Charts Of The Day -- US Subsidies For Wind- / Solar-Generating Electricity -- September 7, 2025

Locator: 49033RENEWABLES.

Link here.

Solar -- Texas -- Major Installation Hits Milestone -- April 11, 2025

Locator: 48458SOLAR.

Question not being asked: why this location? Yes, once electricity enters the grid it can go anywhere, but generally, it seems, projects provide electricity for local / regional consumption. LDC? ERCOT debacle some years ago? But solar not much good in the middle of winter. Permian expansion? Bottom line: ERCOT is an island. Electricity produced here, stays here. 

Everything's bigger in Texas: Electrek reports on a "vast 600 MW Texas solar farm." Link here. To put that in perspective, a typical nuclear reactor generates around 1,000 MW (1 gigawatt) of electricity. 

• developer: Vesper Energy
• project: Hornet Solar
• milestone: one million panels installed
  
• location: Swisher County, TX (never heard of it before)
• output: 600 MW, enough to power 160,000 typical homes
  
• Vesper's total investment in state of Texas: $45 billion -- that's with a "B"
• Vesper: for solar, currently ranked #2 in the US with 37 GW installed
• again, Vesper's total installed based: 37 GW; Hornet Solar, huge, will add 1.6% to Vesper's total solar output in US
  
• Vesper: for solar, will install 51 additional GW over the next five years
• will move Vesper into #1 when additional projects come on line
  
• tax revenue: will generate > $100 million in new tax revenue to Swisher County
• Swisher County: at the base of the Texas panhandle where the panhandle connects to the rest of Texas; five counties south of Oklahoma; we're talking remote.
• county population: 7,000
• county seat: Tulia, population 5,000
• I can't even imagine what 7,000 folks will do with $100 million annually, although the July, 1999, drug bust could provide some interesting commentary
• footprint: 1.36 modules covering more than six square miles
• a typical North Dakota township is six-mile square, or 36 square miles
• a typical North Dakota section contains 640 acres, and is one-square mile
• Hornet Solar: six "North Dakota" sections of land

Excited: when one steps back and looks at this objectively -- this is simply amazing! Huge project. All this electricity for this one state! One really gets the feeling that the US is on the cusp for a huge energy breakout. Except perhaps for Spain, western Europe has no land for such huge solar projects. Likewise, wind -- Europe doesn't have the space. But then Europe doesn't need more electricity; demand is falling. 

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Masters

After the first round, the cut looks like it will be +1 or less. Perhaps one under will be the cut. 

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Inflation Watch

Are you paying upwards of $6.99 for a Hallmark greeting card at your local supermarket?

Here, north Texas. $2.99 for two classy cards. Too bad first class stamps are up to 75 cents or thereabouts. I've lost track; using forever stamps bought some time ago.

Texas Renewables -- February 3, 2023

Link here.

WTI Breakout? Up 5% Today; No New Permits But Sinclair Renews Seven Permits -- April 14, 2021

Where did all the rental cars go? The WSJ. Agree. I've seen it at our local Enterprise. Lot is generally empty; can't get car on 12-hour notice; not sure about 24-hour notice, but it's difficult. 

Ketchup: again a "shortage" is being reported. Not sure if it's a ketchup shortage or a plastic, individual-container shortage. Link here at The WSJ. Solution? Carry your own Ketchup and/or your own Tabasco sauce. I had my own Tabasco-camouflaged belt holder while in the USAF.

US Steel: 7% jump today. 

MNRL: on a tear, up another 3.6% today; now trading over $16. 

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.

Great Britain's dependence on imported oil: there's a big story line here -- I've alluded to it over the past several years ... from Financial Times ...

WTI:

• up 5.25%; up over $3/bbl; trading at $63.34.
• oil hits highest since mid-March on strong demand outlook.

Permian Basin: poised for a production boom. 

Road to Texas renewable energy: another round of power shortages grips Texas. 

WMT:

• moving more part-time workers to full-time workers
• Walmart's goal: two-thirds of workforce to be full-time workers;
• WMT down slightly today; trading at $139/share;

Gasoline demand: for the first time since the pandemic began, Americans are driving more than they did in 2019 on interstate highways. Vehicle miles driven on interstate highways were up 1% on the week ending April 11, 2021, vs same 2019 week.

Gasoline demand, link here:

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$63.15	4/14/2021	04/14/2020	04/14/2019	04/14/2018	04/14/2017
Active Rigs	17	34	63	61	51

No new permits.

Seven permits renewed:

• Sinclair: six Lizzie Rae permits in McKenzie County, and one Crosby Creek permit in Dunn County.

Two producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 36251, loc/A, Slawson, Osprey Federal 5-26-29TFH, Big Bend, no production data,
• 36252, loc/A, Slawson, Osprey Federal 2-26-29H, Big Bend, no production data,

The Texas Grid Almost Failed Again -- April 13, 2021

Wow, wow, wow. So many story lines here, but not tonight. Maybe tomorrow. It's gonna be a long summer.

Links:

• 5NBC/DFW;
• The Texas Tribune;
• 8ABC;
• KUT-Austin;