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John Bistline

@bistline.bsky.social
6.7K followers 519 following 864 posts

Head of Science at Watershed | Energy systems modeling, economics, policy | IPCC, NCA, Stanford/CMU alum | Views my own

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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Check out the cool database from EPRI here: energystorage.epri.com/hub/public/e...
energystorage.epri.com
Battery Energy Storage System Failure Incident Database | Energy Storage Hub
Energy Storage Hub
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Crazy stat: Battery storage failure rates declined 99% from 2018 to 2025
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Read more about our multi-model analysis here: pubs.acs.org/esthag/artic...
pubs.acs.org
A Multi-Model Assessment of the Air Quality and Health Impacts of U.S. Energy Decarbonization
Abstract. Net-zero transitions are expected to reduce ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and the associated mortality burden. The magni
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
🚨 New study 🚨 Decarbonization has a public health bonus. Three U.S. energy models: PM2.5 mortality rates down 28 to 73% by 2050 under net zero.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
NBER working paper here: www.nber.org/papers/w35546
nber.org
Time Travel on Professional Profiles
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Interesting research finds LinkedIn has time travelers: people who edit jobs they already left. About 1 in 5 US users qualifies. Many are adding AI to roles held before ChatGPT, so today's profiles overstate how early AI skills spread by about 30%.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Solar developers: "We're ready to build." Grid: "Please hold. Your call is very important to us. Estimated wait time... 4 to 7 years."
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Confession: I've accepted speaking invitations mostly because the venue was near a museum I hadn't seen. So I built a map of where 100+ painters' works are currently located.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Vermeer lived his whole life in Delft. Vermeers in Delft today: 0 Vermeers in New York: 8 I mapped where paintings by 100+ painters hang today, from Giotto to Basquiat: johnbistline.com/masterpiece-...
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Dr Grace S Peng @gspeng.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Reposting a few items from this long 🧵 about CA precipitation this El Niño winter. The odds of us having a 90th percentile total seasonal rainfall (by definition 10%), is 80-90% according to a reliable model, ECMWF
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The U.S. has 278 GW of power capacity reported as planned. 186 GW of it has not broken ground. 92 GW is under construction.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This comes from a great analysis on "Financing the AI Buildout" in BPEA: www.brookings.edu/wp-content/u...
brookings.edu
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Alphabet spent $97B on capex in 2020. The 2026 projection is $800B, above their combined operating cash flow for the first time.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Check out the full @ember-energy.org "Age of Power" report here, which has several terrific figures: ember-energy.org/app/uploads/...
ember-energy.org
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The magnet in your hard drive spins a wind turbine. The battery in your laptop drives an EV. Every information revolution had an energy doppelganger.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Read more here: sustainabilitymag.com/articles/the...
sustainabilitymag.com
The Creation of Watershed’s AI Emissions Framework
Dr John Bistline, Head of Science at Watershed, on how his 20 years in energy systems informed the creation of Watershed’s AI emissions framework
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Thanks to Sustainability Magazine and Charlie King for the profile and the good questions about Watershed’s AI emissions framework. Proud of what the team and our collaborators built.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Great post from Zeke. It's counterfactuals all the way down.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Check out our new multi-model analysis in ES&T with @weipengclimate.bsky.social, @jessejenkins.bsky.social, and others: pubs.acs.org/esthag/artic...
pubs.acs.org
A Multi-Model Assessment of the Air Quality and Health Impacts of U.S. Energy Decarbonization
Abstract. Net-zero transitions are expected to reduce ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and the associated mortality burden. The magni
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Net-zero brings PM2.5-attributable deaths down sharply by 2050, which would be progress from today but far from zero. You can't electrify road dust or ammonia from agriculture. And a bad wildfire projection can claw back 3-16% of the gain.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Congrats, Josh!
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The states that cut the carbon intensity of their power the most since the early 90s: Iowa -69% South Dakota -69% Nevada -64% Oklahoma -62% New Mexico -61% A few unexpected #CleanEnergyStripes
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
China added more solar generation in 2025 than the rest of the world combined.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Our open AI emissions framework calls for model-specific values per-token as a key input. CLEER is the first attempt to supply it for closed models. Watershed and SAIG are partnering to work out how these factors can feed into corporate carbon accounting: sustainableaigroup.com/cleerlaunch
sustainableaigroup.com
Sustainable AI Group launches CLEER
Sustainable AI Group launches CLEER to quantify the environmental impact of closed AI models.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A typical agentic AI session uses about 27x the energy of a typical chat session on the same model (heavy agentic sessions can go past 100x). New estimates out today for closed models like GPT and Claude from the Sustainable AI Group.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Read the IEA’s electrification report here: www.iea.org/reports/elec...
iea.org
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Electric vehicle sales outside China rose more than 35% this spring compared with a year earlier. Inside China, they fell more than 15%. New IEA data from March to June 2026.
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Akshaya Jha @akshayaj.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
EPA projects $310 billion in savings over 2026–2047 from repealing power plant greenhouse gas rules due to less carbon capture spending, more use of efficient new gas plants, and later coal retirements. But its estimate excludes health and climate costs from additional pollution due to the repeal:
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Reposted by John Bistline
Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 25/09/2026
This week, we published the first paper in the U.S. Climate Collection titled, "Research Priorities for Robust Climate Assessments in the United States". The paper was led by Melissa Kenney, @bobkopp.net, & me, with 175 authors helping outline climate risks. cee.engineering.cmu.edu/news/2026/09...
cee.engineering.cmu.edu
CMU faculty helps lead new efforts on climate assessment research
CMU faculty helps lead new efforts on climate assessment research - Civil and Environmental Engineering
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
More here: about.bnef.com/insights/ind...
about.bnef.com
Global Gas Turbine Manufacturing Outlook: Crunch, for Now | BloombergNEF
Can gas turbine manufacturing keep pace with surging global demand? Explore how capacity is projected to rise more than 50% to 102GW by 2030 and what could turn today’s scarcity into tomorrow’s oversu...
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
102 GW: BloombergNEF's take on global gas turbine manufacturing capacity by 2030, up from 67 GW in 2025. A >50% capacity build in five years, following the data center buildout.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Watershed Climate Summit at NYCW was full of energy, literally and figuratively. The literal kind is almost three-quarters of global emissions, but many companies have no single owner for it. We’re building Watershed Energy Management to give it a home: watershed.com/energy
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I'm not sure which IEA numbers you mean, but the EPRI report includes current projects and under-construction ones (with scenarios for projections). There are also several capacity definitions. We included non-AI data centers and crypto mining. All of those scope questions can make a difference.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It would be great to have a public database of data center data (I know of a couple efforts, but nothing as comprehensive as S&P). You can check out free state-level aggregates and projections from EPRI's Powering Intelligence white paper: powering-intelligence.epri.com
powering-intelligence.epri.com
Home | Powering Intelligence 2026
EPRI projects U.S. data centers to consume 9-17% of national electricity by 2030 as rapid growth driven by AI, streaming, and cryptocurrency accelerates. This report explores scenario-based forecasts,...
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thanks, Dan! This was made with Cornerstone Sustainability Data Initiative's eGRID dataset (2024 annual average emissions): watershed.com/en-GB/blog/a...
watershed.com
Why the Same AI Prompt Can Have a 100x Variation in Carbon Footprint
AI emissions vary by grid, routing, and accounting. Learn how open eGRID data enables clearer comparisons and smarter climate action.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Every hexagon = 500 MW of data center capacity. Line them up on a grid intensity map and you get a pretty clear picture of where America’s AI buildout is landing on dirty power, and where it isn't.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Solar just overtook wind for the first time in history. Wind took decades to get there. Solar took ten years to 10x its way past it.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Read our paper! I was honored to contribute to this effort, which had particle-accelerator levels of coordination across nearly 200 coauthors. Thanks to Melissa Kenney, @bobkopp.net, and @costasamaras.com for their leadership.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Data from UMD Center for Global Sustainability State Inventory Tool, CO2 from fossil fuel combustion, default state data, 1990 to 2023: ghgi.cgs.umd.edu
ghgi.cgs.umd.edu
GHGIA
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
43 of 50 states hit their peak energy CO2 emissions before 2010. Which state cut the most CO2 from energy since 1990? It's Ohio, down 61 million tons (CA is sixth).
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
DOE posting on “affordable, reliable, and secure” energy for the 2028 LA Olympics. Here’s the grid that will be doing it. By 2028, California’s fleet is 72% non-fossil. Solar and storage alone are 53%.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Don’t make me tap the mug.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Wyoming and Kentucky are some of the dirtiest grids in the country. They also have data centers going up, both planned and operational. Nobody sited these for the climate.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Climate Week starts Monday. If you're in New York and want to compare notes on grid data, AI emissions, or just where to get decent coffee between meetings, say hi.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Thanks, Theodor!
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
For two decades, EPA's eGRID dataset showed how dirty each region's power was. In 2025, the Trump administration stopped updating it. The Cornerstone initiative picked it up. Now it’s open, current, and maintained by people determined to keep it that way. watershed.com/en-GB/blog/a...
watershed.com
Why the Same AI Prompt Can Have a 100x Variation in Carbon Footprint
AI emissions vary by grid, routing, and accounting. Learn how open eGRID data enables clearer comparisons and smarter climate action.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A single AI prompt is 34x dirtier on the worst state grid than the best.
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Yes, I see this in Orange County, too! We’re fortunate to be able to charge at home, but I would get nervous if I had to use public charging more frequently right now (that wasn’t the case five years ago… which I suppose is a nice problem to have?).
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John Bistline @bistline.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
True! Though building clean energy is necessary (but not sufficient) for decarbonization. IMHO, California isn't building fast enough.
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