Good morning and happy Friday,

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This week, a report sponsored by the California Energy Commission found that in order to retire its natural gas generation assets, the state could need 37 GW of long-duration energy storage by 2045, and infrastructure investing giant Brookfield Asset Management announced a raise of $10 billion for its newest clean energy transition fund.

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Don’t forget to make some nachos and settle in for a major milestone at the Super Bowl this weekend, as the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will be powered entirely by renewable energy — a first in the history of the event!

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Read on for more.

This week’s can’t-miss read is a series of articles from USA Today on several obstacles stymieing the clean energy transition. The stories include numerous graphics that illustrate phenomena that are all-too-familiar to many Dispatch readers. Here are the headlines:

• Perhaps the most substantial piece looks at how U.S. counties are blocking the future of renewable energy. 15% have “effectively halted new utility-scale wind, solar, or both,” and the number of counties blocking solar almost equals the number adding it. 
• Another piece, titled Across America, clean energy plants are being banned faster than they're being built, covers some of the same ground but takes a deeper dive on some of the arguments on both sides, as well as the potential costs of delay.
• A third piece outlines how residents of a community in Kansas ended up on opposite sides of a proposed solar project in Kansas; and a fourth offers a breath of fresh air with clear, commonsense explanations that address common myths and concerns, pointing out that it’s one thing if someone tells you to worry about bears in your campsite, but quite another if they tell you to worry about Bigfoot.

Wait, there’s more. The final article in the series describes the methodology used to measure restrictions on clean energy and provides a useful categorization (with examples) of the various blocks and impediments facing developers. Haven’t had enough? Check out this article on “lithium liabilities,” which explores how lithium mining is depleting water resources. TGIF, we need a drink!

In an opinion piece in Solar Power World, Paul Warley, CEO of Ascent Solar Technologies, makes a compelling argument for thin-film solar PV’s potential to transform agrovoltaics. Here are some of his key points:

• As global temperatures rise, “brutally hot sunshine” may make it increasingly hard for farmers to keep their crops healthy. Agrivoltaics that use thin-film technology “turn the sunshine problem into a solution,” providing much-needed shade while also generating clean energy.
• Ground-mounted solar panels achieve this to an extent, but they have several drawbacks, and may in fact create too much shade. Lightweight thin-film photovoltaics can be installed high above the ground, thereby enabling more land to be farmed, and providing a healthy balance of sun and shade.
• In addition, unlike rigid panels which can be shattered, thin-film cells continue to function “after being damaged, struck or impaled” – a “crucial feature” in a world with ever-more intense weather.

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The beauty of being bendy. Warley notes that thin-film solar PV has been making steady advances in recent years, thanks to the fact that its flexibility means cells “can be applied to surfaces of irregular shapes and various sizes...and have minimal impact to the areas they’re affixed to, due to their light weight.” And if indeed thin-film installations can improve crop health and increase yield, we say – buen provecho!

• DOE Voltage: DOE opens $1.2 billion in funding to build high-voltage transmission lines
• State Power: VA House bill would give state power to approve projects
• No Shelter: Wind power giants see continued sector troubles
• Tar Heels: Clean energy and North Carolina’s GOP
• Shot Down: PUCT nixes battery storage rules

PJM’s Reforms: Clean power advocates are wary 

• Avangrid breaks ground on the company’s first wind farm in OK
• Ballot push to keep wind, solar projects approval local reaches St. Clair County, MI
• State rejects NY solar project but new plans can be submitted
• Shelby County BOS Approves Wind and Solar Moratorium in Iowa
• Largest proposed wind farm in WA slashed in half

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A few weeks ago, we reported on how social media channels are making big bucks promoting climate denialism. When you combine that with the fact that social media itself accounts for an estimated 0.61% of global carbon emissions – about as much as the country of Malaysia – the picture gets even darker.

However, there might be one web-based technology that can help: AI chatbots. A recent study looked at chatbots’ ability to talk about “contentious topics” and found they did a reasonable job of communicating accurate information about climate change.

The study used ChatGPT-3 and involved more than 3,000 people. Roughly 25% of participants self-identified as having doubts about climate science, and most “tended to come away from their chatbot conversations a little more supportive of the scientific consensus.”

Interestingly, the researchers found that the type of information and the way GPT-3 delivered its messages depended on the views held by the individual to whom it was talking. They also noted that chatbots can be better, more neutral messengers than actual humans because many people “don’t perceive the interlocutor, or the AI chatbot, as having identity characteristics that are opposed to their own, and so they don’t have to defend themselves.”

To be clear, ChatGPT itself is a massive energy hog – some researchers suggest it uses as much electricity as 33,000 U.S. households, and that number could continue to grow. Fortunately, “there’s now at least one chatbot aimed specifically at providing quality information about climate change...(and) ClimateGPT uses 12 times less computing energy than a comparable large language model.” Cool!