Top all-time · #1134
David Roberts
Personal blog · volts.wtfpoliticsscienceeconomics
David Roberts writes Volts, a personal blog at volts.wtf about politics, science and economics. Since 2020, 60 different Hacker News readers have linked it 157 times, most often “Pakistan's Solar Boom”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 14 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Roberts' Volts newsletter and podcast, which cover energy and climate topics such as solar, storage, nuclear, geothermal and policy, often through expert interviews.
- Recommended for · 14 comments
- Called 'excellent', 'great', 'quite good' and 'interesting'; one commenter says every renewables fan should listen to an interview.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A newsletter, podcast, & community focused on the technology, politics, and policy of decarbonization. In your inbox once or twice a week. Click to read Volts, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
Most-linked posts?
- Pakistan's Solar Boom4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2025-02-27
- Solar-plus-storage technology is improving quickly4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2025-07-21
- /p/catching-up-with-enhanced-geothermal4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-03-02
- /3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2022-11-30
- /p/induction-stoves-with-batteries-built3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2023-01-11
- /p/enhanced-geothermal-power-is-finally3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-11-28
- /p/nuclear-perhaps3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-03-05
- What's the real story with Australian rooftop solar?3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2026-01-17
- Volts.wtf – A newsletter about clean energy and politics3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-01-07
- /p/one-easy-way-to-boost-the-grid-upgrade3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-02-03
What Hacker News says?
This is some sort of weird projection, where you have swallowed lots of propaganda, accuse anybody with actual facts as being "insane," and then accuse others of exactly what you are doing. Meanwhile, back in reality Bloomberg: US South Accounts for Lion’s Share of Factory Construction Boom https://archive.is/URbMw Bloomberg Video from a year ago "factory construction has doubled": https://www.bloomberg.com/news/vid…
Comment linking /p/how-is-new-clean-energy-manufacturing
on “Apple mobile processors are now made in America by TSMC”Submitted Can “second life” EV batteries work as grid-scale energy storage? as a story · 196 points
HN discussionIf you're in the US, now is the time to contact your representative and senators. This is possibly our last chance at real climate action for a decade: https://www.volts.wtf/p/crunch-time-this-is-americas-last
Comment linking /p/crunch-time-this-is-americas-last
on “Climate change: IPCC report is 'code red for humanity'”Submitted Solar-plus-storage technology is improving quickly as a story · 187 points
HN discussion> I guess Im more skeptical, especially when this is coming from a single purpose advocacy group I agree it's unlikely you'll just have solar + batteries used just for LV. However, taking a look at the adoption of storage in California and Texas, I think it's safe to assume an upwards trajectory for solar + batteries [1]. I didn't know much about Nevada's electricity generation, but based on current data [1] there a…
Comment linking /p/catching-up-with-enhanced-geothermal
on “EU court rules nuclear energy is clean energy”Submitted The Ford Mustang Mach-E and the danger of electric cars as a story · 31 points
HN discussionAha, that meaning wasn't clear to me in your original sentence. The best research I have seen on why different technologies get their learning rates is from the interviewees of this podcast: https://www.volts.wtf/p/which-technologies-get-cheaper-over Some people think that SMRs are a way for nuclear to get on a learning curve, but there's just as many skeptical people as enthusiastic people about that, in my experie…
Comment linking /p/which-technologies-get-cheaper-over
on “EU court rules nuclear energy is clean energy”Submitted Rooftop solar and home batteries make a clean grid vastly more affordable as a story · 9 points
HN discussionYeah, advanced geothermal is very interesting. They're taking fracking techniques and using them to get to hot rocks, which opens up geothermal to a much, much wider set of locations. Interested parties say it could provide everything we need beyond wind/solar, and seems much simpler than building out nuclear plants. Check out: https://www.volts.wtf/p/catching-up-with-enhanced-geothermal
Comment linking /p/catching-up-with-enhanced-geothermal
on “EU court rules nuclear energy is clean energy”Submitted Pakistan's Solar Boom as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSuper enjoyed this read today. And a much shorter punchline. https://www.volts.wtf/p/us-transit-costs-and-how-to-tame https://bsky.app/profile/volts.wtf/post/3lvbpy6p2zk2c It's just so sad having a nation where disbelief & being against things is so the spirit.
Comment linking /p/us-transit-costs-and-how-to-tame
on “Slow”Submitted Is 24/7 carbon-free energy the right goal? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIn this podcast (1) Jigar Shah (head of DOE’s Loan Programs Office) said: "...the first one will be more expensive, the second will be cheaper, the third one is cheaper, the fourth one's cheaper. So it is objectively the case that if you went to a 1200 MW coal site, which by definition only has 1200 infrastructure around it, and you built one AP1000, that would be more expensive than building four 300 MW reactors, b…
Comment linking /p/nuclear-perhaps
on “Google commits to buying power generated by nuclear-energy startup Kairos Power”Submitted Rooftop solar and home batteries make a clean grid vastly more affordable as a story · 3 points
HN discussionNuclear is clean, but has other drawbacks. "Solar+Storage is so much farther along than you think": https://www.volts.wtf/p/solarstorage-is-so-much-farther-alon...
Comment linking /p/solarstorage-is-so-much-farther-along
on “US AI Action Plan”Submitted Carbon offsets aren't working, and probably can't as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI am a big fan of residential solar, but objectively I don't think it's a big story outside of Europe. In the US it's dwarfed by utility scale installations, which are then also one way only. The grid cost issue specific to the US, the way I understood it, is that proposed additions to the grid go through an interconnection queue and get slapped with the costs for grid upgrades if their project is approved and they…
Comment linking /p/whats-the-deal-with-interconnection
on “Can solar costs keep shrinking?”Submitted Want less sprawl and more urban infill? Try a land value tax as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe best argument for new nukes I heard was to drop in replace coal furnaces in existing thermal coal power plants in china. https://www.volts.wtf/p/nuclear-perhaps
Comment linking /p/nuclear-perhaps
on “Can solar costs keep shrinking?”Submitted Why social change is so excruciatingly difficult as a story · 1 points
HN discussionNo, LFP is 8k-12k cycles, and sodium are expect to be 15k to perhaps 20k cycles. This is reflected in the manufacturer warranties, and many sources. Here's one: https://www.volts.wtf/p/whats-the-deal-with-sodium-ion-batte...
Comment linking /p/whats-the-deal-with-sodium-ion-batteries
on “How big a solar battery do I need to store all my home's electricity?”Submitted What's the real story with Australian rooftop solar? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI learned about it on this episode of Volts Fascinating consequences https://www.volts.wtf/p/pakistans-solar-boom
Comment linking /p/pakistans-solar-boom
on “Puerto Rico's Solar Microgrids Beat Blackout”Submitted Making the electricity grid work like the internet as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttps://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e... https://www.volts.wtf/p/solarstorage-is-so-much-farther-alon... What's your next objection?
Comment linking /p/solarstorage-is-so-much-farther-along
on “US declines to join more than 70 countries in signing UN cybercrime treaty”Submitted How is clean electricity doing globally? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionScience writer David Roberts had a long conversation with Rebecca Dell from ClimateWorks about decarbonizing heavy industry back in February. Lots more detail here if that’s of interest to you: https://www.volts.wtf/p/volts-podcast-rebecca-dell-on-decarb... (n.b. copy and paste of my comment from 24 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33396422 )
Comment linking /p/volts-podcast-rebecca-dell-on-decarbonizing
on “Westinghouse sees a tech disrupter in its eVinci microreactor”Submitted Pakistan's Solar Boom as a story · 1 points
HN discussionRenewable energy is the most likely solution to this problem. Wind and solar are ready to scale and take over electricity generation. Wind, solar, batteries, and transmission lines. That is a solution we could deploy today and it is being deployed today. There is a further backlog of wind projects in the US that could be unlocked if we approve transmission lines (like SOO Green) to bring power from the Midwest to th…
Comment linking /p/transmission-fortnight-burying-power
on “Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Gulf Stream”Submitted The cybersecurity implications of a clean-energy grid as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
