filed a new rate‑hike request that bundles a proposal for a peak‑shaving distributed battery program. The filing seeks to recover costs for installing utility‑scale and behind‑the‑meter battery storage that can reduce demand spikes on the...
AWS and Siemens Energy Team Up to Advance Energy Sector Digital Transformation
Amazon Web Services has been named the strategic cloud provider for Siemens Energy, deepening a partnership that brings AWS AI, machine learning and IoT services into Siemens’ power‑generation and manufacturing operations. The collaboration will also explore joint solutions for powering...
AI Companies Are Building Huge Natural Gas Plants to Power Data Centers. What Could Go Wrong?
AI‑driven data‑center operators are racing to build massive natural‑gas power plants, with Microsoft targeting 5 GW in West Texas, Google 933 MW in North Texas, and Meta adding 7.46 GW in Louisiana. The projects aim to secure "behind‑the‑meter" electricity to meet soaring AI...
Net‑Zero Policies Not Responsible for Cuba’s Energy Crisis
Net-Zero policies didn’t cause the energy crisis in Cuba. @thefreepress is sh*t journalism truly the trademark you are looking to achieve?
This Spring Has Been a Record Season for Renewables
Spring 2026 has become a record‑breaking season for U.S. renewables, highlighted by Texas ERCOT’s all‑time wind peak of 28.7 GW on March 14 and multiple solar records across major ISOs. The nation added 26.5 GW of utility‑scale solar and 5.7 GW of wind in...
Renewables Groups Believe Minnesota VPP Program ‘Misses the Mark’
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved Phase 2 of Xcel Energy’s Capacity*Connect virtual power plant program, targeting 50‑200 MW of battery storage by 2028. The initiative marks the first U.S. utility‑owned VPP, where Xcel retains full capacity ownership rather than relying on...
Polymer Blend Capacitor Stores 4× Energy at 250 °C
Engineers created a capacitor crafted from a polymer blend that can operate at temperatures up to 250 °C while storing roughly four times as much energy as conventional polymer capacitors. This new material could be used in EVs and to...
Physical Oil Market Starts To Decouple From Futures Market
The author notes that, despite a quiet Good Friday market, the latest U.S. jobs report showed a surprising 178,000 payroll increase in March, far above expectations. More importantly, the piece highlights a growing divergence between physical oil spot prices and...
How the Iran War Could Scramble the Climate Tech Capital Stack
The Iran‑Iran war’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz is choking oil exports, slashing revenues for Gulf sovereign wealth funds and oil‑backed venture arms. Those investors have been a major source of early‑stage climate‑tech capital, funding electric mobility, clean hydrogen,...
Spending Remains Strong; Demand Destruction Not Yet Evident
Friday shoutout to @joebrusuelas, chief economist at RSM, who has been doing some of the best analysis of the war in Iran's economic impact. The key question now is: When does the oil price shock trigger demand destruction? Joe has a great...
Green
For years, green groups have hailed electrification as a core climate solution. And now that we’re suddenly in the middle of historic load growth, they’re largely unprepared to meet the moment with big ideas. “We should all be embarrassed,” says @JaneAFlegal...
Scoop: This GOP Lawmaker Is Aiming to Stop an Arizona Wind Farm
Republican Rep. Eli Crane is lobbying the FAA, Fish and Wildlife Service, and FCC to halt the Lava Run wind farm in Arizona’s White Mountains, arguing federal permits could block the project. In Oregon, Amazon agreed to a $20 million settlement...
A New Tool to Help Solve State Permitting Problems
RMI has launched the State Permitting Power Tool, an interactive web‑based decision tree that distills roughly 100 permitting reforms into a searchable matrix. The platform guides users through four challenge categories—complexity, delays, political hurdles, and financial burdens—to surface the most...
Republicans Cling to Fossil Preference Despite Renewable Surge
Propaganda has brainwashed some of the public to think fossils are good and wind/solar are bad, but fortunately, reality and physics win, as new wind and solar are dominating in the U.S. and worldwide. "A year into the second Trump administration,...
U.S. Farms Double Biogas Capture in 5 Years, New Report Finds
U.S. farms operating biogas capture systems have more than doubled over the past five years, reaching over 630 installations according to the American Biogas Council. Dairy farms dominate the sector, accounting for nearly 80% of the projects, while California alone...
First Dannevirke Solar Farm Under Construction, with Plans for Another in 2027
Construction has begun on Dannevirke's first solar farm, a 23‑megawatt (MW) facility expected to supply electricity for roughly 5,000 homes. The project, developed by Bright Fern Energy and built with materials from GameChange Solar, is 58% owned by an Australian...
Ohio Solar Project Built with Modules Manufactured in State
Geronimo Power has placed its 117‑MW Dodson Creek Solar Project in Highland County, Ohio into commercial operation. The utility‑scale farm uses First Solar’s Series 7 modules that are manufactured in‑state, expanding Geronimo’s Ohio portfolio to 675 MW and delivering roughly $240 million in...
Iran Strikes Gulf Targets as US‑Israel Hit Tehran, Conflict Enters Fifth Week
Iran launched attacks on a Kuwaiti refinery and a desalination plant, while US and Israeli forces bombed Tehran, marking the fifth week of the Middle East war. European allies pushed back on U.S. base use, and President Trump vowed to...
SolarEdge Expands U.S. Manufacturing to Capture Growing Solar B2B Demand
SolarEdge Technologies announced a major expansion of its U.S. manufacturing footprint, adding residential inverter lines in Texas, commercial inverter and optimizer lines in Florida, and battery production in Utah. The move ends production in China, Mexico and Hungary and follows...
Fuel Crisis Pushes Indonesia Toward Perilous Policy Trade‑offs
A terrific piece from my #CarnegieAsia teammate @sdjaffrey on how the fuel crisis is forcing politically perilous trade-offs in Indonesia. As conflict in the Middle East drives up fuel costs across Asia, Indonesia faces difficult policy trade-offs over subsidies, inflation,...
Trump Administration Reunites Offshore Agencies for Efficiency
The Trump administration is moving to reunify the very agencies split apart after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Petrobras Extends Contracts for Two Drillships Offshore Brazil
Petrobras has extended its contracts with Transocean for the Deepwater Orion and Deepwater Aquila drillships, adding 1,095 days to Orion and 365 days to Aquila. The Orion extension, running through March 2030, is expected to generate about $420 million in incremental backlog,...
Gas Prices Likely Stay High After Iran War
Experts who spoke with Money say that Americans should expect high gas prices to linger even after the Iran war concludes. https://t.co/inLuVOK07z
Electrification Alone Won’t Shield From Gas Price Shocks
Electrification may not be enough to protect against gas-driven price shocks #energysky -- via pv magazine usa: https://t.co/x9CZpvmkMz
Global Battery Materials Ships First Graphite Samples to US Customer, Opens Quebec Processing Lab
Global Battery Materials (GBM) has shipped its first natural graphite samples from the Kearney Mine in Ontario to an unnamed U.S. customer for qualification testing, marking the inaugural step in a North American supply chain. Simultaneously, GBM opened a new...
Iran War May Accelerate Europe's Renewable Energy Push
Iran war could spur Europe to double down on renewables — again #energysky -- via Canary Media: https://t.co/EWPPy2Tijh
Stability Fuels Zimbabwe's Transformer Production Boom
CAB3 is for STABILITY & CONTINUITY… Zimbabwe is now producing thousands of Transformers for the local & regional markets. That’s what happens when you have a COMPETENT President… President @edmnangagwa can stay in office as long he is DELIVERING… https://t.co/UDWbBHjTja
Renewables Critics Say Minnesota VPP Falls Short
Renewables groups believe Minnesota VPP program ‘misses the mark’ #energysky -- via Solar Power World: https://t.co/L7c5uzFsXr
Iran Refuses Pakistan Talks; Trump Demands More Time for Hormuz
Iran Unwilling To Meet US Negotiators In Pakistan, Talks At 'Dead End', As Trump Says 'A Little More Time' Needed To Open Hormuz: (ZeroHedge)
Reno Commission Greenlights 200MW Trego Grid Battery Project
Reno planning commission approves permit for 200MW Trego Grid BESS project #energysky -- via Energy Storage News: https://t.co/veYJPQYc2X
Control of Hormuz Determines Iran’s Energy Leverage
The war isn’t about nukes anymore. It’s about Hormuz. If Iran controls the strait, it controls the leverage—energy flows, revenue, and deterrence. Lose that, and it loses everything. https://t.co/E8y4o6BWN6 #Iran #Hormuz #Oil #Geopolitics
Southeast Asia Must Rethink Energy Security Amid Crisis
There is no better time for the countries of Southeast Asia to reconsider their energy security than during this latest crisis. My #CarnegieAsia teammate, Indonesia’s former trade minister @GWirjawan, tackles Southeast Asia’s agency during the current crisis. https://t.co/hrpRX8kt83
Trump Speech Triggers Brent Crude Jump, Prediction Proven
After Trump’s speech on Wednesday night, the price of brent crude futures jumped from below $100 to around $108. On Wednesday, that’s exactly what I told @MarioNawfal what oil would do. https://t.co/CbkZMrjXlx
FlexGen Expands Portfolio by Acquiring Clean Energy Services
FlexGen moves to expand offerings with acquisition of Clean Energy Services #energysky -- via pv magazine usa: https://t.co/gH2wMVbd2S
Industrial Carbon Tax: Key Tool for Climate Mitigation
I am going to use this as an auto-reply on stories about the role of the industrial carbon tax. https://t.co/ZcVNH2IkKS
Earn Money by Charging EV During Octopus Agile Window
you get paid to charge an EV tomorrow on Octopus Agile for ~4 hours, or use any electricity during that time https://t.co/HdyttCqgwD
Electrospray Cooling Boosts Solar Panel Efficiency, Saves Water
Electrospray cooling can boost PV panel performance with minimal water use #energysky -- via pv magazine global: https://t.co/tFbOoSFCLn
France Considers Targeted Fuel Aid Amid Iran War
France weighs targeted fuel aid as Iran war pushes up costs https://t.co/cq1BDGxOCP via @WHorobin https://t.co/XDxJyMTgxY
Truckers Face $6K Rise From Carbon Tax Hike
Dear @SenatorWallin, you should learn what is covered by the industrial carbon tax. I challenge you to show a calculation that the April 1 increase in the industrial carbon tax increases costs to truckers by $6k. Please show how those...
WTI Oil Beats Gold Over Past Year
Wild. WTI oil now outperforming gold over the last twelve months. $oil : $gold ratio https://t.co/45PLa8stic
Nation's Largest Urban Battery Deploys Near San Francisco
Nation's largest urban battery to take center stage near San Francisco #energysky -- via Canary Media: https://t.co/fv1RqbWPt2
Questioning Futures Curve: What Is True December WTI Expectation?
Assuming, as most of you seem to have massive confidence, that the futures curve is not a reflection of true market expectations of future spot. Current Dec Futures are 72.5 ish. What do you think the market expectations for...
Crude Spot Markets Reach Unprecedented Tightness, Spreads Near Whole Dollars
It's not a great sign when you start simply rounding crude timespreads to the nearest full dollar per barrel Brent prompt spread at $10/bbl, WTI at $14, Dubai at $17 (we normally talk about term structure in cents...) Crude oil spot markets have...
War's End Determines Brent Spot vs Futures Direction
This is the spot Brent oil price (white), the Brent March futures that just expired this week (orange), the current Brent June futures (yellow) and WTI (green). If war ends quickly, white converges down to yellow. If war drags on,...
China's Energy Storage Boom: Watch Inventory Data
China's energy storage market is booming. One Chinese analyst thinks you should look at the inventory data . Read more and sign up to my newsletter here: https://t.co/ck3zk49kBX https://t.co/sA0TPeUWMc
Iran's Oil Revenues Surge Amid US‑Israeli Conflict
I spoke with @MarioNawfal on Iran's free cash flow benefits from the US-Israeli war on Iran: "Who's benefited economically from the war? It's Iran. Because they're exporting more oil than they were before. The price is a lot higher & the...