Energy Abundance & Climate Transition • Big Batteries🔋☢️ 🥑• Amateur Outdoorsman • First Gen 🇨🇦

Joined March 2016
Photos and videos
Alex Simakov retweeted
I really want people to understand that global degrowth is the explicit goal of the scientists who invented atmospheric climate targets.
I don't think Piketty is doing his fight against wealth inequality any favors by lumping it in with the global degrowth movement. Like imagine Bernie Sanders rallying voters with a call to tax the billionaires and redistribute the money to people living in other countries.
21
32
257
21,393
Alex Simakov retweeted
'@TimMLatimer had a vision for enhanced geothermal back in 2012 as a junior drilling engineer at an oil company. Getting no internal traction, he decided to pursue it as a startup. He and the team at Fervo Energy not only had to overcome major technical challenges, but also convince the deeply skeptical worlds of energy services and finance. Last week’s blockbuster IPO was an extraordinary validation of that vision. Tim’s essay to Stanford GSB shows just how prescient his thinking was long before the rest of the industry came around. It's an incredible story of equal parts conviction and execution. Congrats to the whole team.
8
54
357
35,073
Alex Simakov retweeted
In 1927, the last wild European bison was shot. The bison was fully extinct in the wild, surviving only in zoos. A century later, thousands roam Europe again. Proof that conservation can work and that even seemingly doomed species can make a comeback.
27
344
1,857
83,666
Alex Simakov retweeted
A thread on the 50 best fortifications to go and visit in the world according to me. They are all fun for at least one in the family. They are listed in reverse rank order as determined by how much fun, unique and awesome they are.
65
212
1,492
442,782
Alex Simakov retweeted
oh no the data centers are going to use up all our water...
33
79
377
38,728
Alex Simakov retweeted
Relationship between load growth and retail electricity rates, 2019 to 2025. esig.energy/wp-content/uploa…
1
12
40
5,465
Alex Simakov retweeted
It's wild that we are having an environmental panic about data centers — a carbon-free industrial facility that during ordinary operation consumes no natural resources besides electricity and water and emits no waste products besides heat.
84
93
887
85,955
Alex Simakov retweeted
I don't think it's possible to navigate the challenges of the energy transition without a realistic understanding of the economic benefits of fossil fuels (on both the consumer and producer sides)
"...we calculate that U.S. natural gas consumers have saved $4.5-$5.3 trillion between 2007 and 2025, equivalent to $237-$276 billion annually."
2
12
50
7,222
Alex Simakov retweeted
Narrative violation: with the right policy, new data centers can *lower* electricity prices by spreading the fixed costs of the grid out among more paying customers.
One gigawatt of new data center load in the San Antonio area could *save* the average customer $64 per year on their electric bills sanantonioreport.org/done-ri…
48
70
538
282,224
Alex Simakov retweeted
There’s a lot of cognitive dissonance in the power debate right now. On one side: data centers are framed as the source of all evil, driving electricity bills higher and consuming every incremental megawatt. On the other: people still haven’t fully internalized what broad-based electrification and decarbonization actually require. Electric vehicles, heat pumps, industrial electrification, reshoring, transmission upgrades, battery manufacturing, air conditioning growth, etc. This was always going to be an enormous power demand story. That’s why I keep coming back to the same point: AI/data centers may be one of the best things to happen to grid investment in decades. For the first time in a long time, you have: -governments prioritizing infrastructure -corporates willing to sign long-duration power contracts at above market prices -capital markets willing to fund generation/transmission -customers that can actually support the returns needed for massive buildouts Does it solve everything perfectly? Of course not. There will be bottlenecks, local stress, permitting fights, bad projects, longer thermal runoff period,and periods of volatility. But absent another generational supercycle where incentives align across utilities, policymakers, infrastructure developers, and private capital, this may be one of the strongest opportunities we get to materially modernize and expand the grid, ever! Also a little convenient how some of the loudest proponents of gas stove bans, EV mandates, and broad electrification are suddenly treating data centers as the sole culprit behind higher power prices.
Electricity demand for appliances and electric transport is growing faster than data center electricity demand. Kinda convenient how proponents of gas stove bans and EV mandates are blaming data centers for higher energy prices, isn't it?
35
86
390
62,254
Alex Simakov retweeted
Everyone who cares about climate should understand this. Texas, with no pro-climate policies, has blown passed California in clean energy. In large part because Texas has less red tape and makes it easier to build.
Texas just passed California in utility-scale solar. And it's not close in wind or energy storage.
313
2,664
17,735
1,329,320
Alex Simakov retweeted
Latest data corroborates our finding last year that a data centre impact on electricity prices is rather hard to spot economist.com/united-states/…
"Data center expansion is not currently the predominant driver of increased electricity prices in U.S. states" spglobal.com/ratings/en/regu…
6
31
137
21,355
Alex Simakov retweeted
Yep.
My contribution to the solar/farm discourse is that solar panels capture about 100x as much usable energy from the sun as corn grown for ethanol, if you include the energy cost of growing corn. Ethanol corn is 40% of all US corn and is literally just there to capture energy from the sun. We have a way of doing that much more efficiently now!
18
42
233
13,534
Alex Simakov retweeted
"The umbrella North America’s Building Trades Unions said it hit a record number of members and apprentices in 2025. "The organization’s president, Sean McGarvey, compared it to the build trades’ expansion in the 1950s. He attributes today’s growth to data centers, power plants and legislation under former President Joe Biden that subsidized the construction of semiconductor and electric vehicle battery factories, energy efficiency projects and grid transmission improvements. "Data centers’ voracious energy needs are setting off a power plant construction boom and delivering a one-two punch of new life to unions whose members also build and maintain boilers, ductwork, pipelines and other power infrastructure."
Building trades unions have long been considered a voice of the American worker. Now, they're intertwined with the richest companies in the world as they create America’s artificial intelligence economy. apnews.com/article/artificia…
1
22
101
61,154
Alex Simakov retweeted
Last week, we lowered the close to 2,100,000-pound Basemat into place — the foundation for the G7's first Small Modular Reactor and Canada's first new nuclear build in more than 30 years. One of the largest crawler cranes in the world lowered the Basemat module into the reactor shaft at the Darlington New Nuclear Project site — 35 metres below ground. It’s the first time in Canada a foundation for a reactor building was assembled modularly – putting the “M” in SMR – as the giant component was fabricated, welded, and put together in one piece before being lifted into place. This was a milestone months in the making, requiring significant attention to detail and safety, as well as the hard work of dedicated trades and project partners. Piece by piece, we're continuing to build one of the largest and most complex clean energy projects in Canada today. Learn more: bit.ly/4mSWI0w
3
23
78
16,217
Alex Simakov retweeted
Potentially hyper-cheap sodium batteries are becoming commercially available and are getting LFP battery specs. This is nuts! This could lead to *incredibly* cheap batteries!
Huge news from CATL, which has signed a 60 GWh sodium-ion battery deal with HyperStrong. This is the largest sodium-ion order ever placed and equal to half of all energy storage batteries CATL delivered in 2025. CATL claims sodium-ion mass production is solved. (More details electrek.co/catl-sodium-ion-…)
30
242
1,212
146,948
Alex Simakov retweeted
Monopolies will tell you we can’t have competition because we’d duplicate transmission and waste money… …and then they’ll spend 25x what it should cost.
The problem is NOT that utilities are “gold plating.” The problem is that we are paying WAY too much money AND getting way too little for it. We need to build a lot more capacity a lot more efficiently. (and make better use of it)
3
18
144
129,588
Alex Simakov retweeted
This is a well researched and comprehensive article on the merits of supporting copper smelting and processing capability Canada, in which I have a small quote. TLDR; the economic case is weak but the security case is pretty strong. Job #1: keep QC Horne smelter operating. magazine.cim.org/en/manageme…
10
34
125
5,362
Alex Simakov retweeted
Income and pricing power is different in every continent but its still a shocking price difference for rooftop solar.
67
153
552
46,773
Alex Simakov retweeted
Woah! Electric heavy trucks are now the majority of the Chinese market!
China just quietly killed the diesel heavy truck with brutal economics. 2025 data now in: >231,100 electric heavy trucks sold ( 182% YoY) >Dec 2025 Market Share: 53.9% (EVs outsold diesel) >Fleet owners saving $170k per truck over a 10-year cycle electrive.com/2026/01/23/yea…
16
77
391
21,245