Energy
Bigger Pie Forum highlights how abundant and affordable power help fuel growth and prosperity. BPF is engaged in the regulatory oversight of electric utilities and aims to promote common sense solutions rooted in free-market economic principles.
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What Happens When Experts Are Wrong?
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The Kemper County Clean Lignite Plant
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Mini Mills, DeepSeek, and Amazon’s Data Centers
In 1969, Nucor opened its first mini steel mill in Darlington, SC. Its small electric furnaces produced steel from scrap cheaper and faster than the big integrated mills’ blast furnaces could from iron ore. Nucor disrupted the steel industry. Today, it’s the largest and most diversified steel company in North America, with a $45 billion market cap. Mini mills now account for 70% of all steel produced in the U.S. Former industry giant U.S. Steel has only two integrated mills left, a market cap of $8 billion, and is seeking to be acquired. Sic transit gloria.
SMRs and Other Unicorns
So what does any of this have to do with small modular nuclear reactors? Well there are lots of data centers pending. Microsoft recently announced three new ones. There’s not enough spare electricity capacity to power them. But at this time, SMR’s are just theories. Imaginary unicorns. Apparently there are none in the U.S. None, ready for prime time. None, ready to license their technologies.
Under the Bus
You might think the Governor and the Legislature threw Entergy Mississippi’s 461,000 customers under the bus as a sacrifice to the Economic Development Gods when they exempted the Amazon project from PSC oversight.
Two Data Centers for Mississippi
There are over 10,000 data centers in the United States. But no big ones in Mississippi. That’s about to change – thanks to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and a package of goodies from the Governor and the MS Legislature. AWS will build two hyperscale data centers here. The first one will be in Madison County. AWS will invest $10 billion.
A Tale of Two Years and Two Worlds
Charles Dickens put it well 165 years ago, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…” This is an apt metaphor for the stock market and the world in 2023 and perhaps for 2024 as well. Last year saw seven magnificent technology stocks promising glorious productivity gains from Artificial Intelligence (AI) lead the S&P 500 to dramatic double-digit returns
And Another One Bites the Dust
Enviva has been in the news lately. Mongabay News reported a company whistleblower (they’re everywhere) says the company’s green claims are fraudulent. The claims also defy common sense. But so do solar plants that supply electricity 25% of the time when it’s needed 24-7-365. Hey, you’re not supposed to ask if green energy makes common sense or economic sense. Just pretend it does.