Simon Mahan

Webinar: A Quantitative Assessment of the Impacts of Large Loads on Electricity Rate October 15, 2026 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm www.esig.energy/event/webina...

Postcard from the future, postmarked: Texas 11am, 7/26: 46% solar 22% wind 8pm: 14% battery Abundance. Affordability. American enegy.

America Rocks

Nudibranchs are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs that shed their shells after their larval stage. They're noted for their often extraordinary colors and striking forms. About 3,000 species of nudibranchs are known.

Luna Moth on the side of co-parents new house today 🦋

"Irrigation systems like this one can cost Arkansas rice farmers $212 per acre in diesel fuel alone in 2026, prompting some Delta operations to shift rice production exclusively to fields with electric wells that can cut costs by up to $100 per acre." www.farmprogress.com/corn/arkansa...

Solar Power and Wind Farms: Drought-Proof Crops southernrenewable.org/news-updates...

"Approximately 60% of row crop farmers in Arkansas failed to turn a profit in 2024 and that percentage jumped to 75% in 2025." www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/arka...

Renewable energy prices don't ~f L u C t U a T e~. Total cost is known at construction and recouped over 15-30 years. For folks worried about power bills spiking and rapid increases...it isn't because of renewables - those prices are set. Natural gas prices are wildly variable.

Georgia Power says the cost to clean up toxic coal ash is going up Georgia’s largest utility says inflation is driving up project costs by more than $500 million. www.ajc.com/business/202...

“They can’t find anybody who’s willing to take that low salary who’s qualified,” he said. “It’s a huge problem and it needs to be fixed.” www.rtoinsider.com/129218-bill-...

Simon Mahan, head of the Southern Renewable Energy Association, said Louisiana and the rest of the nation need “all the tools in the tool kit” www.nola.com/news/jeff-la...

MISO, SPP eye 500-kV cross-border projects to bolster reliability, save money www.utilitydive.com/news/miso-sp...

Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE and Kuwait have lowered their collective oil output by 6.7 million barrels a day, equivalent to 6% of global supply.

strange

“The decision-makers may say a 30-decibel sound limit sounds like a great thing, but that’s quieter than the wind itself, so you’re effectively placing a ban on this form of energy without having to set a ban,” said [me] www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Alabama moves to end Public Service Commission elections after Democrats win in Georgia www.al.com/politics/202...

"In the past month, SEEM traded zero megawatt hours of power in 26 separate hourly occasions across all hours in the month....That pattern is not an anomaly. It is a recurring feature noted by SEEM’s own market auditor year after year." southernrenewable.org/news-updates...

MISO States Dispute ‘High Risk’ Designation from NERC www.rtoinsider.com/125208-miso-...

A family that turned down $15 million to sell their 200 acre farm to a data center. Good for them, it's their land to do with as they please. Assuredly a story for generations. It's generating so much social media buzz, the company now reportedly needs to build two data centers.

peace out energy nerds Immabouto sell ya'll end tables

Trump pollster finds MAGA voters like solar energy www.axios.com/2026/02/04/t...

ERAS lets utilities cut the interconnection line—fast-tracking billions in gas projects after years of poor planning. “Temporary” fixes have a way of becoming permanent (and expensive) precedents. Why regulators should slow down and protect ratepayers: www.rtoinsider.com/124815-eras-...

SPP outages. If I happen to say gas and coal fail the most out of any generation resource, I'm gonna get a lot of angry people that don't like math, so I won't mention it.

SPP: Exported up to 3,500 MW during winter storm Fern. Exported some amount almost entire time. Wind turbine icing didn't happen as extensively as forecasted, so wind power over performed accreditation and forecast amount. 15GW generator outages.

Don’t panic over NERC’s reliability maps — they’re a static snapshot built on outdated assumptions and data that can mislead. Read the fine print: planning, forecasts, storage, and grid solutions matter more than doom-and-gloom colors. southernrenewable.org/news-updates...

"While the Public Service Commission approved the power plant, the regulators also agreed with SREA and ordered that future proposals for power generation include a more competitive, and transparent process." arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...

❄️ WINTER STORM FERN: Heavy snow and ice is expected to impact much of the Southeast this weekend. Our friend Simon Mahan of the Southern Renewable Energy Association breaks down how this storm could impact your power 🔌💡

Based on this ICF map, I suspect Tampa, Tulsa, Albany, Midland, Amarillo, Wichita, Cincinnati to be high on data center target lists. www.icf.com/-/media/file...

Very cool job alert: Executive Director, National Governors Association, $400-$450k in DC nga.hrmdirect.com/employment/j...

The facility will be known as “MACROHARDRR” and will help xAI approach two gigawatts in capacity when combined with the other Colossus sites. www.supertalk.fm/elon-musks-x...

Do you miss the "old" Energy Gang with Jigar Shah, Katherine Hamilton and Stephen Lacey? Open Circuit is another pod featuring them; but Katherine is retiring. You should give this episode a listen, and may we all become a bit more like Katherine. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/k...

Cool job alert: LPSC Policy Director / Senior Advisor Alliance for Affordable Energy $70,000 - $95,000 www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit...

This will be good and folks should attend! "Regional Transmission Planning for State Regulators" maxxwww.naruc.org/forms/meetin...

"It allows some of BYD's newest electric vehicles to go from a low battery to more than 50% in under five minutes, at speeds of up to 1,000 kilowatts, or one megawatt. That's double what even America's fastest DC chargers will do." insideevs.com/features/782...

"A tech giant paid about $275,000 per acre for an industrial site in rural Lamar County that assessors had valued for a fraction of that price just two years earlier." www.ajc.com/business/202...

Big wind coming for the PNW tonight following a strong cold front. These setups tend to bring very strong westerly gusts (60+ mph) to northern Puget Sound. Saturated soils increases odds of tree damage & power outages to places already facing flooding. Blizzard conditions possible in the Cascades.

Influencing the elite public conversation around the issues you care about is a worthy pursuit but if you’re a normal person with <5k followers you can have a much bigger real world political impact by calling your local elected officials and asking them to vote your way on specific legislation.

only real gar nerds will get this you've heard of elf on the shelf, have you heard of...

(cue 'hooo boy' whistle)

Cool job alert: Arkansas Advanced Energy Legal Counsel, $120k www.arkansasadvancedenergy.com/work-with-us...

Georgia hashes out plan to let data centers build their own clean energy www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

SREA Georgia Director Taylor Schindler interviewed on the USEA The Energy Stakeholder podcast; take a listen! open.spotify.com/episode/7aOF...

$5.4 billion* for a 300 MW* SMR by 2032*. If TVA can't get it done on time and budget, no one can. For comparison, you could build about 10x more solar 4 years sooner, for less cost. Opportunity cost is a real thing with finite cash. *subject to changes www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/de...

“the combination of wind and solar provided 15.1% more electricity than coal during the first nine months of this year… Capacity additions by solar, wind, and battery storage continue to dramatically outpace gas, coal and nuclear.” #CleanIsCheaper www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2025/12/sola...

Alabama Power’s two year rate freeze is about politics, not people, nonprofit says www.al.com/news/2025/11...