Tootfinder

"How Batteries, Not Natural Gas, Can Power the Data Center Boom"
#Batteries #Energy #Technology

How Batteries, Not Natural Gas, Can Power the Data Center Boom
Tech companies are turning to natural gas to help power the growing number of A.I. data centers in the U.S. Jigar Shah, a former Energy Department official, explains how installing batteries instead can help balance the grid, lower electricity bills, and support renewable energy.

"How Spain’s community solar revolution is helping families power up and costs go down"
#Spain #SolarPower #Energy

How Spain’s community solar revolution is helping families power up and costs go down | The Optimist Daily
Spain’s community energy movement is transforming rooftops into renewable hubs, lowering bills, and helping families escape fuel poverty.

Australia can slash energy bills AND cut emissions—it's not either/or.
As aging coal plants need replacement, renewables with storage are now the cheapest option. Gas has become uncompetitive, and it's actually coal/gas prices driving bills up, not renewables.
The path forward: faster approvals, better competition, and switching homes to electric heat pumps and solar.

Australia doesn’t have to choose between energy affordability and emission reductions 
Emissions reduction targets are often cast as incompatible with energy affordability, the latest example being the Liberal Party dumping its net zero target. IEEFA has found that this is not the case.  

"Miliband blames high international wholesale gas prices as the cause for high bills. But why is electricity pegged to the price of gas?"
Labour’s pledge to cut energy bills by 2030 was an electoral con | The National
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/2…

Australian household energy bills will⭐️ halve by 2050 ⭐️as solar panels, batteries and electric cars and appliances become the norm,
reducing pressure on the federal government over living costs and creating room for more climate action, a thinktank study suggests.
Modelling by the Grattan Institute finds that cutting greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation in line with the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050
will cut average household energy costs fro…

Elizabeth Warren and two Democratic senators write to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and more to investigate AI data centers' role in rising electricity costs (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/busines

Senators Investigate Role of A.I. Data Centers in Rising Electricity Costs
Three Democrats are seeking information from tech firms about the growing energy use of data centers and the utility bills of individuals and other businesses.

"UK budget 2025: Key climate and energy announcements"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Climate #ClimateChange

UK budget 2025: Key climate and energy announcements - Carbon Brief
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced new measures to cut energy bills alongside a “pay-per-mile”...

While most Americans are trying to pay rising #energy bills, struggling with obvious #EconomicBubble real estate pricing & basic food costs while trying to preserve their existing #healthcare options, if they even still h…

"Terrence and Lesley Bridges have seen their energy bills drop dramatically, from £375 a month down to as low as £40, since they swapped their gas boiler for a HeatHub – a small data centre containing more than 500 computers."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rpy7en

'I heat my Essex home with a data centre in the shed'
"It's fantastic because it's eco-friendly...We're not burning any gases," says Terrence Bridges.

"How Batteries, Not Natural Gas, Can Power the Data Center Boom"
#Batteries #Energy
https://e360.yale.edu/featur…

How Batteries, Not Natural Gas, Can Power the Data Center Boom
Tech companies are turning to natural gas to help power the growing number of A.I. data centers in the U.S. Jigar Shah, a former Energy Department official, explains how installing batteries instead can help balance the grid, lower electricity bills, and support renewable energy.

Five New England states just launched a $450M initiative to make heat pumps way more accessible.
The plan? Incentivize contractors to keep units in stock, dropping upfront costs by $500-$700 per heat pump. The goal is 580,000 residential installations by 2030, cutting 2.5M metric tons of carbon while lowering energy bills.

New England kicks off $450M plan to supercharge heat pump adoption
The program aims to use federal funds awarded under the Biden administration to deploy more than 500,000 heat pumps in the chilly region over the next few…

Two better ideas not mentioned in the article:
1) Move standing charge to payment by unit.
2) Delink electricity price from gas.
1) helps those who use least energy (poorer people).
2) helps people shift to electricity from gas - decarbonising.
Rachel Reeves’s 5% VAT cut on electricity bills will backfire, experts say | Budget 2025 | The Guardian

A coalition of more than 230 environmental groups
has demanded a national moratorium
on new datacenters in the US,
the latest salvo in a growing backlash to a booming artificial intelligence industry
that has been blamed for escalating electricity bills and worsening the climate crisis.
The green groups, including
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and dozens of local organizations,
have urged members of Congress to halt the pro…

"Starmer may drop key green pledge in effort to keep energy bills down"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Climate #ClimateChange

China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips
Beijing introduces grants that slash power bills by up to half for some of the country’s largest data centres
https://www.ft.com/content/cad2cdd6-7cce-4de3-8710-977de667378c

China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips
Beijing introduces grants that slash energy bills by up to half for some of country’s largest data centres

"Trump officials cut nearly $8bn in clean energy projects in Democratic states"
#US #USA #America #Energy

"Wind power slashed UK energy bills by £104bn, study finds"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #Energy #Renewables

"UK unveils ‘carbon budget delivery plan’ to get back on track for net zero targets"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #NetZero #Climate