Adam Forni

Here are some ways in which the world has gotten better.

@kbassalleck @aniruddh_mohan @duncancampbell @JessePeltan @ShanuMathew93 @solar_chase Thanks Kevin! Dm'ing

@xternality @aniruddh_mohan @duncancampbell @JessePeltan @ShanuMathew93 @solar_chase 4-5MW per week as an average rate from NTP / mobilization through mechanical completion is reasonable median. Depends a lot on labor resources in the area as well if remote site. Happy to discuss in detail

Who has datasets on how fast solar PV really gets built? Analysis of real schedules for construction (+contracting, permitting etc) pref to labor level. Granularity cost is bonus. add who i missed @duncancampbell @JessePeltan @ShanuMathew93 @solar_chase @aniruddh_mohan

Come check it out! I will work closely with both

Amazing addition to the team! Welcome aboard @tylerhnorris, looking forward to great things.

AI efficiency is important. Today, Google is sharing a technical paper detailing our comprehensive methodology for measuring the environmental impact of Gemini inference. We estimate that the median Gemini Apps text prompt uses 0.24 watt-hours of energy (equivalent to watching an average TV for ~nine seconds), and consumes 0.26 milliliters of water (about five drops) — figures that are substantially lower than many public estimates. At the same time, our AI systems are becoming more efficient through research innovations and software and hardware efficiency improvements. From May 2024 to May 2025, the energy footprint of the median Gemini Apps text prompt dropped by 33x, and the total carbon footprint dropped by 44x, through a combination of model efficiency improvements, machine utilization improvements and additional clean energy procurement, all while delivering higher quality responses. See the blog or technical paper for more about our methodology and ongoing efforts. Blog: cloud.google.com/blog/products/… Link to detailed paper: services.google.com/fh/files/misc/…

@Beazy_Rampezy I'm so impressed you have that! thank you Brett. Now to see the acceleration happen. Do we have staffing for this?

@xternality Wayback machine to the rescue! From June 1:

The NRC updated all its milestone schedules ahead of Commissioner Wright’s hearing today. None is longer than 18 months anymore. Astounding.

This is my quant... @ddpaolella talking about the new @Breakthrough GRIDS initiative to help speed up grid modeling and get study times down to weeks not months or years. Thanks @gurobi for having us in Berlin!

@nickvanosdol You'd get a much cheaper $/ton (maybe $100-150 avg) -- up to, say, a GT. Constrained innovation proving what techs might actually scale (across both DAC + point source). Flue stack retrofits not necessarily slam dunks, need long lived assets. Net positive for humanity, probly

Thought experiment Shift every single $ poured into electrochemical DAC, in perpetuity, to carbon capture on flue stacks with 10%+ concentrated streams of CO2 until no such flue stacks exist Tell me why I’m dumb → heimildin.is/grein/24581/

@duncancampbell Maybe they read ur paper yo

So far I’ve seen reports that Stargate plans to use natural gas, solar, and batteries to power their giant data centers. WHY AREN’T THEY USING NUCLEAR WTF?!?!?!

@JessePeltan Agree, generally. But all relevant tech are within ~1 order of mag of 1.0, so the math is done kinda automatically. Also, thinking in the $ M/MW can be useful to remind us that line items like a substation or admin building can cost many millions - scaling matters

“thousand dollars per kilowatt” “million dollars per megawatt” “billion dollars per gigawatt” $/W Please just use dollars per watt.

@joelhedwards @JessePeltan Thanks again Joel. Be in touch

nevada's NDOM compiles the best operational data in the west, monthly data for wells and fields re decline, it really depends on the operator and field, it can go both ways (decline, expand) eg, Ormat will expand fields until they start cooling off (meaning they'll keep twinning wells), other operators will sit on well fields that just hum along with no decline, while some operators develop fields so poorly so that they have rapid declines (>5%) right away, are forced to sell, and a new operator comes in and stabilizes it (eg blue mountain) along w the two prior examples, dixie valley has hummed along at 60 MWs for 40+ yrs (deep production well field) while ormat kept expanding mcginness hills until it started declining 2-3% at ~160 MWe (4 expansion phases) for new tech, flow got throtted back after ~3-4 months at project red, not sure why, perhaps to keep temps flat? (it's a pilot and they purposefully spaced those EGS wells tight, i'd bet on much better long term flow at cape station)

Anybody have the decline curve for a solar farm?

@joelhedwards @JessePeltan Fantastic, thanks, Joel. What is the data source there? I've heard generically 0.5% to 2% per year resource decline, that's wide range (4:1 ratio) but is it reasonable incl for newer techs?

depends on field and operator -operators usually push flow rates higher until they see a certain amount of temp decline to maximize NPV (eg mcginness hills) -deeper wells are more temp stable than shallower wells (eg dixie valley)

Burning fuels like oil, gas, and coal feels comfortable and familiar. We've been doing it in our homes for centuries. Human impact gradual. Hazards from things like batteries and nuclear feel much more exotic. Interaction much more rare. Education needed for long time to come.

The speed at which batteries have taken over ancillary services in ERCOT is impressive!

@gnievchenko Thank you for this psa, has been working for me since saw this tweet. Happy new year buddy

@duncancampbell 93% for SMRs in early 2030s is ambitious, as the kinks get worked out. but, they are modular, and failure modes can be relatively isolated. there's probably a sweet spot of reactor MWe and # units for this type of application. there are diseconomies of scale the smaller you get

how do you all feel about this?

Google will need a wide range of clean energy resources to reach our goals. But it's important to get the details right. So, excited to publish procurement criteria for a techs like #nuclear #geothermal #bioenergy #ccs and all the rest! See appendix C. sustainability.google/reports/accele…