iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

That's what high quality sizing data looks like! Sadly had to sell my home with a hybrid heat pump, but the new house is a great opportunity fully electrify with high quality load data! Think I can do 1.5 tons with no backup! #heatpumps

Shows furnace runtime last night at 30min/hour until 5am

Shows furnace runtime data the day before

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Chris Taggart 🏡 ⚡️ 🔌 @christaggart.com · 17/12/2025

I don’t have a great baseline of what our electric 240V dryer + washer used to pull, but I was pretty surprised to see our #heatpump combo washer/dryer only uses $0.25 cents per load in electricity. And eliminated a building envelope penetration further improving our heating load. #energysky

Graph of heatpump combo washer dryer energy use showing $3/mo in electricity costs. Roughly $0.25/load.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Using a heat pump dryer/washer combo is an awesome way to help simplify electrification projects! Though I am increasingly an advocate of avoiding heat kits if possible in Canada to minimize peak load.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

There's so much room to keep innovating in PV - it never stops amazing me.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

It's a very interesting calculus for agrivoltaics, since land opex for PV is already so low and it will typically boost the cost of PV all things equal, but also potentially doubles the value of the land as an asset. It's gotta be designed ag first, and PV second for that reason I think.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

On the train all day, a good day to get back into posting nerdy energy commentary. Will start blocking more aggressively for anyone who calls me a fossil fuel shill.

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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 21/11/2025

Ah, the problem is not that we fail to provide everyone with adequate housing or services for people with addiction, the *real problem* is that the rest of us are forced to see the results of these things, under the label "social decay". Got it.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Of course the fossil fuel sector has slowed the transition, but climate advocacy has also failed by any measure. Digging into old strategies won't work. Time for a rethink. #energysky #climatesky

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Michael Liebreich @mliebreich.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

No. The climate community needs to stop blaming other people for its own failures.

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Just Kevin @kevinleecaster.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Vertical configuration helps keep the panels clean. Since 2022, the owners have not cleaned the panels, aided by frequent rainfall and soil that is not dry. Vertical production profiles produce at times when the hourly price of electricity is highest. #AgPV 🔌💡 www.pv-magazine.com/2025/07/11/a...

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Tyler Norris @tnorris.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Winning the AI race won’t hinge on whether hyperscale data centers have uninterrupted power to train foundational models between 6-9am during polar vortexes

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Suggesting specific failures in DAC facilities discredits the need for DAC is like discrediting solar power because solar thermal and concentrating solar were found to be cost-ineffective. 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Counterpoint: Techno-optimism alone will fix climate change 😂 Absurdity of both points aside, I think it's important to recognize the very high cost of non-technology solutions that are referenced by this statement. While reducing consumption can help, we can't pretend it's free or painless. 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

🚨🚨🚨 The numbers are in! We have #SMR costs estimates back by a regulatory approval! 300MW FOAK is ~$20/W 😳 Total cost: $20.9B/1200MW, or 17.4/W but includes FOAK. So last 900MW are $15/W. Hard to see how it can beat AP1000 at these costs... 🔌💡 www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

theglobeandmail.com

Ontario’s Darlington SMR project to cost nearly $21-billion

The price is far greater than independent observers deem necessary to spark widespread adoption

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 06/05/2025

There are lots of things that warrant discussion & debate about AI, but "it uses too much energy" is a short-sighted critique that will appear silly in retrospect.

sustainabilitybynumbers.com

What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?

Very small compared to most of the other stuff you do.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

More brilliant insight on the marginal cost of installing heat pumps from Shreyas, and why hybrids can look very attractive to contractors. 🔌💡 #heatpumps

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Brendan McEwen @brendanmcewen.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

To coordinate all comms between SPAN cloud systems & the hardware they install. If not, would make it hard for utility to switch aggregators/intermediaries if they (or regulators) decided some other firm could do that at better value. The financial incentive for aggregaotr is get big slice o value

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Love to see this. Was too expensive to add 200A service so it drove the decision to use a more advanced, load-reactive EV charger. We really don't need 200A upgrades for electrification folks! 🔌💡

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Bob Mayo @bobmayo.com · 03/05/2025

120v low-peak-power electric appliances have a bright future. There still room for innovation in this space, imo.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

I don't think we'll ever get to the point where home electrification feels quick and easy. The best path to making cases like this easier are 120V appliances (in this case, a 120V heat pump dryer).

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I went to my engineering professor's office hours in grad school to learn what reactive power meant. By the end, he said "I dunno Harris...it's just magic..." 🤣 From a policy perspective (which was the angle I was learning engineering from) we settled on it as an aspect of "power quality." 🔌💡

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Tom MacDonald @tscmacdonald.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Uncontroversial? • High % renewables bring new grid stability risks. • Those risks seem manageable, but necessary policies/tech/regs are still in flux. • The 🇪🇸/🇵🇹 event was almost certainly multifactorial. Untangling will take time, but… • Early data does imply VRE instability as one contributor.

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Alex Barron @alexrbarron.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I spent a lot of happy hours in DC arguing that the idea that industry was "hard to decarbonize" was driven in part by folks misreading the modeling. A 🧵 1/8

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Michael McLean @michaelmclean.me · 21/04/2025

Byron nuclear plant in Illinois to undergo $355 million uprate. 6 low pressure turbines will be replaced by two with higher pressure, to increase the power generation by 80 megawatts. $4.4 / watt. The lowest hanging fruit of clean firm power! 🔌💡 www.shawlocal.com/sauk-valley/...

shawlocal.com

Byron’s 40-year-old nuclear plant to undergo $355M project to increase power output

Constellation Energy, owner of the Byron Nuclear Power Station, plans to invest about $355 million in a lengthy project that will increase the site's power output and extend the life of the facility a...

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Great post on LinkedIn from @shreyassudhakar.com Anyone thinking through how to lower the cost of heat pumps needs to keep the business model in mind. This is not an equipment cost problem, and opportunities to leverage this structure like midstream programs exist. #heatpumps 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Drove through rural southwestern Ontario this morning. Drove by this wind farm with all the blades turned into the wind so they're motionless, despite all the surrounding ones going full tilt. Sure enough, IESO grid is overloaded with wind, cool to see curtailment in practice. 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

🤦‍♂️ PSA: any existing hydroelectric capacity (or any generating capacity in general) is already spoken for. Even if you are talking new capacity, the number of cheap potential hydro sites is very low, and they are also spoken for. www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/tec...

bnnbloomberg.ca

Canada has answer to energy needs in AI race, ex-Google CEO says

Canada’s abundant hydroelectricity offers the best way to power booming artificial intelligence servers and win the global AI race — if the country is able to cooperate with the US amid a trade war wi...

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Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Precisely nobody on Bluesky cares but WTI is back below $60. Jeez louise.

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Alexander C. Kaufman @alexckaufman.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Something not everyone understands: the rare earths game is about the midstream processing much more than the mining. That’s what makes this announcement from a French chemicals company that it’s opening Europe’s first major refinery so important. www.reuters.com/markets/comm...

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Missed this! Really important and valuable innovation here. The electrical panel upgrade can be up to 50% of the incremental upfront cost of home electrification. 🔌💡 #heatpumps

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Great piece. There's likely a lot of value in trying to link envelope upgrades with heat pump sizing, but the energy savings are just not enough. 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

"I scanned the book for ideas I already agreed with as a proxy for whether I agreed with its argument" 🤦‍♂️

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Andrew Gelston @agelston.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

To note something important: You can have 90% power decarbonization and STILL rely on fossil for a significant portion of firm needs. They will very rarely run, limiting emissions This is the practical future we should build towards. It is confusing unless your deep in a model 🔌💡

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Jesse @ember42.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

And interesting part is that the Canadian Government is providing a backstop for utilities to expand orders and guarantee the future demand for the factory, so it's been expanded there, where without that, a US factory remains closed. Wish they had the lead time diff for each country though...

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Your regularly scheduled reminder that the idea DAC is impractical because we need the renewable energy is false. We can just use natural gas. 🔌💡 www.cbsnews.com/news/is-carb...

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Chirag Lala @cthelala.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

I don't think we can judge 5-minute charger development unnecessary. There is a demand case for time saved so it's unclear why deployment would be worse than 1) street chargers + [slower] fast chargers on routes + 3) home / retail charging. This is where markets are helpful to industrial policy.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Hydrogen has bad energy density, actually. 🔌💡

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Michael Liebreich @mliebreich.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Great thread on heat pump innovation.

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

The solution to making gravity energy storage cost effective!! 🤣

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Morgan Jones @mjjones.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

For those Canadians going "it's so dumb why don't we have a easy/West grid? Why are all the connections North/South?" Time for a 🧵 #energysky #canpoli 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

AWESOME piece from @chrisbataille.bsky.social @noahqkaufman.bsky.social I think the piece nails the issues, but I think eschewing energy-economy models is the wrong approach. So many solutions are intersectoral, we need to ensure their internal consistency with net-zero. 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Another day, another article that casually dismissing CCS even when it directly solves the problem being highlighted. Waste management is necessary, and incineration has a clear role, but it won't work for climate without CCS. 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

It seems to be that 1.5C scenarios are still useful as an extreme, but can't agree more than IAM research needs to begin focussing more on the local dynamics necessary for global outcomes. #energysky

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Hilarious that this was/arguably is Ontario, with positive outcomes to boot. But everyone here complains anyway. 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Would you sign up for an EV pricing plan that gave you cheaper electricity if it was VERY expensive during the coldest days/weeks of the year? I am talking a very large spread. Like <5c/kWh vs 30-60c/kWh? And Max lvl 1 speed only. #EVs #greensky 🔌💡

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Harris Berton @harrisberton.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

It's totally fair to disagree with this point, some good discussions and points followed from the post. This is just an effort to use Bluesky's blocking approach to suppress ideas you don't agree with, even if we're totally aligned on the seriousness of climate as an issue. 🔌💡 #greensky

A quote tweet of one of my past posts about natural gas and direct air capture.

I've taken the step of blocking this person, who consistently uses Bluesky to claim that we need to use *more* fossil fuels to tackle climate change. Here he is claiming that fossil gas is the key to achieving direct carbon dioxide removal.

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