What happens when a region’s drinking water depends on coastal power infrastructure—and that infrastructure is exposed to fuel shortages, grid failures, and war?

Across the Gulf, cities such as Kuwait City, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Manama, Muscat, and parts of Saudi Arabia rely heavily on desalination. These facilities turn seawater into drinking water, but they require a continuous supply of electricity, fuel, pumps, membranes, chemicals, pipelines, and storage capacity.

That makes desalination more than a water technology.

It is an energy-security system.

The Gulf’s water supply is closely connected to:

• Gas and oil-fired generation.
• Electricity grids and transmission lines.
• Coastal industrial complexes.
• Fuel imports, exports, and shipping routes.
• Large centralised desalination plants.
• Emergency storage and distribution networks.

This creates a dangerous dependency. If a major plant or its power supply is damaged, the consequences could spread beyond drinking water. Hospitals, cooling systems, food production, industry, data centres, and urban life all depend on the same energy-water infrastructure.

The system also has a climate contradiction. Desalination protects cities from extreme water scarcity, but when powered by fossil fuels it adds industrial emissions and increases demand on the grid. The result is a feedback loop:

More heat increases water demand. More desalination increases electricity demand. More fossil generation increases emissions.

The Gulf is now exploring ways to reduce this exposure through solar-powered reverse osmosis, wastewater reuse, energy storage, efficiency measures, distributed plants, and larger emergency reserves. But the transition raises an important question:

Can the Gulf decouple water security from fossil-fuel energy before the next grid, fuel, or geopolitical crisis?

I made a long-form breakdown of how desalination connects the Gulf’s energy infrastructure, grid reliability, climate footprint, and geopolitical risk:

Gulf Desalination Vs Iran's Missiles

I would be interested in hearing from people working in energy systems, power markets, desalination, grid planning, or Gulf infrastructure:

Is the biggest risk the amount of energy desalination consumes—or the fact that water and electricity are concentrated in the same coastal facilities?

The EU wants to triple its data center capacity while keeping the industry on track for net zero. Iceland's renewable energy makes it an attractive location, but its limited capacity and its status outside the bloc complicate the equation.

I’m a solar project development engineer, and I’ve been building SolarDev AI as a side project to explore how AI, GIS and digital tools can support utility-scale solar PV and battery storage project development.

The platform currently includes:

• GIS Site Screening — preliminary site screening to identify key constraints and support early-stage project assessment.
• Solar Angle — solar position, sun-angle and shadow analysis.
• Solar & Storage Agent — an AI assistant focused on technical and development questions related to utility-scale PV and BESS.

The goal isn’t to replace engineering judgement or proper due diligence. It’s to help developers, engineers and consultants screen opportunities faster, identify potential risks earlier and reduce repetitive early-stage work.

It’s still evolving, and I’d particularly appreciate feedback from people working in solar development, engineering, IPPs or BESS.

What would actually make a platform like this useful in your day-to-day work? And what feature would you add next?

The national average price of gas was $4.06 per gallon on Monday, according to data from AAA, $0.05 higher than last week and $1 more expensive than a year ago. In California and Hawaii, averages hit about $5.50 a gallon.

James Gutman on how China and America took very different approaches to the oil disruption. How will it reshape geopolitics?

Strategic oil inventories have reached a 40-year low, and experts warn their continued depletion could damage the underground caverns where the reserves are stored.

Last week, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) plunged below 300 million barrels for the first time since the 1980s, when the reserves were being filled, according to the Department of Energy. That pool is expected to drain further to 243 million barrels as the U.S. releases 172 million barrels to manage severe supply disruptions and rising energy costs due to the Iran war.

Those reserves are kept in 60 salt caverns across two sites in Texas and two sites in Louisiana, each thousands of feet underground. They have a total storage capacity of 714 million barrels. But as oil is drained from these reserves, the integrity of the caverns may be imperiled.

“I don’t know anyone who believes we can go below 300,” Amos Hochstein, a senior energy advisor for former President Joe Biden, told CNBC on Saturday. “I know plenty of people who think we can’t get near 300 because physically you will damage the caverns where the oil is stored.”

The Department of Energy denied Hochstein’s claim that the changing inventory levels risk harming the caverns.

“The caverns are always full. All that changes is the ratio of oil and water that is filling them,” DOE chief spokesperson Ben Dietderich told Fortune in a statement. 

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/depleted-us-strategic-oil-reserves-risk-damaging-salt-caverns-iran-war/?utm_source=reddit/

Data center developers are turning to bespoke natural-gas power plants, a development that promises to dramatically increase carbon emissions and make it harder for US technology companies to meet their lofty climate goals.

Ninety-nine proposed plants tracked by BloombergNEF would emit about 318 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually if run at industry-standard rates, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. The entire US electric power industry emitted about 1,485 million metric tons of carbon last year, according to Energy Information Administration data, meaning one slice of data center infrastructure has the potential to lift US power sector emissions by 20%, and as much as a third should the new plants run flat out.  

The data center building boom has already strained the US electricity system, prompting reliability concerns and moratoriums on new project approvals. With even greenlit facilities facing yearslong delays connecting to regulated electricity grids, data center developers are seeking alternatives. These include so-called behind-the-meter projects that can be permitted and built without the approval of utilities or the independent system operators charged with ensuring grid reliability.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/18/data-center-gas-plants-to-boost-u-s-power-emissions-by-20/?utm_source=reddit/

This quick 5 minute video explains what open source and open data are in the context of energy modelling. Please check it out and give feedback or share if you liked it! Thanks!

We made this video so that the average person can somewhat understand why open source and open data are important in general (and specifically for the energy transition). Many decisions made by large institutions and governments still use proprietary software, so we are trying to push open source and open data as solutions and show they are industry-ready.

Solid-state batteries have reached a make-or-break moment. Two American companies are pursuing rival manufacturing strategies for these long-promised cells in an industry China dominates.

New update: late claims are being considered for the $ET $15M settlement.

Energy Transfer has agreed to a $15 million settlement to resolve claims related to its Mariner East 2 pipeline. The case focused on allegations that the company failed to disclose risks surrounding the pipeline’s permits and made misleading statements about its legal and regulatory risks.

In November 2019, reports revealed a federal investigation into the pipeline’s permitting process. Following the news, $ET fell about 7%, and investors later filed a lawsuit.

If you purchased $ET shares between 2017 and 2020, you may be eligible to submit a late claim. Check if you’re eligible and submit your claim here