Michelle Solomon

Manager, Electricity Program, Energy Innovation · 1 appearance on the record.

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Michelle Solomon is Manager of the Electricity Program at Energy Innovation, leading research on clean electricity strategies, grid reliability, and utility planning. She previously served as a Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow handling energy policy for Senator Ed Markey and holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University.

10statements → 8claims → 6claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.7/5average certainty → 2.1/5average debate potential →

6 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 2 opinions · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Michelle argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Solomon: Duke Energy plans nearly 9 GW of new gas plants
“Duke Energy, for instance, they include plans for nearly nine gigawatts of new gas and almost seven of those are, they're proposed as combined cycle power plants that are designed to run a high percentage of the time, not designed to meet new peaks in demand.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 8:21 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Michelle Solomon on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Michelle Solomon said on the Green Blueprint that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Solomon: Utilities cite load growth panic to push back on EPA gas rules
“So I think there is Some reason to believe that the timing of the kind of panic conversation around load growth in addition to the proposed new combined cycle plants could, you know, have something to do with those proposed EPA rules.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 28:04 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Opinion
Solomon: AI does not inherently require new natural gas plants
“AI is not a special unicorn that requires a gas plant to meet its electricity demand.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 28:25 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Supported
Solomon: Duke Energy plans nearly 9 GW of new gas plants
“Duke Energy, for instance, they include plans for nearly nine gigawatts of new gas and almost seven of those are, they're proposed as combined cycle power plants that are designed to run a high percentage of the time, not designed to meet new peaks in demand.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 8:21 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Supported
Solomon: Advanced conductors can quadruple transmission capacity by 2035
“Basically we found that you could add up to four times the amount of transmission capacity that you could in a constrained transmission environment like the one we're in right now by using advanced conductors. So by 2035.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 40:02 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Solomon: AI uses 1-2% of US electricity, may triple by 2030
“AI right now is using about one to two percent of our electricity, and some reports expect it to maybe triple by 2030.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 5:42 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Supported
Solomon: Xcel Energy plans to retire all coal plants by early 2030s
“One really great example is Excel Energy. So they do see a large forecasted increase in electricity demand, but yet they still plan to retire all of their coal plants by the early 20 thirties and install significant amounts of new renewables.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 7:20 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Supported
Solomon: Advanced conductors can be deployed in 18 to 36 months
“You can replace the existing transmission conductor with this new advanced conductor in as little as 18 to 36 months with much fewer permitting requirements and things like that.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 39:48 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Solomon: Existing solar, wind, and batteries can achieve an 80% to 90% clean grid
“We know that we can operate a clean grid up to 80 or 90% with just, you know, solar, winded batteries and kind of like what we have right now for existing kind of firm capacity.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 49:59 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Supported
Grid Strategies: 5-year US power demand growth forecast jumped to 4.7%
“A recent report by Grid Strategies, which is a grid firm, found that demand forecasts were increasing. They found that there is a shift from 2.6% increase in demand over the next five years to 4.7% increase in demand over the next five years.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 4:51 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI
Assertion Supported
Solomon: New EPA rules require CCS on high-utilization gas plants by early 2030s
“The plants that they regulate as far as new gas plants Are combined cycle gas plants that run at over 40% capacity factors that will need to install CCS by the early 20 thirties.”
Michelle Solomon May 21, 2024 ▶ 27:31 Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Energy is now the ‘primary bottleneck’ for AI May 21, 2024 8m
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