Disclaimer, NVDA, Eggs, My Favorite Chart -- March 6, 2025

Locator: 48466ARCHIVES.

Investing: I have never been more aggressive buying US equity than I am now. I have a 30-year-rolling horizon and my entire portfolio will go to the grandchildren. They will not care what the market was doing on the day I bought the shares. They will also not care at what price I bought the shares. Don't misread that or take that out of context.

Today, link here:

Summit Carbon, hope springs eternal. Link here. See also.

See disclaimer at bottom of blog. I haven't posted the "disclaimer, briefly" for quite some time. The disclaimer is always available on every page, and at the top among the pages.

NVDA: link here. Down 16% today? I wonder how Nancy is doing? Stargate was first (?) mentioned on the blog February 8, 2025. Since then, we've had announcements for two large AI/LDC build-outs in/near Salt Lake City (#2) and Abilene, TX (#1).

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My Favorite Chart

MMF, re-posting:

Locator: 48435MMF.

Link here.

Elsewhere, holy mackerel, link here:

Washington, DC; February 27, 2025—Total money market fund assets increased by $60.54 billion to $6.97 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, February 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds2 increased by $52.97 billion and prime funds increased by $5.84 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $1.72 billion.

Also, link here.

Eggs: the Louisville Courier Journal. Link here. Kroger and Walmart are "holding the line." Kroger at $5.50 / dozen; Publix at $650. Advertised by Uber Eats for $2.80 / dozen at an Albertsons location in Portland. Link here.

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Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

Briefly:

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
  
• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
  
• If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
• I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
• Longer version here.    

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Locator: 48465B.

Updates

Later, 1:47 p.m.: it is being reported that President Trump has suspended Canadian tariffs until April, 2025.

Later, 1:47 p.m.: it appears President Trump is "diverting" all military aid that was going to Ukraine, and now sending that aid to Israel.

Original Post

Mexico:

I've not read the article, and no plans to do so. Right, wrong, or indifferent, what this tells me is that the Mexican government has spoken with the Trump administration and progress is being made with regard to the border. The fact that Trump has declared victory at the southern border may have made it possible to suspend "most" new tariffs for the time being. Now he wants to see the Mexican government "press" and not "rest."

The question soon becomes, to what extent are tariffs being used to make policy decisions among US trading partners, and to what extent are tariffs being used to raise money. I think it's 70-30: 70% for diplomatic / policy decisions and 30% to raise money ... or perhaps raising money is only a sideshow.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $65.77. Promises made, promises kept. Trump's promise to lower oil prices.

New wells:

• Friday, March 7, 2025: 21 for the month, 137 for the quarter, 137 for the year, 
• 40496, conf, Hess, GO-Olson-157-98-2536H-4,
• 40370, conf, Enerplus, LK-Quilliam 147-97-14-23-8H,
• 40366, conf, Enerplus, LK-Erickson 147-97-11-2-5H-LL,
• 40363, conf, Enerplus, LK-Quilliam 147-97-14-23-5H-LL,
• Thursday, March 6, 2025: 17 for the month, 133 for the quarter, 133 for the year,
• 40204, conf, Hess, EN-Weyrauch A-LW-154-93-1719H-2,
• 39945, conf, Hunt Oil, Halliday 146-93-10-2H-1,
• 39834, conf, Hess, EN-Meiers-154-93-1324H-9,

RBN Energy: as power needs soar, "virtual" power plants proliferate, but what are they?

The U.S. power sector is undergoing a major expansion to keep pace with the rising demand for electricity from data centers and other consumers, and trying to do a lot at once. Keep a lid on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by adding wind, solar and other renewables. Maintain grid reliability by supplementing variable renewable energy with more around-the-clock sources like natural gas-fired power plants. Oh, and keep power costs down, too. That’s a big collective ask, and to help make it possible, power grids are turning to so-called “virtual power plants” (aka VPPs) that, with an assist from computers and software, aggregate smaller power sources, batteries and flexible demand to provide power to the grid much like a traditional combined-cycle plant would. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll introduce VPPs and explain why they’re worth learning about. 

Everyone knows the generation sources contributing to the U.S. power grid come in a wide variety of forms — everything from nuclear, coal-fired and gas-fired plants to wind and solar farms. VPPs are a different animal altogether, consisting not of a single, relatively large stand-alone power source but a decentralized network of smaller, distributed energy resources (DERs) — “behind-the-meter” generators (including rooftop solar) and storage batteries, plus flexible load like electric vehicle (EV) charging devices, electric water heaters and smart thermostats that can ramp down when needed. These disparate sources operate in concert, managed by computers and advanced software.

VPPs aren’t just different, they’ve been flying largely under the radar but are more common than you may think. The Department of Energy (DOE) estimates the U.S. has 30 to 60 GW of VPP capacity today, equal to about 4% to 8% of peak electricity demand nationwide. The DOE predicts that VPP capacity in the U.S. could grow to 80 to 160 GW in just six years as grid operators around the country seek to quickly expand the availability of a reliable power source while holding down costs and minimizing GHG emissions.

We’ll begin by discussing in more detail how VPPs work. VPPs are “virtual” because the sources of supply and flexible demand are sprinkled throughout different areas (see Figure 1 below), and there is no central physical facility such as a traditional coal or gas plant. Instead, the operation of these small energy sources is connected via computers and software and, with an essential assist from batteries, work together to optimize their joint operation and help balance electricity supply and demand in the larger grid. VPPs enroll DER owners, including residential, commercial and industrial electricity consumers, in participation programs that offer rewards for contributing to grid operations.

What a Virtual Power Plant Consists of and How It Works

Figure 1. What a Virtual Power Plant Consists of and How It Works. Source: Department of Energy