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robertferry.bsky.social
Rob
@robertferry.bsky.social
3K followers 1.8K following 5.9K posts
Climate policy, society, and the built environment. Architect, LEED AP BD+C. https://landartgenerator.org
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robertferry.bsky.social
In reality, we have a mix of clean generation and storage options on an interconnected network of grids. This study shows that if we want to power an always-on data center with behind-the-meter renewables, we can do it. We just need about 22 times the land area of the data center parcel itself.
“How to Power a 2.2 GW A.I. Data Center with Solar Wind & Batteries Alone,” an information graphic by the Land Art Generator Initiative.
November 26, 2025 at 4:02 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Perhaps you missed my wild speculation bars in green, but I have about as little patience as gas company shareholders have profit motive.
California electricity generation by source BkWh. Historic trend in grey and blue from 2020 to 2025 and wild speculation in green from 2026 to 2030 shows gas peaking in 2021 and going to near zero in 2030.
November 26, 2025 at 4:44 AM
robertferry.bsky.social
Since the airport makes about $10 million per year from fracking concessions on its property I would have thought solar panels on the new terminal roof would have provided a nice balance. No luck.
Aerial photo of the new PIT terminal with a glorious white roof devoid of any solar panels.
November 25, 2025 at 11:55 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Now that Pittsburgh has a shiny new $1.7 billion airport terminal, it’s time to connect it to downtown by train.
Interior of Pittsburgh International Airport. Stark white floor contrasts with a swooping wooden canopy supported by red tree-like columns. Deep blue sky can be seen through the windows at the last light after sundown. Interior of Pittsburgh International Airport. Stark white floor contrasts with a swooping wooden canopy supported by red tree-like columns. Deep blue sky can be seen through the windows at the last light after sundown.
November 25, 2025 at 11:48 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
In reality, we have a mix of clean generation and storage options on an interconnected network of grids. This study shows that if you want to power an always-on data center with behind the meter renewables, you could do it. You just need about 22 times the land area of the data center parcel itself.
“How to Power a 2.2 GW A.I. Data Center with Solar Wind & Batteries Alone,” an information graphic by the Land Art Generator Initiative.
November 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
A look at what is possible.
Could California be done with gas electricity by 2030? The rapid acceleration of battery storage systems seems to point in that direction.
Natural gas use for electricity in California falls as solar generation rises. In green a new layer has been added showing how gas use could fall to near zero by the end of the decade if current trends continue. Battery storage is the fastest growing resource type in the CAISO balancing area. As of January 1, 2025, limited energy storage resource (LESR) batteries make up nearly 14 percent of the CAISO’s nameplate capacity. The aqua bars in Figure 2.2 show the steady growth of battery capacity in the CAISO balancing area compared with other resource types. Nearly half of all projects waiting to connect to the CAISO grid contain a battery component. As of Q2 2025, batteries account for about 46 percent of total capacity in the interconnection queue. Historically, many planned resources drop out before the interconnection process is finished, so much of the capacity currently in the queue is expected to never come on-line.
November 25, 2025 at 7:38 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
This comes to mind.
Meme where boy places stick in his bike’s front wheel spokes and then crashes.
November 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Diplomats didn’t mention any other large petroleum exporting countries that also benefit? Just Saudi Arabia and Russia, huh?
Oil Producers, but Maybe Not the Planet, Get a Win as Climate Talks End The final agreement, with no direct mention of the fossil fuels dangerously heating Earth, was a victory for countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia, diplomats said.
November 25, 2025 at 3:57 AM
robertferry.bsky.social
"Living with the climate crisis in the Philippines."
This photo series by Gideon Mendel is quite striking.

"This frequent flooding is hard. It’s been like this for a few days now. It’s hard when all the stuff is floating."

www.theguardian.com/world/galler...
Feli Albania | Bulusan village, Calumpit municipality I am a widow and a grandmother. I take care of my grandchildren. That is my only job. This frequent flooding is hard. It’s been like this for a few days now. It’s hard when all the stuff is floating. I really had a hard time. Sometimes it goes up and down, then rises again. It looks like it’s growing again. It’s getting harder. The water is rising. Because of the frequent rain and storms, right? We’re behind that river, so all the water from the country passes here on the way to the sea. We’re really used to that water every year Photograph: Gideon Mendel
November 24, 2025 at 5:11 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Some of those same elites who orbited around Epstein were in lifetime positions of political power, making poor decisions on behalf of millions of people that crippled history’s progress along the arc of justice.
At the dark heart of this story is a sex criminal and his victims - and his enmeshment with President Trump. But it is also a tale about a powerful social network in which some, depending on what they knew, were perhaps able to look away because they had learned to look away from so much other abuse and suffering: the financial meltdowns some in the network helped trigger, the misbegotten wars some in the network pushed, the overdose crisis some of them enabled, the monopolies they defended, the inequality they turbocharged, the housing crisis they milked, the technologies they failed to protect people against.
November 23, 2025 at 12:09 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
So much for the fake concern about whales when it comes to offshore wind projects…
Yet the critically endangered Rice's whale lives only in the Gulf, and scientists worry that drilling there could drive the species to extinction. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people and spilled millions of gallons of oil, caused the Rice's whale population to decline by an estimated 22 percent. Fewer than 100 of the animals are thought to remain.
November 23, 2025 at 1:16 AM
robertferry.bsky.social
The IPCC is funded by voluntary contributions from UN member countries, with the USA traditionally providing the largest share. Nuclear is more expensive per MWh and takes longer to build than solar and wind + storage. Despite the cost, I’m all for advancing nuclear power if it is done safely.
Net lifetime cost of options: Costs are lower than the reference 50-100 (USD per tCO,-eq) 0-20 (USD per tCO,-eq) 100-200 (USD per tCO2-eq) 20-50 (USD per tCO2-eq) Cost not allocated due to high variability or lack of data
November 21, 2025 at 12:20 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Try the IPCC's Sixth Synthesis Report. Start on page 10, paragraph A4.2 and then jump to page 27 where you will find this chart with the verified contribution to emissions reductions from solar and wind technologies.
www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/s...
Chart from the IPCC There are multiple opportunities for scaling up climate action a) Feasibility of climate responses and adaptation, and potential of mitigation options in the near term Shows the GtCO2-eq/y potential contribution to net emissions reductions by 2030.
November 20, 2025 at 6:37 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
The supertalls in midtown Manhattan get such great near-horizontal sun this time of year. They should all have integrated solar facades.
View from Central Park looking south through tree branches towards the very tall skinny buildings in midtown with the sun streaming through creating a silhouette. The November sun is low in the sky.
November 16, 2025 at 12:28 AM
robertferry.bsky.social
Strength in numbers, I guess.
The new tax structure should actually lower rates for many and be simple to file. Tariffs should be replaced with CBAM. I made this simple curve 12 years ago when the flat tax was in the news but it shows we could increase revenue while lowering taxes for most people.
Instead of a regressive flat tax, a “simple curve” tax follows a logarithmic formula that is the same for everyone and can be easily used in excel or any other spreadsheet.
November 11, 2025 at 9:28 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Floatovoltaics (solar on reservoirs) can be installed vertically too! In this way (facing east and west) they maximize morning and afternoon power generation and avoid overshadowing the water, keeping oxygenation high for aquatic habitat.
www.worldrecordacademy.org/2025/11/worl...
Solar panels installed on a bright blue body of water standing upright and facing east-west.
November 4, 2025 at 2:03 AM
robertferry.bsky.social
I made this graphic in 2020 to describe the energy transition using the analogy of a mortgage. Carbon emissions is like interest and renewable energy as a percentage of useful energy is like principal. landartgenerator.org/blagi/archiv...
If we do this right, the great energy transition will look something like paying off a mortgage. In the first couple of years most of what you are paying is interest. Later on you start to pay off more principal with each payment. In this analogy, “interest” is the embodied carbon contained in new clean energy infrastructure. At first it’s high and it takes 1-2 years of making clean solar and wind electrons to pay it back. But if we make those tough interest payment at the start, eventually the embodied carbon in all things in the economy will tend towards zero as we replace the underlying technology with which we generate all of our energy. To create the graphic for this article, we actually used a mortgage amortization template, set the interest rate to 7% (the rate scientists say we need to reduce emissions by each year), set the principal amount to 500 gigatons of carbon (what estimates say we can still emit and stay under 2 degrees C warming), and set the duration to 30 years (the time we have to transition).
November 2, 2025 at 8:18 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
It would be such a better world to live in though.

Here is my income tax proposal. It is as simple as the flat tax but progressive.

tax rate = (9*log(“income”)-85)/100
Chart of how a simple tax formula could raise more income for the treasury while reducing the tax burden on lower income households. Reduces taxes on average by half for those with income below $250,000 per year. Provides a tax cut for 98% of households. 2012 Tax Rate Structure Deductions are simplified and include 8 line items: State and Local Taxes, Primary Mortgage Interest, Charitable Contributions, Dependents, Educational and Healthcare Expenses, and Capital Gains under $50,000/year.
November 2, 2025 at 7:22 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
How much more could Harris have possibly moved to the center? She denounced all her progressive positions from the 2020 primary (alienating the base), campaigned with Dick Cheney, embraced fracking, deportation (“do not come”), and Netanyahu.
Not so obvious then…
OPINION ROSS DOUTHAT Its Obvious Why Harris Lost in 2024. But Can Democrats Accept It? Nov. 1, 2025
November 1, 2025 at 6:25 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Nothing makes me angrier than seeing these massive data centers with not one solar panel on them. I know it would be a small percent of their demand but it’s a lot of perfectly good solar roof area to deploy on and none of the big tech companies take advantage of it.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/t...
Aerial photo of Amazon data centers with empty rooftops except for HVAC equipment and vents.
October 31, 2025 at 9:09 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Interesting comparison
Electricity prices for household consumers, second semester of 2024 (purchasing power standards (PPS) per 100 kWh) 12.2 PPS per 100kWh ≥ 37 32 - < 37 27 - < 32 22 - < 27 17 - < 22 < 17 Data not available 22.33 14.33 15.77 19.96 24.12 29.48 27.56 18.33 29.35 15.39 35.23 26.78 31.9 34.67 410 22.12 21.5 15.45 23.29 21.71 16.49; 18.16 17.85 32:35 18.22 32.69 20.16 20.18 26.84 28:53 14.33 eurostat圖 Source dataset: nrg_pc_204 Administrative boundaries: © EuroGeographics © OpenStreetMap Cartography: Eurostat - IMAGE, 05/2025
October 30, 2025 at 4:11 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
This is partly why PA is so painfully slow to deploy distributed solar. That, and the fact there is still no community solar legislation.
ilsr.org/article/ener...
The State of Distributed Solar Saturation as of 2022. Gradient map shows what states have the most distributed solar.
October 29, 2025 at 2:45 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Before you dunk on this forecast, look back at the hourly grid monitor for Texas in 2015 when solar never registered as even a fraction of a percent. Now in 2025 it's nearing 1/4 of midday summer power. If we want to live in a net-zero future we have to normalize the idea and manifest it today!
The Past & Future of the Texas Electricity Grid Years 2021– 2025 = actual data. Years 2027– 2035 extrapolate trends. Data Source for 2021, 2023, and 2025: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Hourly Grid Monitor, October 2025. ERCOT summer ave hourly generation by source. 90 GW is top line. “Other” = nuclear, hydroelectric, and biomass. Eight charts span 2021 through 2035 and show the share of coal and gas diminishing.
October 28, 2025 at 4:20 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
I want to glaze and fire these eight charts as ceramic wall tile accent pieces. They take the trends from the EIA data (2021 - 2025) and extrapolate them to a 100% clean energy grid for Texas by 2035. Seems doable.
The Past & Future of the Texas Electricity Grid Years 2021– 2025 = actual data. Years 2027– 2035 extrapolate trends. Data Source for 2021, 2023, and 2025: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Hourly Grid Monitor, October 2025. ERCOT summer ave hourly generation by source. 90 GW is top line. “Other” = nuclear, hydroelectric, and biomass. Eight charts span 2021 through 2035 and show the share of coal and gas diminishing.
October 27, 2025 at 2:06 PM
robertferry.bsky.social
Demolishing priceless historic artifacts and buildings is entirely on brand, as is replacing them with garish and tasteless monuments to himself.
envisioningtheamericandream.com/2024/04/15/t...

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/o...
Manhattan Goddess Dancing in the Winds 1929- Bonwit Teller Building Artist Rene Paul Chambellan (1893-1955). Bass relief art deco sculptures that were jackhammered by a young D. Trump.
October 26, 2025 at 1:09 PM