Research Worth Reading

Global Biofuel Demand Set to Grow by Nearly 70% as Food Prices Rise — A new T&E study projects global biofuel consumption could rise 30% in 2026 and 70% by 2030, driven by high oil prices and aggressive blending mandates. The scaling trajectory risks intensifying competition for agricultural feedstocks, with direct implications for fertilizer demand, land-use modeling, and the viability of advanced biofuel pathways.

Chart: Why China’s solar boom is slowing down — Analyzes structural drivers behind China’s solar installation deceleration, including grid absorption limits, curtailment dynamics, and shifting policy incentives. The data offers a grounded reference for engineers modeling renewable integration constraints and grid planning at terawatt scale.

Chinese NEV Resale Value Surges 30%, Volume Up 29% — Used NEV prices jumped 30% with 29% higher transaction volume in Q1 2026, led by BYD, Nio, and Denza models. The maturing secondary market signals improving battery degradation confidence and provides real-world residual value curves for engineers modeling TCO, battery second-life economics, or fleet optimization.

EVs Take 33.0% Share In France — Tesla Model Y Leads — France’s plug-in EV share hit 33% in Q1 2026 (up from 22.9% YoY), with BEV growth outpacing flat PHEV sales across 339k total units. The adoption curve offers a high-resolution benchmark for charging infrastructure planners and grid load modelers tracking electrification trajectories in dense European markets.

Open Source Projects

NYC’s big, clean power line is officially up and running — The Champlain Hudson Power Express HVDC line is now delivering 1.25 GW of Canadian hydro to NYC, a critical transmission artery for the city’s 2040 zero-emissions grid target. Engineers working on grid modernization, HVDC integration, or urban decarbonization will find the project’s permitting and interconnection approach instructive.

ReikanYsora/Helios — A 3D solar visualization card for Home Assistant rendering live sun position, cloud cover, PV production forecasts, battery SOC, and LiDAR-cast shadows on a textured home model. Built with Three.js and WebGL, it demonstrates how spatial computing can make distributed energy data actionable for prosumers and installers alike.

Policy & Regulation

Gov. Polis Signs Bill Countering Expensive Federal Coal Plant Orders — Colorado’s HB26-1226 mandates cost transparency for coal units operating past retirement dates and directs the PUC to prioritize clean resources aligned with the state’s 2030 targets. The bill creates a regulatory lever for accelerating coal-to-clean transitions by forcing economic accountability into resource planning — relevant for engineers building grid optimization tools or regulatory analytics.

Community Finds

Jacking Up Electricity Prices So You Don’t Have To Think — SpaceX Edition — Surging data center demand from AI workloads is driving multi-region electricity price spikes, exposing the tension between rapid compute infrastructure growth and affordable clean power supply. A concrete case study for engineers working on demand response, behind-the-meter storage, or grid-aware workload scheduling.

Panel Discussion with Hawaii’s Clean Energy Leaders — Hawaii’s isolated grids, high imported-fuel costs, and abundant renewables create a concentrated testbed for 100% renewable integration. The discussion covers path dependency in utility planning, long-duration storage economics, and community-scale deployment — valuable context for engineers tackling islanded microgrid design or high-penetration solar-plus-storage systems.

How Has the Rise of AI Changed the Odds of a Permitting Deal? — Interview with ACORE CEO Ray Long on how AI-driven load growth is reshaping permitting reform politics. The conversation maps how data center urgency may accelerate transmission siting and clean energy deployment — essential reading for engineers building tools that navigate interconnection queues or model policy-dependent deployment scenarios.

Today’s Synthesis

The Champlain Hudson Power Express (NYC’s new 1.25 GW HVDC line ) proves long-distance transmission can unlock remote hydro for urban decarbonization, but the AI-driven electricity price spikes reveal a mismatch: new clean electrons arrive on multi-year timelines while data center loads materialize in quarters. Hawaii’s isolated grids already operate this future — high renewables, no import option, and storage economics that demand precise dispatch. For engineers, the actionable gap is grid-aware workload scheduling: build open-source schedulers that ingest real-time LMP signals, renewable forecasts, and behind-the-meter storage SOC to shift flexible compute (training, batch inference, CI/CD) toward clean, cheap hours. Start with a Kubernetes operator that queries ISO-NE or CAISO APIs and exposes a carbonIntensity metric for pod autoscalers. Pair it with a home-assistant add-on (like Helios but for grid signals) so distributed batteries and EV chargers participate in the same optimization. The primitives exist — ISO APIs, Kubernetes, Home Assistant, battery APIs — but the integration layer is missing. That’s a weekend project with production impact.