My inbox is flooded with things worth reading and writing about, and I can’t keep up, so here you go, the best of them for the week.
First up is an article by someone that calls herself The “Electric Grandma”, which is not something I would do because it conjures up images I can’t get out of my head, but I’ll cut her some slack because it kind of works and she’s earned the right to call herself whatever she wants. Meredith Angwin is a formidable energy expert, author of the book “Shorting the Grid: The Hidden Fragility of Our Electric Grid” and presumably a grandma (if not then it is a super weird title). She provides calm, intelligent takes on what’s happening the US power grid world, or rationally points out just how very close the mismanaged grid is to sheer calamity. Now she’s taking on Europe in an article that looks into (yet another) European energy fiasco. Norway, not a member of the EU, participates in their electrical grid as a major exporter. Norway is blessed with vast hydro electricity, plus is rich as stink. Anyway they’ve been bailing the EU out, power wise, and in some instances Norwegians are paying more for power than EU citizens. Guess how that story ends. Meredith does a fantastic job explaining it all. Go North, Young Man (or Young Woman)
Quarterly conference call transcripts are far more interesting than the title suggests, and maybe the purveyors should find something along the lines of Electric Grandma. But they are fascinating, particularly the Q&A – executives have to think on their feet. IR presentations are as safe as they can possibly be (Lawyers! Lawyers! Lawyers! The disclaimer page usually has more words than the rest of the presentation), but in Q&As, you often find out something interesting if one adapts the mentality of a truffle-hunting pig. Another Substacker, The Transcript, does the hard work for you and carries and endless stream of them. A recent post had a comment from Constellation Energy’s CEO, on energy demand, which is “expected to grow at levels we haven’t seen in a lifetime…” The Transcript site here.
Tourmaline and US company Clean Energy recently announced the opening of two new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations in Calgary and Grande Prairie, aiming to establish a large CNG corridor. Great news for the industry and also a big emissions boon as a corridor might help build a CNG trucking fleet. In dustier but equally exciting news, New Holland is bringing its first methane tractor to the US. Popular in Europe, these wee beasts apparently burn cleaner and run quieter than diesel, but are rated at the same horsepower for a given six-cylinder engine (no word in the article on torque, which is more important in a tractor, but presumably not too shabby). New Holland also claims a 30 percent reduction in op costs compared to diesel. Imagine if Tourmaline/Clean Energy could start bolting on agricultural demand networks as well…or any other gas producer! https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/equipment-and-machinery/new-under-the-hood-new-holland-brings-its-first-methane-tractor-to-us/article_b5d02c26-c6d3-11ef-9cd6-4f2e6802fec4.html
So when the power goes out, big deal, get out some candles and eat beans out of a can, right? Well, it’s not so fun for everyone. Here’s a hair-raising tale of what happened to a Texas semiconductor manufacturing facility when the power went out – damages estimated at, gulp, $375 million. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/samsung-reaches-400-million-settlement-after-texas-winter-storm-damages/ar-AA1owixd
Now that he’s said it, it seems logical…Trump team to play offense on cybersecurity, not just defense. It seems known who the bad actors are. Sitting around waiting for pipelines to shut down, or electrical grids to fail, due to hacker attacks is not a strategy to comfort anyone. There are millions of cyberattacks every day so…how about a little mutually assured destruction? https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/samsung-reaches-400-million-settlement-after-texas-winter-storm-damages/ar-AA1owixd
It’s all happening as expected, more or less – an energy transition isn’t quite so simple. Find out what readers knew years ago in The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity – the energy story for those that don’t live it, and want to find out. And laugh. Available at Amazon.ca, Indigo.ca, or Amazon.com.
Read more insightful analysis from Terry Etam here, or email Terry here.