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thomasaspencer.bsky.social

@thomasaspencer.bsky.social
61 followers 99 following 50 posts
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
It's the red peril
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
"The $100bn of bonds, bank loans and private credit deals tied to OpenAI are equivalent to the net debt directly held by the six largest corporate borrowers in the world". OpenAI partners amass $100bn debt pile to fund its ambitions - on.ft.com/4ioWegz via @FT
on.ft.com
OpenAI partners amass $100bn debt pile to fund its ambitions
Cloud companies and developers rely on lossmaking start-up to repay huge loans
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
China thinks that its oil demand for transport has already peaked: "Overall oil consumption will likely reach its peak around 2026, as the usage of refined oil products for fuel has already peaked and petrochemical feedstock demand will maintain moderate growth." english.news.cn/20251124/515...
english.news.cn
Explainer: How will China peak coal, oil use in its climate push
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Cholderlos de Laclos, author of Dangerous Liaisons (a book before it was a movie), knew this. He wrote "language is the dress of thought".
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Are in a race for AGI? Or a race for EAAI? If we think we're in a race for economically applicable AI, the strategy becomes different. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-r...
wsj.com
Robots and AI Are Already Remaking the Chinese Economy
China’s factories and ports are learning to make and export more goods faster, cheaper and with fewer workers.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Data centres pose challenges for electricity systems because they are becoming massive and tend to cluster together.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Future energy demand growth is going to be highly correlated with solar irradiation. That's an opportunity for solar
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
We are offtrack with net zero pathways in the aggregate, but diving in deeper, some technologies are tracking in line with our first net zero pathway and some are way off track. This is not just about hydrogen or CCUS, we're also way off track on efficiency.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Sometimes graphs are data, sometimes they are art. Here is our representation (with real data of course) of how we have gone off track with pathways that limit warming to 1.5 degrees with no or low overshoot.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
"What Is Intelligence" is a book of breathtaking ambition, threading together evolution, neuroscience and AI. The book sometimes misses a beat, but you will not look on the world or the human mind in the same way after reading it. As close to a grand theory of intelligence as I have seen.
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Akshat Rathi @akshatrathi.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
I just listened to the most interesting 14-minute speech delivered at The Art of Tax Reform Summit. Yes, really. youtu.be/ODSKfN6pSMs?...
youtu.be
Tim Minchin’s Full Speech at The Art of Tax Reform Summit 2025 - NSW, Australia
YouTube video by Tim Minchin
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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Recently, Reinforcement Learning through Verifiable Rewards was promised to make LLMs better at information retrieval. A recent paper suggests it can help confirm verifiable (true/false) fact, but will also confirm flawed beliefs: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
nature.com
Language models cannot reliably distinguish belief from knowledge and fact - Nature Machine Intelligence
Suzgun et al. find that current large language models cannot reliably distinguish between belief, knowledge and fact, raising concerns for their use in healthcare, law and journalism, where such disti...
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
We published today a commentary on the EU data centre project pipeline. This includes new data on the project pipeline in major European markets. www.iea.org/commentaries...
iea.org
Overcoming energy constraints is key to delivering on Europe's data centre goals – Analysis - IEA
Overcoming energy constraints is key to delivering on Europe's data centre goals - A commentary by Vincent Jacamon, Julie Dallard, Thomas Spencer
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
A major uncertainty facing this year's WEO is the outlook for trade in low-emissions energy technologies. We highlight growing exports, particularly from China, coexisting alongside heightened trade tensions, excess capacity, and falling profit margins for producers.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
‘Phantom’ data centres muddy forecasts for US power needs - on.ft.com/43tkLuz via @FT "The utility, which serves more than 10mn people, recently declared that out of its 65-gigawatt 2040 pipeline, it is confident that only 22 per cent is likely to materialise."
on.ft.com
‘Phantom’ data centres muddy forecasts for US power needs
Developers are overstating energy needs and keeping projects alive even after they are no longer viable
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Today, we put out our World Energy Outlook. I am going to do a post a day for as long I still have interesting graphs to share (will be a while). First up: IEA scenarios are not outliers compared to those of energy majors. There are many that see a peak for oil in the next decade or so.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Finally a genuinely good Indian restaurant in Paris. Don't ruin it now, French people!
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
We should be careful with investment numbers for data centres. By far the majority of capital investment in data centres is in the chips and servers. If you don't manufacture them domestically, the cost of importing them is subtracted from GDP.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips - on.ft.com/3JAwFvZ via @FT
on.ft.com
China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips
Beijing introduces grants that slash energy bills by up to half for some of country’s largest data centres
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
AI sync, therefore AI am
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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
I hope noone has done this yet. I want to have a Locke on this joke.
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Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
India's rainfall in October was about 50% higher than normal for the month. It continues to be a wet year. May was the wettest May since records began in 1901. robbieandrew.github.io/india/index....
Graph showing: All India monthly rainfall
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Batteries are crucial technology for the 21st century - www.ft.com/content/874f... via @FT
ft.com
Batteries are crucial technology for the 21st century
Their role powering the growth of key industries means we cannot ignore economic security risks
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Lion Hirth @lionhirth.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
German non-renewable power generation during the past 75 years. (nuclear / lignite / coal / gas) Last year Germany produced just 160 TWh of electricity from fossil sources. The last time the number was that low was 1961.
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Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Big China electricity&industial data update🧵for September: ➡️Power generation from coal and gas dropped 5%, for a 1.2% fall in the first nine months of the year. ➡️Crude steel production fell by 5% and cement output by 9% in Sep, accelerating from 3% and 5% drops year-to-date.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
"One astonishing characteristic is the amount of surface area locked away in these new materials: a MOF weighing one gramme can have an internal surface area the size of a football pitch." Amazing stat. Can molecular Lego save the planet? - on.ft.com/4ok6Oak via @FT
on.ft.com
Can molecular Lego save the planet?
The Nobel Prize-winning MOFs could be used to mop up pollutants, turn toxic substances benign and make water from desert air
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
"Each 1GW of AI computing capacity costs about $50bn to deploy". That's about 4-5 times more than a nuclear power plants per GW. OpenAI’s computing deals top $1tn - on.ft.com/47j3s0z via @FT
on.ft.com
OpenAI’s computing deals top $1tn
Partners including Nvidia, AMD and Oracle have signed up to Sam Altman’s huge bet on the future of artificial intelligence
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
US green energy forecast cut by half under Trump despite global surge in solar and wind - on.ft.com/42sb6nw via @FT
on.ft.com
US green energy forecast cut by half under Trump despite global surge in solar and wind
Renewable power held back in world’s biggest economy while growing in India, the Middle East and Africa
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Honestly British Airways, you suck. I am now 24 hours into a journey that should have taken 12.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
A back-of-the-envelope tally suggests OpenAI has reached broad agreements that will cover capital spending of about $1tn ... That is a lot of money OpenAI is upping the ante massively - on.ft.com/46Uzjp8 via @FT
on.ft.com
OpenAI is upping the ante massively
Calculated display of self-confidence intended to signal it is still leading charge to superintelligence
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
The AI revolution is coming for robotics. True transformation will take time, but a chatgpt moment is not far away Google DeepMind unveils new robotics AI model that can sort laundry - on.ft.com/481zfVB via @FT
on.ft.com
Google DeepMind unveils new robotics AI model that can sort laundry
New technology advances reasoning capabilities in general-purpose machines in push to make them more useful
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Coal use in China has dropped for the first half of the year.
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Diesel trucks accounted for around 51 per cent of sales in China... electric trucks’ penetration rate has soared to around 24 per cent, from as low as 4 per cent two years earlier Sany’s electric trucks drive latest Chinese assault on global auto market - on.ft.com/3VxAaG0 via @FT
on.ft.com
Sany’s electric trucks drive latest Chinese assault on global auto market
The Caterpillar and Komatsu rival is investing heavily in battery swapping and driverless technology
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Tor "SolarFred" Valenza @torsolarfred.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
California solar curtailment down 12% on back of batteries #energysky -- via pv magazine usa: pv-magazine-usa.com/...
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International Energy Agency @iea.org · 20/07/2025
Geospatial mapping reveals the scale of the clean cooking challenge Millions live in areas with little or no access & limited infrastructure, from LPG storage & distribution to power reliability Investing in these gaps is key to scaling up solutions 👉 iea.li/3ISaFM8
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Dave Jones @cleanpowerdave.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Netherlands and Hungary hit 40% solar of total electricity generation during June...
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Jonathan Koomey @jgkoomey.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
This was a fun conversation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgzT...
youtube.com
Can we increase sustainable energy with AI? | The Prompt with Trevor Noah
YouTube video by Microsoft
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
We also need a segmentation between reasoning and non reasoning models.
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Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
The fall in China's coal imports accelerated in May, to 18% while imports year to date are down 8%.
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Jesse D. Jenkins @jessedjenkins.com · 07/06/2025
This IEA graphic shows how global sales of electric vehicles & improved efficiency of combustion vehicles (eg hybrids) is slashing growth in global oil demand. Use in road transport has peaked & likely to soon post annual declines. Aviation & petro-chemical feedstocks only drivers of growth now.🔌💡🔌🚗
IEA data shows global demand growth for oil has been eliminated for road transport and is declining for aviation and shipping and is now negative for other sources. Additional demand growth remains in aviation and as petro-chemical feedstocks.
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Nicolas Fulghum @nicolasfulghum.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
📈 NEW | We just launched a new version of our @ember-energy.org data explorer! ⌛️Skip the hours of filtering and transforming files only to make mediocre charts in excel. With our improved data explorer, you can quickly visualize electricity data for every country in the world!
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
I just used Perplexity's new labs function, which creates reports, web apps and datasets from your queries. It is amazing ... ... except that it hallicinated the data big time. Sometimes this AI moment seems like a bad relationship, you go from awe to disappointment in the blink of an eye
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Global temperature rise to reach near 2C in next five years, WMO says - on.ft.com/45rcJUH via @FT
on.ft.com
Global temperature rise to reach near 2C in next five years, WMO says
Warming of more than 1.5C from pre-industrial levels is expected to become more ‘commonplace’
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Jaap Burger @jaapburger.eu · 26/05/2025
Great visualisation - you can see how the Chinese market has doubled in just two years by comparing it to the one in the next post with 2022 data.
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Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.eurosky.social · 26/05/2025
Tycho de Feijter: "China Rules The Global EV Market" #alwaysbecharging #battchat ft @thomasaspencer.bsky.social
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
From our annual Global Electric Vehicle Outlook, here's how the global market place for EVs stacks up. Production dominated by China and to a lesser extent Europe, and trade is a small share of demand. Historically, no substitute for a domestic market, if you want to grow EV your EV industry.
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EmmanuelSPV @emmanuelspv.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
If you’ve ever wondered how many chess players you could fit into a car parking space, Paris has the answer: you can fit 16 chess players into a single parking spot !
On a car parking spot in Paris, a terrace shaped like a boat protects eight chessboardsA dozen chess players are playing there is room for sixteen
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thomasaspencer.bsky.social @thomasaspencer.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
This is the new economic map for the 21st century: a set of 20 critical minerals with key applications across energy, IT technology and robotics, advanced materials and aerospace. Our new Global Critical Minerals Outlook analyses market concentration and price dynamics for these minerals.🧵
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Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
If you still think that solar cannot deliver at a scale that can power the modern society globally, this is a good moment to update your priors. Solar is now adding power generation faster than nuclear power did in its heyday, showing the power of modular technology and mass production.
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Nicolas Fulghum @nicolasfulghum.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
New record for batteries in California (CAISO) 🔋⚡ Yesterday, on the 20th May 2025, battery discharge crossed 10 GW for the first time. That was enough to meet a THIRD of evening peak demand. Solar moved fast, batteries are moving even faster...
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