astrid atkinson

I believe that climate change is the defining challenge of our generation, and our children's, and it's gonna be all hands on deck. So, I am pleased - and trepidatious, and hopeful - to announce that after 14.5 years at Google, I am leaving to found an energy tech startup.

@kyrib Heck yeah!

On Monday I’ll be starting at Google DeepMind as a Visiting Researcher for my sabbatical (Jan-Dec 2025). Looking forward to contributing to solving challenging problems in the AI+Optimization for power systems space!

Like @khayhoe and the Swifties, I'm moving over to BlueSky. Check her account for climate starter pack resources. You can find me at @astridatkinson.bksy.social

@anothercohen Seems like a you problem.

It’s still hard to believe that America has some of the most forward-thinking, ambitious people in the world, and these are the two choices we get to decide who’s going to run it. Arguably two of the dumbest candidates of our lifetime

1.5-3°C of #GlobalWarming may not sound like a big deal. But for perspective: the difference between recent temperatures & last glacial period (when there were glaciers thousands of feet thick in areas now home to Chicago & New York) is only around ~6°C. [Full link below.]

@mischa_steiner @ShanuMathew93 @CamusEnergy These are entities who have LAID UNDERSEA cable to support core business needs.

@mischa_steiner @ShanuMathew93 @CamusEnergy For those for whom it's *not* speculative (they actually need the capacity and plan to use it themselves, eg meta, Google) it's equally existential and the energy cost/complexity will be well within their envelope. Emissions targets are the blocker but if it's now OR clean...

I find this HIGHLY unlikely to be true. You can’t just throw up turbines wherever you please - you need gas interconnect which still run into the same interconnection issues as all new generation right now. Limit on brownfield sites. Sure there’s likely some willingness to pay a premium power price or install on-site generation case by case but selling out one of the three major manufacturer of turbines for a decade? Lol come on. Tech companies don’t want to be utilities. Even if they put orders in now they won’t get those turbines for 2-3 years and probably another 1-2 years to build. You’re telling me they’re agreeing to procuring 10+ years on vibes? No way.

Obviously this is who Trump is and this is what Trumpism is. But there's part of this that isn't widely enough known, tho it's well-known to a lot of reporters. And that is among GOP operatives and staffers under 30 or so the majority, maybe the great majority had their ...

In NYC next week? Join our CEO @shinynew_oz for a fireside chat with @l_m_j_ from @_LatitudeMedia on rising electricity demand and the future of the grid + open networking. RSVP 👇 eventbrite.com/e/fireside-cha… Thanks to our fellow hosts: @YPE_NYC, @Energy_Leaders, @ninedotenergy

@MaryHeglar Bluesky!

Join me on Bluesky! Like X but with less bots and Nazis.

@NativeSantaCruz If it makes you feel any better they're probably bots.

I’ve once again been inundated with new followers, all MAGATs. Every time I open the app, I’ve got a bunch of new crazies that I need to block, I estimate 150-200 blocks in just the last few hours. Here’s a few examples of the bios of these lovely people

Next we've got our first panel on load growth and power system expansion: @duncancampbell will be joined by Andy Lubershane Head of Research of @EnergyImpact_, Ari Matusiak CEO of @rewiringamerica, @shinynew_oz CEO of @CamusEnergy, and @JessePeltan founder of Type 1.

@kyrib Congratulations! I hope parenting brings you much joy, as it has done for me.

New family member has been added! Sleep deprivation hits differently in your 30’s but well worth it for this little bean ❤️

@golden4congress Are you serious about this? Transmission is a critical component of meeting our growing energy needs, and renewables are good for everyone.

Austin Theriault likes to criticize “green energy,” but his words don’t match his record. He voted for the Aroostook Renewable Gateway power line, which jeopardized Maine farms and would have driven up energy costs. spectrumlocalnews.com/me/maine/news/…

@sccfiredept Thank you! Could have been so bad, I'm glad you all were there.

On Thursday, October 3 at approximately 11:58am, firefighters responded to a vehicle fire at the intersection of highway 35 and Bear Creek Rd. Engine 84 from our Redwood fire station was first on scene and reported a fully involved electric vehicle fire in the turnout threatening nearby vegetation. Additional units arrived shortly after, including mutual aid resources from @CalFireCZU. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire by 12:17pm without injury to firefighters or members of the public and minimal spread to vegetation. There were many factors contributing to this highly dangerous situation not escalating into a wildfire. First, the driver of the vehicle had the forethought not to pull off the road into vegetation and instead headed to a gravel turnout. Second, the driver also carried a fire extinguisher in the vehicle, which was used to help contain fire near vegetation until firefighters arrived with water. Third, an off-duty firefighter happened to be driving by and stopped to help keep fire from spreading until crews arrived. Great job to all involved here! If you don’t currently have a fire extinguisher in your emergency kit in your vehicle, please consider it. (Photos curtesy of community member)

AI is more than just power-hungry LLMs. Application of machine learning approaches is a critical tool in helping to manage the massive data complexity of the distribution grid. If you're at GridFWD, come see Alexina Jackson and I discuss the future of the decentralized grid!

We'll be publishing a whitepaper on this work in a couple of weeks, so if you can't join us at GridFWD, stay tuned and we'll be sharing more in weeks to come!

Camus teamed up with AES on a grid-scale machine learning analysis to better understand these questions. We assembled historical data across every component in a distribution grid, and modeled multiple future operating scenarios. What does the future look like? Come find out!

"Of course, someday we'll have an AI to manage all this," is what one utility exec told me when we were discussing operations and automation in a future grid. What he really meant was, "This isn't something that we need to worry about until later." But how much later?