Tom Brown

The story of how I was written into Ian McEwan's 2010 novel Solar as an annoying know-it-all (perish the thought), only to be strangled a few pages later.

Some light Sunday reading for anyone with time on their hands.

https://nworbmot.org/blog/mcewan-solar.html

RE: @PyPSA@mastodon.social

Python for Power System Analysis (PyPSA) now has an official social media channel - follow for feature deep-dives, releases and other updates!

@bitchboss@marcella.masto.host @chrisnelder@mastodon.energy @TransitionShow@mastodon.energy thanks, and agreed! The calculation is for utility-scale PV and batteries, home systems would cost 2-3x more.

He also let me sneak in some plugs for open energy modelling #openmod #freethemodels and recent ideas looking at methanol as backstop for high electrification scenarios: https://nworbmot.org/blog/methanol-faq.html Enjoy!

More precisely: solar and batteries can supply 90% of electricity for 80% of the world's population at less than 80 €/MWh (including a fuel backup) with 2030 assumptions. Add some wind, existing hydro, or wait a few more years for costs to decline, and the equation just gets better.

RE: @TransitionShow@mastodon.energy

In this time of turbulence, let's not forget the good news on solar and batteries - now cheap enough that most people can get most of their electricity from them, and save money.

Had a great time with @chrisnelder@mastodon.energy on his @TransitionShow@mastodon.energy podcast discussing what this new world looks like, based on a recent blog post:

https://nworbmot.org/blog/solar-battery-world.html

In 1964 Stanislav Lem anticipated how machine intelligence would be evolved, rather than designed, and that it might be intensely alien to us.

His "Summa Technologiae" deserves to be more widely read in the English-speaking world.

Here are some highlights collected in a blog post:

https://nworbmot.org/blog/lem-machine-intelligence.html

Existing stakeholders may find that scary, but it will help the energy transition in the long-run. Tools like PyPSA-SPICE and others can help lower the barrier to running these tools. #freethemodels

Open modelling is much more about process, about involving existing and new stakeholders in the process of energy system planning. We don't have a perfect roadmap where we're going with the energy transition so a) we need lots of folks enabled to think about innovative ways to drive it forward faster and b) we need high levels of general involvement to enable stakeholder buy-in for all the changes it brings. Open modelling can help get more folks involved, that is the big selling point.

Sometimes in the discussion around open energy modelling it's suggested that if everyone just switched from PLEXOS to an open source framework, or put their model data online, then we're done. That's not how I see it.

The recording of @AgoraEW@mastodon.energy's "empowerment through openness" webinar is online! 📺 Keynote from me and PyPSA-SPICE intro by Samarth Kumar, PhD, with discussion moderation by Rena Kuwahata.

https://www.agora-energiewende.org/news-events/empowerment-through-openness-the-future-of-energy-modelling (includes video and presentation materials)

I want to make a few comments and highlight slide 6 in my deck.