1. On Earth Day, the EPA grants $7 billion to serve nearly a million households with solar

Learning: "The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on Monday. The projects are expected to eventually reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million annually."

Implication: "Among those receiving grants are state projects to provide solar-equipped roofs for homes, college residences and residential-serving community solar projects in West Virginia, a non-profit operating Mississippi solar lease program and solar workforce training initiatives in South Carolina."

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2. Louisiana lands $156 million to help people get solar panels. See what's planned.

Learning: "Louisiana has been awarded a $156 million grant to deploy solar energy to homes and apartment buildings across the state, delivering a boost to renewables and an ongoing effort to create solar-powered hubs that can help residents when a hurricane knocks out the power grid.

The state Department of Energy and Natural Resources hailed the award Monday as a win for efforts to make the state more resilient in the face of hurricanes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected Louisiana and 59 other grantees across the country as it handed out $7 billion in total awards. The money comes from the federal Inflation Reduction Act championed by President Joe Biden and opposed by Louisiana’s Republicans in Congress."

Implication: "EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the $7 billion in new grants will reach 900,000 American households."

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3. The AI industry is desperate for more data centers

Learning: "The frenzy to build data centers to serve the exploding demand for artificial intelligence is causing a shortage of the parts, property and power that the sprawling warehouses of supercomputers require.

The lead time to get custom cooling systems is five times longer than a few years ago, data center executives say. Delivery times for backup generators have gone from as little as a month to as long as two years.

A dearth of inexpensive real estate with easy access to sufficient power and data connectivity has builders scouring the globe and getting creative. New data centers are planned next to a volcano in El Salvador and inside shipping containers parked in West Texas and Africa."

Implication: "The time it takes to get large backup power generators has gone from less than a year to almost two years, data-center executives say.

The specific requirements for the new GPU-driven AI data centers are pushing builders to look for places where they can get lots of reliable, affordable electricity. Amazon recently bought a data center next to a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Meta Platforms is planning $800 million of computing infrastructure in El Paso, Texas."

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4. How Texas unleashed a geothermal boom

Learning: "With its nation-leading renewables fleet and oil and gas industry, Texas is poised to dominate what boosters hope will be America’s next great energy boom: a push to tap the heat of the subterranean earth for electricity and industry.

That technology, known as geothermal energy, has demonstrated the rare ability to unite the state’s warring political camps — and is fueling a boom in startups that seek to take it national."

Implication: "In Texas specifically, the geothermal industry has certain distinct advantages. First, the experience of Winter Storm Uri means state businesses may be more focused on securing reliable heat and electricity than other states.

Geothermal also benefits not just from the need to buttress the large wind and solar fleet, but also from the trail that those industries have blazed in terms of innovative forms of financing.

In particular, virtually every wind and solar project in the state is built after developers sign a 'power purchase agreement' with potential customers — something that the geothermal industry can easily adapt."

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5. How Can Electric Utilities Repair Their Relationship with Business Customers?

Learning: "At the end of 2023, J.D. Power released the results of its Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Survey, giving utilities a glimpse into how their customers really feel."

Implication: "With approval scores at an all-time low (754 on a 1,000-point scale), business customers’ biggest qualms with utilities centered around rising electricity costs coupled with a lack of support when it comes to energy prices, power outages and infrastructure improvements."