iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

No problem. I don’t actually know this for 100% sure (I’d want to test a tri-ply pan on the Copper stove), but it fits with the info I have (120 Hz leak through is real, 120 Hz buzzing is real on my stove, Copper claims to be quieter). The character limit makes me sound more sure than I really am!

All induction ranges, including Copper Charlie, use standard resistance heating for the oven. Hot air and hot oven walls cook your food, not induction in the baking pan. But Copper Charlie could potentially use higher power heating elements backed by the battery to do a faster preheat.

All induction ranges convert power to DC, then to 25-50 kHz AC to heat the pans. Standard models convert 60 Hz AC to DC in real time, and can have a problem with 120 Hz harmonics leaking through, which can make tri-ply pans buzz at high power. Batteries give a stronger DC supply which avoids this.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 28/08/2026

The pan matters a lot for induction stove noise. We have Calphalon tri-ply (steel/aluminum) pans that were billed as induction-ready, but they always buzz on high settings. Cast iron pans are silent. Also two pans on adjacent burners at different heat levels can make an awful high-pitched noise.

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Probably similar chemistry to iron-air battery (O2 on, O2 off), but the intermediate form (aluminum metal) can be stored and shipped. Round trip efficiency may be a little better than H2 and the fuel is easier to handle. A lot more chemistry involved, so I don’t know how that affects waste.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 28/08/2026

They’re positioning it as a backup diesel killer—low capital cost, non-spoiling fuel, quiet, non-emitting, non-flammable, so facility can be denser. They also talk about it as a primary source in some cases, but I’m not so sure. But it could be a good sub for hydrogen or CH4 for last 5% grid decarb.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 20/08/2026

Not to be confused with a zebra crossing or pelican crossing.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 18/08/2026

You may need better readers to get better editors. We tend to read what we agree with and don’t hold it against publications if they later turn out to be wrong.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 09/08/2026

I’m a big fan of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for related reasons. They are very capable and fairly priced.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 08/08/2026

Google needs to do better with their weather accent graphics. Dangerously high temperatures should not be shown as “fun in the sun.”

Clip from Google weather page for Phoenix, AZ, showing hourly temperatures of 107-111°F and an “Excessive Heat” warning, with a cartoon below of a lizard hanging out under a beach umbrella next to a desert lake.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 29/07/2026

This thread is the answer. Basaltic minerals react well with CO2 to achieve permanent sequestration. But this is a $200+/tCO2 activity, so we should also do all the other things that are cheaper, which is almost everything, e.g., ~95% clean power for electricity and transport.

smithsonianmag.com

Iceland Carbon Capture Project Quickly Converts Carbon Dioxide Into Stone

More than 95 percent of gas injected into the ground precipitated out as harmless carbonate, scientists calculate

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 24/07/2026

Who at Microsoft decided that the default cross reference should be a hyperlink with a complete copy of the caption? Has anyone ever wanted that?! And why, in the 29 years since they introduced this feature, has no one at @microsoft.com realized that normal people just want to insert "see Table 1"?

Screen clip of dialog box showing
Reference type: Table
Insert reference to: Entire caption
[checked box] Insert as hyperlink

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GitHub - EnergyInnovation/Switch-US-Load-Growth-2030

This was done using the open-source Switch grid model and a a lot of Python code. All data and code are open-source, available at github.com/EnergyInnova.... Thanks to the PowerGenome, PUDL @catalyst.coop and ReEDS projects for awesome data resources!

github.com

Contribute to EnergyInnovation/Switch-US-Load-Growth-2030 development by creating an account on GitHub.

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(3) We took reliability seriously: we started the capacity planning model with 20 "economic" days spanning typical weather conditions, then tested the plan on 7 years of historical weather and added difficult "reliability" days back to the planning model, until it produced a fully reliable plan.

(2) We used a lot of technical detail, especially for thermal plants: spinning reserve margins, part-load efficiencies, minimum up- and down-time and ramp rate limits. All this in a 134-zone model (sub-state-level!) with hourly resolution.

This work has a few unusual features, including some technical innovations that may be useful for others: (1) We kept a sharp focus on crazy near-term conditions, where rapid load growth collides with headwinds for everything on the grid: wind, solar, gas turbines, nuclear, transmission.

Let The Sun In: Clean Energy Is The Cheapest Way To Meet Rising Demand

In case you missed it, @brendan.bsky.social, @michelle-solomon.bsky.social and I just published an @energyinnovation.org report showing that the U.S. can save $5 billion per year by meeting load growth with clean power and demand-side flexibility instead of keeping old coal and gas plants running. 🧵

energyinnovation.org

Meeting U.S. demand growth with fossil fuels will add $29.7 billion to customer bills per year by 2030, clean energy can do it for less.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 15/07/2026

People naturally wake up earlier in the summer and later in the winter. DST makes the clocks match that a little better. Congress should worry about something else.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 14/07/2026

If the choice were “remove the dumpsters and throw trash in the street to create a few more parking spots,” it would be a more obvious no-brainer. But it’s actually the same choice either way.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 10/07/2026

Thanks! This one might be tough, but would it be possible to add a “posts I’ve read” filter? I often want to find a post with a particular phrase that I read sometime recently, but maybe not from someone I follow. This would really help narrow the search!

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 06/07/2026

It looks like EVs make up an extra-large share of new registrations every April–May. Any idea why that is?

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Reposted by Matthias Fripp

Energy Innovation @energyinnovation.org · 02/07/2026

🔌💡 Clean energy can reliably meet the American economy’s insatiable demand for #electricity, at lower costs than if we primarily rely on aging coal plants and volatile natural gas. thepowerline.substack.com/p/clean-ener... by @brendan.bsky.social

thepowerline.substack.com

Clean Energy is the Cheapest Way to Serve Surging Electricity Demand

We can build a cheap, reliable and lower-risk grid, but we need to start now

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 02/07/2026

That’s equal to the the NLR “low” estimate for a 34 kW / 26 kWh battery. Buy a battery, get the body, motors and wheels for free! (I know you can’t really compare stationary to mobile batteries, but it’s fun to try.) docs.nlr.gov/docs/fy25ost...

docs.nlr.gov

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 26/06/2026

Somehow drivers can’t seem to conceive that they could slow down and let bikes pass before turning. It just doesn’t compute for them to yield to a bike.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 21/06/2026

I was surprised to learn that the common notion of “first day of summer” uses astronomical summer (solstice) in the U.S., but meteorological summer (June 1) in the UK.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 21/06/2026

Now I want to know which was the “right” one. I can only find the Kensington one on Google Maps.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 20/06/2026

That’s about $1000 of harm per year per household in the U.S. (plus at least $600 of fossil fuel profit), in exchange for about $1 of political support. People are dying early, losing their homes, insurance, crops, shorelines, forests. It’s so pointless. Ugh.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 20/06/2026

In 2024, U.S. politicians received $150 million of support from fossil fuel interests to block action on climate change. www.opensecrets.org/industries/t... Meanwhile, every year those companies earn $80B+ and climate change does at least $150B of harm to the U.S. nca5.climate.us It’s got to stop!

nca5.climate.us

Fifth National Climate Assessment

The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the sc...

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 18/06/2026

Yes, that study pre-dates use of batteries, so it was particularly keen on combining wind and solar. (Hard to believe we weren’t even contemplating grid-scale batteries 20 years ago!) California also has a summer-peaking load, which helps.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 17/06/2026

California wind peaks in the evening and at night, so it actually pairs quite well with solar. I wrote a model to study this at one point. scholar.google.com/citations?vi...

scholar.google.com

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 05/06/2026

The stats below equal 1 bathtub full of oil (1.2 barrels) per household per week. If people had to lug a couple of 5-gallon buckets of gasoline to their car every time they filled it, or wheel a 42-gallon oil barrel up to the plane for their flight, they might have more perspective.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 05/06/2026

That’s 2500 gallons per year—equivalent to one full bathtub per week—for every household in the US.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 05/06/2026

It’s more like “For decades the coal and oil industries have portrayed fossil fuels as secure and renewables as risky. The Strait of Hormuz shows that was never true.”

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 29/05/2026

Do you mean transmission or distribution? I think it’s a pretty robust finding that a bigger interregional transmission grid is a “nice to have,” not a “must have.” But I know less about the need for local upgrades for generator interconnection and higher loads. arxiv.org/abs/2402.14189

arxiv.org

Optimal transmission expansion modestly reduces decarbonization costs of U.S. electricity

Expanding interregional transmission is widely viewed as essential for integrating clean energy into decarbonized power systems. Using the open-source Switch capacity expansion model with detailed rep...

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 19/05/2026

I sometimes use UTC for time series data, and when I do that, I mean 𝗨𝗧𝗖.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 09/05/2026

If you start with 300 kWh of gas heating and replace 150 kWh of that with 50 kWh of electricity, then electricity will only be 25% of final energy, even though you’re actually halfway done.

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Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 08/05/2026

Final energy misses the fact that that 1 kWh of electricity replaces 3-4 kWh of fossil energy in heat pumps, engines, etc. You could use end-use-specific stats like vehicle miles or homes heated with electricity. Or more generically, percent of fossil energy that has been replaced with electricity.

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Reposted by Matthias Fripp

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 28/04/2026

"Electrifying industrial heat in India is now cheaper than producing heat from natural gas and oil across all temperatures, and cheaper than coal in three of five temperature bands, representing 55 percent of the country’s industrial heat needs."

energyinnovation.org

Electrifying Industrial Heat in India

Cheap solar prices mean electrifying industrial heat in India is cheaper than producing heat from most fossil fuels, cutting costs and air pollution.

10438165

“There’s no point putting money in the stock market because that thing could go up or down at any moment. The only investment we can use is Treasury Bills.”

“We can’t possibly grow food outdoors because you just never know when it will be sunny or rainy. You might even have a whole year of bad conditions. Or a blight or locusts. There’s no hope.”

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“We can’t possibly build a successful company with human workers, because they all go home at night. And sometimes they call in sick! Or take vacations!”

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Somewhat related, it’s so frustrating when the “sensible” tech billionaires say solar is too variable to rely on. They know from their own work and from finance that careful planning and statistics can create reliable systems from unreliable parts. But they refuse to believe it for electricity.

Matthias Fripp @matthiasfripp.org · 17/04/2026

You’re right, natural gas is not up as much in the U.S., mainly because there’s limited capacity to export it. But oil is up a similar amount. Anyway, average households in the U.S. are not benefiting from higher oil and gas prices, even if GDP is. The extra profits are going to oil and gas owners.