Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring episode artwork

EPISODE · May 20, 2026 · 1H 45M

Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring

from Volts · host David Roberts

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeAre data centers and electrification going to break the US power grid, or are they the secret to making it cheaper for everyone? In this episode, I talk with Pier LaFarge of Sparkfund about Minnesota’s landmark decision to let Xcel Energy deploy batteries directly into local distribution networks. We look past the politics and map out how a battery-saturated system can socialize the benefits of load growth, ushering in an era of boringly reliable, low-cost energy by 2030.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published May 20, 2026

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Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring

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