![\"\"](\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!tc56!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F71d21183-5f02-48c4-a6ca-fa4fdbaa1b2a_500x350.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIn addition to these R&P Picks<\/a>, paid subscribers receive access to the full archives, Grid Roundups<\/a>, and select episodes of the Energy Capital Podcast<\/a>, and special presentations like Texas Power Rush<\/a>. Please become a subscriber today.<\/p>\n The Great Reckoning by Kaiser Kuo- The Ideas Letter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This is a tough read, but a must read.<\/p>\n In conversations I\u2019ve had over the last few months in Beijing with professionals spanning various industries, from biotech to automotive, from renewable energy to humanoid robotics, I\u2019ve heard variations of the same observation: The transformation that has swept through their sectors in China over the past two decades\u2014or even just the past five years\u2014would be utterly unfathomable to anyone who hasn\u2019t witnessed it firsthand. They describe returning from conferences in the United States or Europe struck by a disconnect: The tsunami of transformation coming from China just isn\u2019t felt with an urgency remotely commensurate with the scale of the disruption in store.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If you\u2019re talking or writing about energy and not talking about what China\u2019s doing, then you\u2019re simply not comprehending the scale and the magnitude of what they\u2019ve achieved. It\u2019s extraordinary and probably without parallel \u2014 or at least with very few parallels \u2014 in the history of the world.<\/p>\n In the US, we have started \u2014 just begun really \u2014 to reckon with this fact:<\/p>\n \u2026 the painful recognition that another system, however flawed, has delivered results on a scale that the United States has not. This is to me, as an American, a source of not inconsiderable anguish. I take no pleasure in witnessing what my country has become\u2014a nation I love, torn apart by political tribalism so intense and so toxic that I fear it may be beyond repair, at least in the coming, and critical, decade.<\/p>\n But confronting this crisis requires looking squarely at what seems so unsettling about China\u2019s success. As Chas W. Freeman, a retired senior U.S. diplomat, has observed, \u201cAmericans now exhibit an odd combination of self-doubt, complacency, and hubris\u201d\u2014 a mix that has prevented the kind of clear-eyed assessment the moment requires.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We are in denial about how rapidly China is outpacing us in energy: building a terawatt of power every two or three years while we\u2019re on pace to add a terawatt\u2026 in two decades.<\/p>\n And they\u2019re exporting not only solar panels and wind turbines and batteries all over the world, but EVs, too \u2014 the Chinese are absolutely dominating that industry globally. We have not yet reckoned with much of this. But we need to \u2014 and fast.<\/p>\n Factors Influencing Recent Trends in Retail Electricity Prices in the United States | Lawrence Berkley National Labs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This presentation is one of the most important and useful presentations you\u2019ll see this year. There are many reasons why electricity costs go up or down: it defies simple explanations.<\/p>\n But we can find some signal in the noise of data, summarized here. One of those: \u201cmarket-based\u201d wind and solar drive prices down. It\u2019s astounding to me that some still dispute this<\/a>. Extreme weather and the need to harden the grid drive prices up. Higher natural gas prices increase electricity prices and vice versa:<\/p>\n\n
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