Volts
Volts
David Roberts
Sooner than you think, electricity is going to be cheap, abundant, and boring
1 hour 45 minutes Posted May 20, 2026 at 4:02 pm.
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Are 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.