His partner, Abbey London, is completing her last year of an infectious disease fellowship at the affiliated med center. Her climate concern is dealing with the burgeoning threat of tropical and exotic diseases.

Together they operate her parents’ Dragonfly Inn in nearby Virginia.

Personally, each of them must decide if they truly want to commit to their relationship, or succumb to the temptation of past partners.

Meanwhile, another game is afoot, as three women plot an audacious attack on a key federal building. In a clown car. You heard that right.

My publisher tells me only the paperback is out now, the ebook will not arrive until November.

I should also mention that on my website - swlawrence.com - you can read the first chapter of all 3 books. Also available is a short video interview.

My books may be ordered from the website, online from almost anywhere, or perhaps best of all—independent bookstores.  

Finally, I am wondering how many of you actually noticed the clown face on the back cover? Cute, right?

" explores how the **African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) is designed to transform Africa from fragmented national electricity systems into a single, investment-ready continental market capable of attracting long-term public and private capital.

The article demonstrates why AfSEM is far more than an electricity trading platform. It is building the harmonized market rules, regulatory certainty, regional governance, de-risking mechanisms, and digital market architecture required to unlock investment in cross-border transmission, renewable energy, battery storage, green hydrogen, and modern electricity infrastructure across Africa. By reducing investment risks and strengthening regional integration, AfSEM is creating the conditions for affordable, reliable, sustainable, and bankable electricity markets that will power industrialization, the AfCFTA, and Agenda 2063.

I invite policymakers, regulators, utilities, investors, development partners, researchers, and the wider energy community to read the article, share your perspectives, and join the conversation on how we can collectively accelerate Africa's integrated electricity market and mobilize the investment needed to deliver universal energy access and sustainable economic transformation

A new cross-country analysis of the world's top 50 energy producers reveals a pattern worth sitting with: China and the United States — the two largest power systems on Earth, with nearly 3,000 GW and 1,100 GW of installed capacity respectively — both sit almost exactly at the global average for wind+solar share (~13.4%). They are adding renewables at massive absolute scale, yet in relative terms their grids remain firmly on the "dispatchable" side of the spectrum. Meanwhile, a smaller cluster of countries — Germany (~35%), Spain (~35%), and the UK (~33%) — have pushed past 30% wind+solar penetration, crossing into what this data classifies as "variable-heavy grids." These are systems that have already had to solve, at scale, the harder engineering and market-design problems that come with high shares of intermittent generation.

That gap matters more than it might first appear. Scale and maturity are two different axes of the energy transition, and conflating them leads to the wrong conclusions — a country can rank near the top in absolute renewable capacity while still being early in its transition curve, and vice versa. Australia is a good illustration of this: despite a mid-sized grid by global standards (~80 GW), it's the only non-European market to break into the variable-heavy zone, alongside a European group that includes Poland pushing up from the middle of the pack. On the other end, most Middle Eastern and several African producers — Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago — cluster tightly at low wind+solar shares, still largely dependent on fossil generation. And then there's Brazil: roughly 200 GW installed with a wind+solar share near the global average, a number that actually understates the country's renewable story, since hydropower — not captured on this particular axis — already carries the bulk of the grid.

For those of us working on renewable integration, the real takeaway isn't "install more GW." It's that crossing into variable-heavy territory changes the nature of the problem entirely — storage sizing, demand-side flexibility, transmission planning, and market/regulatory design all become first-order questions once wind and solar move past roughly a quarter of the mix. The countries that got there first didn't just build capacity; they built the operational and regulatory scaffolding to run a grid that isn't always dispatchable on command. As markets like Brazil and other emerging economies continue climbing that curve, the playbook written by early movers — particularly in Europe — is one of the most valuable assets available for getting there faster, and without repeating the stability mistakes made along the way.

Source: U.S. EIA, Ember Global Electricity Review, Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy

What the chart shows: A scatter plot comparing the world's top 50 energy producers (2023), cross-referencing two variables:

• Y-axis (logarithmic scale): installed electricity generating capacity (GW), 2022

• X-axis: wind + solar share of the electricity mix (%)

• Bubble size: proportional to installed capacity

• Color: region (Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East, Africa)

Key insights:

1. China and the U.S. dominate in scale, but not in variability. China (~3,000 GW) and the U.S. (~1,100 GW) have the largest installed capacities in the world, yet both sit close to the global average wind+solar share (~13.4%) — meaning they grow renewables in absolute volume without necessarily leading in percentage share.

2. The "dividing line" sits at roughly 13–14%. The global average wind+solar share is marked by a vertical dashed line. To the right of it, the shaded blue zone (>27%) identifies "variable-heavy grids."

3. Europe leads in variable renewable penetration. Germany (~35%), Spain (~35%), the UK (~33%), and Poland all appear in the high-variability zone — mature markets with advanced wind and solar integration.

4. Australia stands out outside Europe as the only Asia-Pacific country in the "variable-heavy" zone (~30%), with moderate installed capacity (~80 GW).

5. Most oil/gas producers (Middle East, some African countries) cluster on the left, with very low variable renewable share (Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago) — reflecting energy mixes still dominated by fossil fuels.

6. Brazil is a notable regional highlight: ~200 GW installed capacity with a wind+solar share close to the global average — though this understates the country's true renewable penetration, since Brazil's grid is predominantly hydroelectric (not captured by this specific axis).

#EnergyTransition #RenewableEnergy #SolarEnergy #WindEnergy #EnergyMarket #GridResilience #EnergyStorage #CleanEnergy #SynergySolutions #ANEEL #IEA #IRENA

The post described a phenomenon that had already occurred twice in northern Virginia, which has become the Saudi Arabia of data centers: a routine disturbance on the grid causes a lot of data centers to go to backup power at literally the same time, causing a sudden drop in power demand. This is a problem that has only recently been recognized, since it only happens when there are a number of “large loads” (which are usually data centers, but can include other facilities like electric arc furnaces) on the same section of the grid, all with backup power sources that they can switch to whenever their protective relays decide the grid is too dangerous at the moment.

The reason this sudden drop in load is so serious is that, unlike a sudden loss of generation (which of course happens regularly), it doesn’t seem to naturally self-correct – in fact, it naturally self-reinforces. If too much generation is lost, there will be a blackout, which of course means a lot of load will drop as well. With the help of various protective measures, the grid will quickly move to equilibrium at lower levels of supply and load.

However, if too much load drops at one time, that doesn’t naturally cause generation to drop – which is what would be needed. In fact, it might well cause the opposite to happen: The imbalance between supply and demand will increase as more and more large loads go to backup power. Where does this end? I’m no electrical engineer, but I don’t believe there’s necessarily a natural path by which stability will be restored, as there is in the case of too little supply.

When I wrote the post in March, there had been two such events in northern Virginia in the last couple of years (that area is part of the PJM grid); in both of them, less than 2,000 megawatts of load was suddenly lost. That’s a lot, but it was survivable. However, the article I quoted continued: “It didn’t cause an emergency, but I would say it caused concern,” said Mike Bryson, PJM’s senior vice president of operations. “What we’re worried about is, what if that happens for 3,000 megawatts or 5,000 megawatts?”

This week, we found out the answer to that question. To quote from Energy Central’s daily newsletter:

"...on Wednesday, a transmission line fault in Northern VA’s “Data Center Alley” triggered over 3 GW of load to suddenly disconnect from the grid. This massive drop occurred as data centers automatically shifted to backup power.

It could’ve been worse: It took around 10 minutes for Dominion to stabilize the grid, far longer than the typical millisecond-scale response time. But residents reported only minor problems. This means automatic systems (plus grid operator responses) likely kept things in check.

“The system, as far as we know, and as far as we've seen, responded incredibly well,” Kyle Thomas, VP of engineering and compliance services at Elevate Energy, told Energy Central. “That’s the really good side of this.”

Yes, but: The industry lacks good models and data to grasp when and where these events could occur next, Thomas said. These could inform more tools and practices to mitigate them.

To get ahead of future data center disconnections, NERC is developing a large-loads action plan and new reliability standards. Plus, CAISO and ERCOT are getting proactive with ride-through rules that require data centers to stay online in outages.

The takeaway? New rules aren’t enough—data center operators must collaborate with grid pros to adapt (or upgrade) their equipment to “meet the requirements of the grid,” Thomas told us. 

When this problem was discovered to be so serious this spring, NERC (encouraged by FERC) took extraordinary steps – including developing a new fast-track development process for standards needed to address serious new threats. It was probably too early for NERC’s measures to have an effect on this week’s event, since it sounds like Dominion (which operates the Virginia portion of the PJM grid) did all the right things needed to keep the grid from falling off a cliff. On the other hand, the fact that fixing the problem took ten minutes, not the milliseconds it would normally take, shows that a lot more help is needed. Fortunately, help seems to be on the way.

Tom Alrich’s Blog, too is a reader-supported publication. You can view new posts for three months after they come out by becoming a free subscriber. You can also access all of my 1300 existing posts dating back to 2013, as well as support my work, by becoming a paid subscriber for $30 for one year (and if you feel so inclined, you can become a founding subscriber for $100). Whether free or paid, please subscribe. 

If you would like to comment on what you have read here, I would love to hear from you. Please comment in my chat or email me at tom@tomalrich.com.

Electrical generation by renewables sources grew over 10% and was more than 30% of the U.S. total in the first five months of 2026.

According to the EIA’s latest “Electric Power Monthly” report (with data through May 31, 2026), renewably-generated electricity during the first five months of 2026 was 10.1% greater than in the same period of 2025. The growth was led by utility-scale (i.e., >1 megawatt (MW)) solar (up 21.6%), small-scale solar (i.e., <1-MW) (up 12.8%), hydropower (up 10.8%), and wind (up 4.8%). [1]

By comparison, the electrical output of the nation’s nuclear power and natural gas plants experienced much slower growth – just 1.3% and 2.5% respectively. Electricity produced by U.S. coal facilities fell by 10.9%.

The combination of just wind and solar, including small-scale solar, provided over 22.2% of domestic electrical production.

During the first five months of this year, wind and solar combined produced 57% more electricity than the nation’s coal plants and 26% more than its nuclear reactors. In May alone, solar-generated electricity was greater than that of either coal or wind. [2]

The mix of all renewables, including biomass and geothermal, accounted for 30.3% of total U.S. electrical generation during the first five months of 2026 – up from 28.2% a year earlier.

Over the past year, renewable energy capacity increased by almost 45,000-MW.

Between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026, the installed capacity of utility-scale solar increased by 27,995.1-MW while that of small-scale solar and wind grew by 6,664.3-MW and 10,252.6-MW respectively. The combined capacity of all renewable energy sources - including hydropower, biomass, and geothermal - expanded by 44,711.8-MW.

In addition, utility-scale battery energy storage capacity increased by 16,551.8-MW. [3]

By comparison, coal capacity fell by 2,235.6-MW as nuclear dropped by 27.6-MW. However, natural gas capacity rose by 6,289.0-MW.

Utility-scale renewable energy to add 54-GW of new capacity in the coming year.

As of May 31, 2026, renewable energy’s share of total U.S. utility-scale (i.e., >1-megawatt (MW)) generating capacity was 34.1%. EIA projects this to grow to 37.0% by May 31, 2027. Utility-scale solar will add 43,971.9-MW thereby expanding its share from 13.1% to 16.1% while wind will grow by 9,414.4-MW (including 3,355.0-MW of offshore wind), increasing from 13.4% to 13.6%. The mix of other renewables (i.e., hydropower, biomass, and geothermal) will add 284.2-MW.  

The combined net capacity growth of all utility-scale renewable energy sources for the 12-month period (53,666.0-MW) is 41% more than that added during the previous 12 months (38,047.5-MW).

Meanwhile, EIA projects no new generating capacity by nuclear power and a net decline of 4,685.0-MW in fossil fuel capacity. [4]

With the inclusion of new small-scale solar, renewables’ capacity is likely to surpass natural gas by spring 2027 – or sooner.

The figures cited above do not include small-scale solar. [5] The estimated capacity of small-scale solar systems grew by 6,664.3-MW during the last year, bringing its total to 62,088.6-MW. EIA does not provide a forecast for the next 12 months for small-scale solar capacity growth but the SUN DAY Campaign assumes it will roughly equal that of the past year (i.e., an additional 6,000-MW or more). [6]

If small-scale solar does increase by approximately 6,000-MW by June 1, 2027, it will bring renewable energy’s installed capacity up to about 542,096.3-MW. By comparison, natural gas’ generating capacity would total 514,845.1-MW.

Solar power’s share alone would be more than one-fifth (20.3%) of total U.S. capacity.  

Battery energy storage is projected to increase by almost 48% by next June:

EIA foresees battery energy storage adding another 23,241.1-MW by June 1, 2027 – an increase of almost 48%, bringing the total up to 72,002.0-MW.

Thus, the combination of utility-scale renewable energy sources and battery energy storage will provide 76,907.1-MW of new clean energy capacity by late-spring 2027. With the inclusion of small-scale solar, that figure could rise close to, or above, 83,000-MW.

# # # # # # # # #  

# # # # # # # # #

Sources:  

EIA released its latest “Electric Power Monthly” report on July 23, 2026. The full report can be found at: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly

For the data cited in this release, see:

Table ES1.A (“Total Electric Power Industry Summary Statistics, 2026 and 2025”);

Table ES1.B (“Total Electric Power Industry Summary Statistics, Year-to-Date 2026 and 2025”);

Table 1.1.A (“Net Generation from Renewable Sources”); and

Table 6.1 (“Electric Generating Summer Capacity Changes (MW), April 2026 to May 2026”).

Notes:   

[1] In January-May 2026, wind produced 226,653 gigawatt-hours (GWh) - 12.5% of total U.S. electrical generation - while utility-scale and small-scale solar combined produced 177,786-GWh (9.8%), hydropower produced 122,525-GWh (6.7%), biomass produced 18,243-GWh (1.0%), and geothermal produced 6,515-GWh (0.36%).

[2] In January-May 2026, the mix of wind and solar, including small-scale solar, produced 404,439-GWh while nuclear power generated 320,105-GWh and coal provided 257,389-GWh. In May 2026 alone, utility-scale and small-scale solar generated 47,147-GWh. Coal generated 45,119-GWh while wind generated 41,157-GWh. Solar and wind combined generated 88,304-GWh. Nuclear power generated 65,001-GWh.

[3] EIA presents its capacity data as “summer capacity” defined as the maximum output that generating equipment can supply to system load at the time of summer peak demand. See Table 6.1 in the “Electric Power Monthly” report.

[4] Capacity factors for fossil fuels and nuclear power are generally higher than for solar and wind. For 2025, EIA reported capacity factors of 48.7%, 58.4%, and 91.0% for coal, natural gas, and nuclear power respectively. By comparison, the capacity factors for wind and utility-scale PV were 34.2% and 24.4% respectively. See Tables 6.07.A and 6.07.B. Capacity factors for small-scale solar systems (10%-25%.) are usually lower than for utility-scale solar.

[5] In its “Electric Power Monthly” report, EIA refers to small-scale or distributed solar as “Estimated Small Scale Solar Photovoltaic.” Unless otherwise indicated, all calculations presented in this release include electrical generation by small-scale solar which EIA estimates to have totaled 41,973-GWh in January-May 2026. Utility-scale solar totaled 135,813-GWh for the same period.

[6] Between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026, estimated small-scale solar accounted for 6,664.3-MW in new capacity additions. The SUN DAY Campaign is therefore assuming that at least 6,000-MW in new small-scale solar capacity will be added during the coming 12 months.

# # # # # # # # # 

The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1992 to support a rapid transition to 100% reliance on sustainable energy technologies as a cost-effective alternative to nuclear power and fossil fuels and as a solution to climate change.

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As electricity demand surges, utilities are being forced to rethink how they build the transmission grid.

In this episode of Power Perspectives, Burns & McDonnell's Brandon Goodwin and Zach Brinker explain why a decades-old debate—lattice towers versus steel poles—is becoming relevant again.

They break down the engineering, cost, construction, and reliability tradeoffs behind each approach, and explain how factors like terrain, outage constraints, supply chains, and project scale all influence the right choice. If the grid is going to keep pace with unprecedented demand growth, utilities will need to move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions for building the transmission infrastructure of the future.

Thank you to Burns & McDonnell for sponsoring this episode. It's out now on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts!

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Shipwrecks, especially those from World War I + World War II, are leaking dangerous contents into the world’s oceans. "Unfortunately for the aquatic environments in which they rest, most of these come from the modern era (1800s, 1900s + 2000s], when the presence of hazardous materials or dangerous ordnance onboard was not only possible, but likely."

"The world’s oceans are littered with shipwrecks, with some estimates placing the number at around 3 million." Of the 3 M, roughly 15,000 date to the years during which WWI + WWII were fought, and a vast majority of those ships are slowly poisoning their surrounding environments.

"One wreck of particular concern is a German UC-30 submarine located 66 nautical miles west of Nymindegab, Denmark [not the one in the photo]." Lying 23 meters below the surface on a shallow, sandy reef of glacial deposits in the North Sea, this UC-30 submarine specialized in minelaying intended to wreak havoc on enemy harbors and shipping lanes.

"A necessary part of that job was carrying lots of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, more commonly known as TNT, which was housed in 18 onboard sea mines." In a new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, a team of researchers from Germany, Belgium, and Denmark analyzed sediments from the submarine’s minewells—six vertical shafts built into the pressure hull that carried three mines each—to understand the make-up of the microbiome at work.

"In samples taken from the wreck, scientists found distinct taxonomic shifts within the minewells of the wreck—specifically, a drastic increase of Proteobacteria like Haliaceae and Rhodobacteraceae, both of which are microbes that can break down hydrocarbons and survive extreme chemical stress." They do this by leveraging survival enzymes like glutathione transferases + oxidoreductases.

Ain't nature grand? Evolutionary selective pressure favors bacteria that can accomplish bioremediation.

Join me live on Zoom for my presentation:
Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Digital Grid Operations

I’ll discuss how real-time operational data, asset context, and engineering knowledge can be fused with RAG and LLM reasoning to support evidence-grounded decision support for digital grid operations.

Monday, 27 July 2026
9 PM UAE Time | 8 PM Cairo Time

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81984441465?pwd=5NgbiJK55P90bVWkb7wVtCzIjvhyaV.1

Meeting ID: 819 8444 1465