US virtual power plants reach 4 million smart-thermostat homes
More than 500 programs operated in the US as of 2023, with programs especially common in California, Texas and New England.
Solar, wind, nuclear, grids, storage: the electricity that will run everything else.
Energy is the mother section: everything else this journal covers — computing, vehicles, factories — eventually plugs in somewhere. We follow solar and wind as they keep cutting prices, nuclear reinventing itself as small modular reactors, geothermal, hydrogen where it actually makes sense, and above all the grids: interconnections, bulk storage, demand management — the plumbing without which no megawatt is worth anything.
The through-line is the kilowatt-hour: its cost, its footprint, its availability. An efficiency record only counts dated and sourced; a power plant only counts once connected. The section favours verifiable numbers — auctions, commissionings, production curves — and the players Western general media rarely cover, from Chinese electrolyser makers to island grids going 100% renewable.
More than 500 programs operated in the US as of 2023, with programs especially common in California, Texas and New England.
- An ultrathin polymer film helps droplets form densely and leave copper tubes quickly.
A model estimates that depleted fields could hold 3,659 terawatt-hours of hydrogen, according to a study in Applied Energy.
Base Power offers Texas homeowners 39.2 kilowatt-hours of batteries for $19 a month.