This is an interesting chart from Bloomberg Green comparing some of today's innovations against innovations of the past. At the top of today's innovations are EV batteries, which from 2010-2020, saw annual deployment growth similar to that of US WWII aircrafts. However, when it comes to reducing costs, both EV batteries and solar PV modules come out on top with annual declines approaching almost 20%.

Of course, these probably aren't perfect comparisons. If you look at EV batteries and solar PV modules from 2020 to 2023, their growth rates jump to 72% and 39%, respectively. So who knows if these are the right time slices to be using in order to accurately capture the "key expansion periods." Regardless, it does provide some historical context and it does say something. These are important innovations.

One of the things that you need to do when you're constructing a building is arrange for new utility connections. Sometimes there's enough capacity to support what you're building and sometimes the capacities need to be upgraded (which usually becomes the responsibility of the developer).

But according to this recent Financial Times article, some new applicants in west London are now being told that there won't be "sufficient electrical capacity for a new connection" until, oh I don't know, maybe 2035. And it could affect all new housing projects with 25 or more units.

This is a pretty wild piece of news. And it certainly won't be good for overall housing supply. The three west London boroughs that are being impacted by this capacity issue were responsible for about 5,000 new homes between 2019-2020. That's about 11% of London's total housing supply.

So what and who is to blame for this? The Greater London Authority is saying that data centers are at least partially responsible. Too many new data centers in the area with high electrical loads.

I don't know exactly what is going on here (maybe some of you do), but now feels like a good time to turn our attention to solar power. I recently visited a large 3,000 panel rooftop installation here in the Greater Toronto Area, and so naturally there is a blog post in the works. Stay tuned.

Well here is a clever idea by Berlin designer Tobias Trübenbacher. It is a wind-powered streetlight -- one that also detects when people are nearby and emits an insect-friendly light spectrum. Lots of cities already rely (partially) on solar powered lights and signage. But that doesn't always work if the street doesn't get a lot of direct sunlight or if you happen to be in a darker city. So perhaps wind is the answer. I could imagine this working very well here in Toronto in the middle of the winter at the intersection of Bay and King. And if you remember my post from earlier in the week about a roadmap to net zero energy, it is pretty clear that both solar and wind electricity are going to need to become far more prominent in our cities.

If you can't see the embedded video above, click here.