Fwd: Volts community thread #29

[Loretta Lohman]

Open to all free & paid subscribers.

͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­

	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Thanks for reading Volts. Let me know what you think, and what you’d like to see more of, at da...@volts.wtf. Volts community thread #29 Open to all free & paid subscribers. David Roberts and Samuel R (Volts team) May 18   READ IN APP   David’s Notes 1. It feels weird not to share this with Volts listeners, so I’m sharing: David Roberts @volts.wtf Debated whether to share this, but for some reason it feels weird not to: My father passed away yesterday. A few days ago my mother found him in the morning, unresponsive. Doctors said it was subdural hematoma. He never regained consciousness. He was 82. I loved him. Sun, 10 May 2026 17:15:23 GMT View on Bluesky I’m down in Virginia this week for his funeral. (You are not obliged to email your condolences; if you do, I might not be able to thank you individually, so I will just pre-thank you all, here, for your thoughts and prayers. I appreciate all of you.) The only thing that’s felt weirder than working is not working, so I’m going to send the email below anyway. 2. 🎤 I apologize that there was no community thread last month, but April was kind of crazy here at Volts: 10 episodes, with 11.5 hours of talking. I think that is a record. Is anyone actually listening to all these pods? Is it even possible to do so? Should I make fewer? 3. 🥂 Some of you may remember a 2023 episode with Maryland Delegate Lorig Charkoudian, on the subject of offshore wind. It turns out she remains a listener and a fan, and she recently emailed me with great news: I appreciate your obsession with data centers using VPP’s as the way to meet their capacity obligation. I wanted to let you know that my bill on data center clean capacity was integrated into the Speaker’s Utility Relief Act and passed this Session. It creates a fast track for data centers that bring their own clean capacity, including VPPs in the load deliverability area. I think we may be the first or second state to put this into statute. I hope others follow. Thank you to Delegate Charkoudian for her leadership on this issue. And thank you, subscribers, for supporting this work. Volts is entirely community-funded and I think we’re making a difference. 4. 🔋 Want something to feel optimistic about? In Queensland, Australia, fossil gas power plants have long been kept alive and solvent by the fact that they provide almost all of the energy peaks. Thing is, though, alongside the rapid growth of renewables in the state has come rapid growth in batteries. Now batteries are more cheaply and reliably providing that peak power and gas is on the decline. Look at this amazing graphic: This change occurred over two years. The same changes are coming to grids everywhere, including ours. The faster we install batteries everywhere, the faster it will happen. 5. ✅ Community comment(s) of the month: Prompted by the retail pricing episode with Bruce Nordman, Don Jackson developed a CA price server that some energy nerds may be interested in: Smell the flowers while you can. Monthly Thread — How It Works This is your monthly opportunity to share! Use the comments section in this community thread to: CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES: Share climate jobs/opportunities SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS: Share your climate-related work, ask for help, or find collaborators CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS: Share climate-related events and meetups EVERYTHING ELSE: Discuss David’s Notes or anything else climate-related QUESTIONS: Ask a question to the community or for an upcoming bonus episode (anyone can ask a question but bonus episodes are a paid-sub-only perk). Don’t be afraid to answer one another’s questions! 🚨 To keep organized, please only “REPLY” directly under one of Sam’s headline comments. Anything inappropriate, spammy, etc may be deleted. Be nice! Check out our Community Guidelines. Volts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid You're currently a free subscriber to Volts. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.   Like Comment Restack   © 2026 David Roberts 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe