Dan Schroeder

Dan Schroeder

@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Physicist, educator, number-cruncher. Cartoon by the great Cal Grondahl. physics.weber.edu/schroeder

909 followers218 following2.9K posts

Dan Schroeder reposted

Alan Gerard
@wxmanms1.bsky.social

Story from KOAT-TV in ABQ about the northern NM flooding. Amazed this is not getting more national coverage. www.koat.com/article/new-...

koat.comHistoric and catastrophic flooding hit New MexicoSevere flooding is impacting northern New Mexico as severe weather could impact areas near Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
Alan Gerard@wxmanms1.bsky.social

After weeks of periodic heavy rains, the San Juan River system in CO and NM is in the middle of a truly historic flood that appears to be causing catastrophic impacts to the rural Four Corners region — the word needs to get out on how bad things are: balancedweather.substack.com/p/record-cat...

balancedweather.substack.comRecord “catastrophic” flooding impacting the Four Corners regionSan Juan River at Farmington, NM cresting feet above 100+ year old record, law enforcement official describes area around Pagosa Springs, CO as “catastrophic”
Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Fascinating, nuanced article on the status of New Mexico's transition from a coal-heavy grid to one dominated by wind, solar, and gas. One detail is a proposed "diminutive" 40 MW gas peaker plant. For perspective, NM currently has ~3.5 GW of gas plants. What matters is usage, not capacity. 🔌💡

Canary Media Inc.@canarymedia.com

New Mexico set some ambitious clean energy targets — and then started meeting them years ahead of schedule.

canarymedia.comNew Mexico’s transition to clean energy is actually ahead of scheduleThe state is forging ahead on wind, solar, and batteries after hitting its 2030 renewables goal early. The transition for coal workers has been more…
Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

FWIW, I don't expect NM's utilities to be "100% carbon-free by 2045". Squeezing out the last bits of gas will get harder and harder, and it looks like the law gives them some wiggle room if prices start to shoot up. But if they can all get to 80% by 2040, that'll still be huge. 🍿🍿🍿

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Ah, but percentages of WHAT, exactly? Something hypothetical, that's for sure. 🔌💡

Alexander C. Kaufman@alexckaufman.bsky.social

This chart shows how much momentum GE Hitachi's BWRX-300 has in the global SMR race. The American-Japanese consortium has captured as much interest as the Russian and Chinese state-owned companies. The reactor has multiple projects underway, with one in Canada and another permitted in the U.S.

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Utah data centers in the "news"!

The Salt Lake Tribune@sltrib.com

"Saturday Night Live" made fun of "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary, and the "Shark Tank" investor's plan for a data center in Box Elder County. "You have to understand — I don't live there," the fake O'Leary said.

sltrib.com‘Saturday Night Live’ takes a swing at ‘Mr. Wonderful’ and his Box Elder County data center project"Saturday Night Live" made fun of "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary, and the "Shark Tank" investor's plan for a data center in Box Elder County. "You have to understand — I don't live there," the fake O'Leary said.

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

17. One good thing about data centers is that they drive some investment into the scale-up of bonkers long-duration storage tech, eg Form Energy’s iron-air batteries (link). They care much less about the cost of power than about speed-to-power. www.canarymedia.com/articles/bat...

canarymedia.comGigantic Form Energy battery to power Google data center in MinnesotaThe startup has struck a deal with Xcel Energy to build a 30 gigawatt-hour battery plant that will deliver clean energy, round the clock, to a Google…

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

21. The Hormuz crisis is having little direct effect on PV sales, because solar doesn’t usually replace liquid fuel. It is boosting EVs, particularly in Europe where they reached 36% of car sales in Q2 2026 (China’s figure was 60%, though its car market slowed). This does eventually support PV.

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

12. Sometimes the story is the dog that doesn’t bark in the nighttime. European grids would once have struggled in a 2026-level heatwave, but they had only a few problems and high evening prices. CAISO and Ercot, which also have lots of batteries, had good reliability years despite record loads.

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

10. We oughtta be building more wind, especially in seasonal climates like Europe. Solar will get built anyway, it’s cheap, but wind blows at night and in the winter. We’re going to need something to charge the batteries in winter, especially with rising heatpump use.

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

9. Batteries still do not solve the seasonal problem. A battery of any type that only charges and discharges a few times per year is extremely expensive, even if the capex is low!

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

11. How mismatched is European seasonal solar supply and electricity demand? Well, here is the situation for my fully electrified house in Switzerland with 13.2kW of solar, a heatpump and an EV. I would have needed about 122kW of PV to be self-sufficient across December.

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

3. Solar is struggling because it’s running into saturation effects in major markets, where there’s already plenty of power in sunny hours, and adding more solar panels generates the most power in the same hours. The power stack in Germany in a sunny week now looks like this.

Dan Schroeder reposted

Jenny Chase
@solarchase.bsky.social

Replying to @solarchase.bsky.social

1. It’s the end of the beginning of the age of cheap solar. 2026 is likely to be the first down year for PV build, despite module prices of 11-12 US cents per Watt in normal markets, not substantially up from the lowest levels ever (9 cents in 2025 before a Chinese export tax rebate was cancelled).

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

It's always like Christmas morning when @solarchase.bsky.social posts her annual opinions thread! Nowhere will you find a smarter summary of the state of the global energy transition. 🔌💡

Jenny Chase@solarchase.bsky.social

Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage. If you like these, you might like edition 2 of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website til end of Nov 2026. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...

worldscientific.comSolar Power Finance Without the Jargon
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Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Most of these Utah data center proposals will go nowhere, or will end up vastly smaller than what's being proposed. With only rare exceptions, these real estate developers have no tech company tenants lined up to actually occupy and operate the data centers they're proposing.

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Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

But all these developments were in the works before Gov. Cox announced Operation Gigawatt. None of them were driven by any notable state policies. Operation Gigawatt is about what happens next. Cox is saying he wants MORE MORE MORE electricity generation, and data centers are the obvious buyers.

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Sending out that message has been successful in attracting promoters and real estate developers who are eager to build data centers in Utah. The proposals are coming thick and fast, adding up to more than 40 GW—ten times Utah's current average electricity generation. www.sltrib.com/news/2026/09...

sltrib.comUtah data center map: Track new developments across the stateUtah has become a hotspot for data center development. There are more than 40 centers already operating, and dozens proposed or under construction — from Washington County to Emery, Duchesne and Box E...
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Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

(Best I can estimate based on the information I've seen, roughly 10% of Utah's current electricity demand is probably from data centers. Without the new data centers, demand would have been flat or decreasing in recent years.)

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Anyhow a lot has happened to UT's electricity generation in the last 2 yrs: some big new solar farms came online (some selling their output to data centers); LA replaced their big UT coal plant with new gas units; and Fervo fired up its first new enhanced geothermal unit, also selling output to CA.

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

The worst thing about permitting reform is that the talking points on both sides are so drearily predictable and so obviously intended merely as talking points, not good-faith efforts to inform.

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Rather than merely complaining, let me highlight this "cheat sheet" as a positive contribution to the discussion. Obviously not the final word, but if others disagree with it I think they should put out something similar. bsky.app/profile/zeke...

Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com

Confused by all the debate about the new permitting reform bill? Here is a quick cheat-sheet of the most important provisions, and their likely impact on emissions:

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

RIP Ken, you had a good run. As for Glen Canyon, it seems to be tryin' to come back whether we like it or not.

The Salt Lake Tribune@sltrib.com

Ken Sleight sat on the edge of a raft with Edward Abbey, dreaming up ways to eliminate Glen Canyon Dam. He later became immortalized in Abbey's 1975 book "The Monkey Wrench Gang," serving as inspiration for the character Seldom Seen Smith.

sltrib.comKen Sleight, Utah environmentalist who inspired a main character in ‘The Monkey Wrench Gang,’ dies at 97Ken Sleight sat on the edge of a raft with Edward Abbey, dreaming up ways to eliminate Glen Canyon Dam. He later became immortalized in Abbey's 1975 book "The Monkey Wrench Gang," serving as inspiration for the character Seldom Seen Smith.

Dan Schroeder reposted

Dr. Adam Stein
@astein.bsky.social

Check out our new article!

Julia M. Rohrer@dingdingpeng.the100.ci

This is very good. “Over 2.2 million cancer deaths can be attributed to Costco; that’s more than 20% of all cancer deaths between 2000 and 2018.”

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Valar Atomics, would-be maker of helium-cooled microreactors, now says it's diversifying into "uranium TRISO-fuel processing to feed its reactors, water desalination, steel manufacturing, critical mineral refining — and data centers." 🔌💡☢️ www.sltrib.com/news/environ...

sltrib.com2 big data centers are coming to Utah’s coal country. How they’ll be powered has residents ‘up in arms.’“It’s all descending, these data centers,” said Cindy O’Neil, who tracks the progress of the projects. “They’re setting these things within a couple of miles of homes.”
Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Yes, let's remove regulatory barriers whenever we reasonably can. But this kind of rhetoric seems like an attempt to deflect attention away from still bigger barriers: inherently high costs of some technologies, and political opposition from the fossil fuel lobby.

Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com

The biggest barrier to emissions reductions is increasingly our inability to quickly build clean energy: solar, geothermal, wind, nuclear, transmission, battery storage, etc. Projects are held back by a thicket of regulations and reviews.

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

WTF, Microsoft??? 🔌💡

Ben Paulos@paulosanalysis.com

Even @microsoft.com is no better than crypto miners, setting up 130 MW of gas generators without a permit, to power Copilot. New Jersey fined them $1m but let them keep operating. Why @mikiesherrill.bsky.social? share.google/NwgmhdK4iHwm...

share.googleNew Jersey hits data center powering Microsoft Copilot with $1m fine after drone expose 62 secretly-installed gas generatorsA data center was using illegal gas generators
Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Says here Oregon data centers accounted for 23%(!) of the state's electricity use in 2025. Meanwhile IEA says they use only ~5% of electricity in the US as a whole. Is OR a big outlier in data center density, or is there a big ambiguity in defining data centers and making these estimates? 🔌💡

OPB@opb.org

A first-of-its-kind report documents the quantity, size and impact of data centers in Oregon. Among the findings: More than 100 facilities consume about one-quarter of the state's electricity.

opb.orgOregon data centers by the numbers: 111 facilities consume nearly one-quarter of state’s power, according to new reportA first-of-its-kind report details the footprint of the controversial facilities.
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Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

(I think one reason I was unaware of this is because so many reports on data centers focus on what's proposed for coming years rather than what's already up and running.)

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Many thanks to the @sltrib.com for providing this helpful resource!

The Salt Lake Tribune@sltrib.com

Utah has become a hotspot for data center development. There are more than 40 centers already operating, and dozens proposed or under construction — from Washington County to Emery, Duchesne and Box Elder. You can help us track them all.

sltrib.comUtah data center map: Track new developments across the stateUtah has become a hotspot for data center development. There are more than 40 centers already operating, and dozens proposed or under construction — from Washington County to Emery, Duchesne and Box Elder. You can help us track them all.
Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

The Fervo news release adds some clarity to their capacity accounting. 33 MW is the net winter capacity of each Phase I unit, as reported to EIA. The latest EIA list still doesn't include any Phase II units, despite their being "under construction, with an expected COD in 2028".

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

(Also let's enjoy a laugh at the word "annually" tacked onto the end of that paragraph in Fervo's news release, indicating confusion over whether megawatts is a measure of energy or power. 🙄 #iTeachPhysics)

Dan Schroeder reposted

Zeke Hausfather
@zekehausfather.com

The world has made real progress in steering away from some of the darkest climate futures where global emissions doubled (or more) this century. But as David Wallace-Wells and I note in today's NYT, we are not out of the woods yet, and climate uncertainty is not our friend: www.nytimes.com/2026...

Dan Schroeder
@dvschroeder.bsky.social

Says here Oregon data centers accounted for 23%(!) of the state's electricity use in 2025. Meanwhile IEA says they use only ~5% of electricity in the US as a whole. Is OR a big outlier in data center density, or is there a big ambiguity in defining data centers and making these estimates? 🔌💡

OPB@opb.org

A first-of-its-kind report documents the quantity, size and impact of data centers in Oregon. Among the findings: More than 100 facilities consume about one-quarter of the state's electricity.

opb.orgOregon data centers by the numbers: 111 facilities consume nearly one-quarter of state’s power, according to new reportA first-of-its-kind report details the footprint of the controversial facilities.