Latitude Media

Pacific Gas and Electric Company is asking California regulators to approve an increased rate of return for 2026, citing both uncertainty around the Trump administration and the risk of wildfire damage. https://lnkd.in/gmVayZME

Catch up on the biggest stories of the week with The Latitude Weekly newsletter, from phantom data center queues, to innovation in solar trackers, to federal support for nuclear SMRs. Subscribe here on LinkedIn or at https://lnkd.in/eisuTdVz to get the news directly to your inbox.

AI wasn’t plastered over every booth at this year's Distributech — but it’s certainly becoming a core part of product rollouts and grid initiatives. https://lnkd.in/e3yeJsNP

At a congressional hearing on regional grid stability, representatives from seven regional grid operators warned a House of Representatives energy subcommittee about unprecedented load growth — and sparred with lawmakers specifically about the Inflation Reduction Act’s impact on looming capacity shortfalls. https://lnkd.in/eK-TcjjE

We've announced a whole roster of new speakers for Transition-AI 2025 recently, including: ?? Caroline Golin, PhD of Google ?? Tanya Das, Ph.D. of the Bipartisan Policy Center ?? Andrew Beebe of Obvious Ventures ?? Laura Katzman (Dyer) of Buoyant Ventures ?? Dana Guernsey of Voltus Don't miss out! See the full agenda and list of confirmed speakers — and register — here: https://lnkd.in/eVfCStYA

Tyler Norris and a few other researchers wanted to know, What’s the potential for data center flexibility? And what benefits could it have system-wide? In a?recent study, Tyler and his co-authors found there’s enough spare capacity in the existing U.S. grid to accommodate up to 98 gigawatts of new industrial load (enough for?multiple Project Stargates), if that load can curtail 0.5% of annual load to avoid adding to system peaks. This week on Catalyst, Shayle Kann and Tyler unpack the study's findings: https://lnkd.in/ecRm-rzF

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) this week reissued a $900-million funding opportunity for small modular reactor deployment. Co-administered by the Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, the program?is an update?to an opportunity initially issued by the Biden administration and funded by 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. DOE “is accelerating the development of American nuclear technology and ensuring the American people’s access to reliable, abundant, and affordable energy is the number one priority of all Energy Department projects,” DOE press secretary Ben Dietderich told?Latitude Media?in an email. https://lnkd.in/eXMyHAbf

Daniel Shugar has been trying to move solar panels around since the 1980s. In 2012 he founded Nextracker Inc. with a single product. Since then, Nextracker has revolutionized tracking technology, becoming one of the biggest solar tracker companies in the world. This week on The Green Blueprint: ?? On customer-driven innovation: "I'm very much a believer in partnering with customers early when we have new technology to let them pilot it, trying a small amounts, getting their feedback on the actual product and then having their ideas become part of the solution." ?? On problem-solving: "Every problem with a customer is really an opportunity to deepen your relationship with the customer by how you approach it and how you solve it." ?? On solar industry growth: "Then a few days ago, the report came out that in 2024, we just saw the latest data, solar and storage account for 84% of the capacity added to the grid. I think 50 gigs of solar was added. I mean, that's unbelievable. The most of any energy technology added to the grid in decades in a single year." Listen to the full episode: https://lnkd.in/eUMKKgzu

Scott Clavenna reports back on the sentiment around AI at this year's Distributech, phantom data centers are flooding the load queue, and the Open Circuit hosts reflect on Covid’s data center legacy. Catch up here ?? and subscribe to receive in your inbox every Wednesday: https://lnkd.in/eisuTdVz

Last week, in a wood-paneled auditorium in a New York University campus highrise, Will Kain unveiled his direct air capture company’s first demonstration project. Project Brighton, he said, is being built in partnership with the U.S. Navy, and will capture 450 tons per year of carbon dioxide — and about 2,250 tons per year of water. “We have all our permits approved, and construction is now underway,” Kain told the Global Direct Air Capture Conference audience. “We anticipate that this unit will be online in the summer of 2025 so just a few short months away.” The project is the first announcement in what Kain called the “year of commercialization” for Avnos, Inc., a company that uses a “hybrid” approach to DAC, pulling both carbon and water from the air. “We call it ‘hybrid’ to reflect the fact that we capture both water and CO2 from the same airstream in the same system,” Kain told?Latitude Media?at the conference. “We’re the only ones doing that.” https://lnkd.in/eX2HeAsN