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Soluna Computing: Innovating Renewable Computing for Sustainable Data Centers

Dorothy 1A & 1B (Texas): These twin 25 MW facilities are powered by wind and serve Bitcoin hosting and mining workloads. Together, they consumed over 112,000 MWh of curtailed energy in 2024, demonstrating the impact of Soluna’s model. Dorothy 2 (Texas): Currently under construction and scheduled for energization in Q4 2025, this 48 MW site will increase Soluna’s hosting and mining capacity by 64%. Sophie (Kentucky): A 25 MW grid- and hydro-powered hosting center with a strong cost profile and consistent output. Project Grace (Texas): A 2 MW AI pilot project in development, part of Soluna’s transition into HPC and machine learning. Project Kati (Texas): With 166 MW split between Bitcoin and AI hosting, this project recently exited the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc. planning phase and is expected to energize between 2025 and 2027. Project Rosa (Texas): A 187 MW flagship project co-located with wind assets, aimed at both Bitcoin and AI workloads. Land and power agreements were secured by the company in early 2025. These developments are part of the company’s broader effort to tackle both energy waste and infrastructure bottlenecks. Soluna’s behind-the-meter design enables flexibility to draw from the grid or directly from renewable sources, maximizing energy value while minimizing emissions. Competition is Fierce and a Narrower Focus Better Serves the Business In 2024, Soluna tested the waters of providing AI services via a GPU-as-a-Service through a partnership with HPE, branded as Project Ada. The pilot aimed to rent out cloud GPUs for AI developers and LLM training. However, due to oversupply in the GPU market, delayed product rollouts (like NVIDIA’s H200), and poor demand economics, Soluna terminated the contract in March 2025. The cancellation of the contract with HPE frees up resources for Soluna to focus on what it believes the company does best: designing

Deep Data Center: Neoclouds as the ‘Picks and Shovels’ of the AI Gold Rush

In 1849, the discovery of gold in California ignited a frenzy, drawing prospectors from around the world in pursuit of quick fortune. While few struck it rich digging and sifting dirt, a different class of entrepreneurs quietly prospered: those who supplied the miners with the tools of the trade. From picks and shovels to tents and provisions, these providers became indispensable to the gold rush, profiting handsomely regardless of who found gold. Today, a new gold rush is underway, in pursuit of artificial intelligence. And just like the days of yore, the real fortunes may lie not in the gold itself, but in the infrastructure and equipment that enable its extraction. This is where neocloud players and chipmakers are positioned, representing themselves as the fundamental enablers of the AI revolution. Neoclouds: The Essential Tools and Implements of AI Innovation The AI boom has sparked a frenzy of innovation, investment, and competition. From generative AI applications like ChatGPT to autonomous systems and personalized recommendations, AI is rapidly transforming industries. Yet, behind every groundbreaking AI model lies an unsung hero: the infrastructure powering it. Enter neocloud providers—the specialized cloud platforms delivering the GPU horsepower that fuels AI’s meteoric rise. Let’s examine how neoclouds represent the “picks and shovels” of the AI gold rush, used for extracting the essential backbone of AI innovation. Neoclouds are emerging as indispensable players in the AI ecosystem, offering tailored solutions for compute-intensive workloads such as training large language models (LLMs) and performing high-speed inference. Unlike traditional hyperscalers (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), which cater to a broad range of use cases, neoclouds focus exclusively on optimizing infrastructure for AI and machine learning applications. This specialization allows them to deliver superior performance at a lower cost, making them the go-to choice for startups, enterprises, and research institutions alike.

Matador to drop rig, cut $100 million from 2025 capex budget

Matador Resources Co., Dallas, is trimming 2025 drilling and completion plans in response to lower commodity prices. The operator will drop a rig midyear, leaving it with eight, and executives are now forecasting full-year production around 200,000 boe/d, down 5,000 boe/d from guidance 2 months ago. “When prices get a little lower, you take a few more moments to think about what you’re doing,” Joe Foran, Matador’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, said on an Apr. 24 conference call with analysts after the company released first-quarter results. On the call and in Matador’s earnings statement, Foran said his team is keeping the door open to further production cuts should the economy deteriorate—but also to adding back that ninth rig late this year should the macro dust settle in coming months. The downward adjustment announced this week will cut Matador’s full-year capital spending by $100 million to a midpoint of $1.275 billion. In this year’s first quarter, Matador’s total oil and natural gas production was a little more than 198,600 boe/d, a year-over-year increase of more than 32%. The company last year acquired Delaware basin assets from Ameredev for $1.9 billion (OGJ Online, June 12, 2024). That was a tick above executives’ guidance of 195,000-197,000 boe/d and helped by teams turning to sales 40 gross (33.5 net) operated wells, including Matador’s first three-mile lateral wells. That better-than-expected performance also led to drilling and completion capex coming in at $394 million, near the top of executives’ guidance of $340-400 million. For second-quarter 2025, guidance is expected to fall to $360 million, give or take $30 million. That should translate to 21-26 net wells being turned to sales during the quarter, about two-thirds of them in New Mexico’s Eddy County.

WoodMac: Oil sector investment at risk amid tariff uncertainty, price volatility

Wood Mackenzie’s report paints a picture of an industry caught between increasing surety about longer-term demand for its products, but excess supply and uncertainty in the near term. At current prices near $65/bbl, margins are dented but not enough to force dramatic budget or development plan changes, Wood Mackenzie said. Companies are likely to delay growth capex and discretionary spending to preserve financial leverage and shareholder distributions, an approach possible due to increased portfolio and balance sheet flexibility built in since 2021. Meantime, the supply chain is bracing for impact. The service sector is preparing for potentially reduced activity and downward pressure on costs. But tariffs could drive up the sector’s input costs, forcing service companies to choose between market share and margin erosion in well-supplied markets. Depending on how the situation evolves, tariffs could increase costs in the US by up to 6% onshore and 15% offshore, according to the report. Moreover, near-term oil demand and OPEC+ market strategy concerns have caused oil and gas company share prices to fall. Capital allocation decisions are more difficult when prices, costs, and cash flow look volatile. Consequently, Wood Mackenzie anticipates a year-on-year decline in global upstream development spend for the first time since 2020. “US tight oil operators would be among the first to curb investment if prices slide further, given their inherent activity flexibility,” said Ryan Duman, director of Americas upstream at Wood Mackenzie. “But international projects are also feeling the pinch, with some already facing delays and budget revisions. More significant budgetary action would occur if oil settled below $60/bbl for a month or longer. A drop towards or below $50/bbl would prompt decisive action from most operators,” he said.

TotalEnergies to shutter ethylene unit at Antwerp platform

TotalEnergies SE plans to permanently shut down the older of two ethylene-producing flexible steam crackers at the operator’s 338,000-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical platform in Antwerp, Belgium. The decision to shutter the steam cracker—which is not integrated into the site’s downstream polymer production—follows nonrenewal of an offtake agreement for the unit’s ethylene production by a long-term, third-party customer by yearend 2027, leaving no outlets for the cracker’s ethylene output, TotalEnergies said on Apr. 22. Given the cancelled offtake contract amid ongoing projections for a sustained oversupply of ethylene to the European market, TotalEnergies said it will cease operating Antwerp’s elder steam cracker by yearend 2027 to focus on operation of the site’s newest cracker, which currently produces ethylene feedstock for the company’s existing Belgian petrochemical plants both at Antwerp and Feluy. The Feluy site consumes ethylene to produce high-performance polymers and includes production units for polypropylene, polyethylene, and expanded polystyrenes. Contingent upon a legally required employee consultation and notification process TotalEnergies will begin in late April with representatives of the Antwerp platform’s employees, the proposed cracker shutdown and reconfiguration project would occur without any layoffs of the 253 potentially impacted employees, according to the operator. Each of the affected employees will be “offered a solution aligned with their personal situation: retirement or an internal transfer to another position based at the Antwerp site,” TotalEnergies said. The Antwerp platform’s two steam crackers—the older of which was upgraded in 2017 to flexibly process ethane, butane, or naphtha as feedstock—have combined capacity to produce 1.1 million tonnes/year (tpy) of ethylene (OGJ Online, July 7, 2017). The planned unit closure also aligns with TotalEnergies’ long-term transformational strategy of gradually pivoting operations away from its traditional oil and gas history in alignment with its aim to achieve carbon neutrality across the entirety of its businesses

Rystad Energy: Extended trade war could wipe out half of China’s anticipated oil demand growth

Uncertainties surrounding US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies disrupted the markets’ initial trajectory and raised concerns about the broader economy and demand prospects. According to Rystad Energy analysis, a prolonged trade war could eliminate up to half of China’s anticipated 2025 oil demand growth of 180,000 b/d if downside risks to the country’s outlook materialize. With tensions between the US and China continuing to simmer, a potential tit-for-tat tariff war is expected to further pressure oil prices, which have already shown signs of weakening—dragging down product prices as well, according to Rystad Energy. China’s first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth beat expectations at 5.4%, together with other macroeconomic indicators showing growing signals such as exports, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), and retail sales. Strong economic growth in the first quarter was based on last September’s stimulus taking effect gradually. Assuming trade relations between China and the US remain disrupted, a mild scenario is likely for this year, with China’s GDP growth slowing down by 1 percentage point, Rystad Energy said. Slower GDP growth is expected to reduce Chinese oil demand growth by 0.47 percentage points, given the economy’s continued reliance on industry and exports. However, with the government poised to introduce additional stimulus measures in response to the trade war, there is potential for upside that could help counterbalance the negative effects and lessen the decline in oil demand growth. Overall, the current forecast suggests a reduction of 90,000 b/d in oil demand growth, down from an initial estimate of 180,000 b/d. “The biggest loss is in diesel and biggest gain in naphtha – offsetting some demand loss. Petrochemical and diesel demand will bear the most downside pressure because of the trade war, as consumer spending and industry prosperity and industry-related transportation will be damaged by potential trade decline,” said

Soluna Computing: Innovating Renewable Computing for Sustainable Data Centers

Deep Data Center: Neoclouds as the ‘Picks and Shovels’ of the AI Gold Rush

Matador to drop rig, cut $100 million from 2025 capex budget

WoodMac: Oil sector investment at risk amid tariff uncertainty, price volatility

TotalEnergies to shutter ethylene unit at Antwerp platform

Rystad Energy: Extended trade war could wipe out half of China’s anticipated oil demand growth

Energy Secretary Aims to Reassure Oil Bosses Amid Trade War

Energy Secretary Chris Wright sought to reassure US oil companies during a visit to Oklahoma, saying turmoil from President Donald Trump’s trade war is apt to be fleeting and the administration fully supports more crude output. “The uncertainty you are seeing around tariffs — that’s a short term issue,” Wright said during an interview with Bloomberg Television at an energy conference in Oklahoma City. He later added: “We’re doing everything we can to encourage production.” Wright, who previously ran one of the world’s biggest fracking-service providers, said the uncertainty roiling the broader market is because the US in the midst of negotiating more favorable trade deals. He predicted it would only last “a few more weeks.” When it comes to oil production, Wright said the Trump administration is focused on tearing down barriers to make it cheaper and easier to pump crude and natural gas. Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared at the event hosted by shale billionaire Harold Hamm as oil prices have plunged more than 10% this month in the wake of Trump’s trade war and a decision by OPEC to beef up a production increase scheduled for later this year. For 14 consecutive days, West Texas Intermediate futures have settled below $65 a barrel — the price many companies need to break even on new wells. Those lower prices coupled with the trade war have caused significant unease across the industry, threatening to undercut the president’s own goal to ramp up fossil-fuel production. Two of the largest oilfield service providers, Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Co., warned this week that tariffs were impacting their bottom line. Matador Resources Co., a Texas shale company, announced Wednesday it was dropping one of its nine drilling rigs. And last month, a host of oil bosses delivered scathing critiques of Trump’s policies

Power Moves: Amplus Energy’s new facilities manager

Steve Thomson has joined Amplus Energy as its facilities and modifications manager within Aberdeen. In his new role, Thomson will lead the yard campaign for the recently acquired floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Petrojarl I, and will support its future deployments and long-term operations. His appointment reflects Amplus Energy’s focus on operational excellence and safe, efficient project delivery. Thomson said: “Joining Amplus Energy in this role is a great opportunity to be part of a team with such a clear operational focus. “The Petrojarl I has real potential, and I’m looking forward to getting involved with the yard phase and ensuring we are in the best position for a successful deployment.” In March this year, Amplus Energy announced a strategic partnership with V.Ships Offshore to oversee the transition of the Petrojarl l. The company acquired the vessel, built in 1986, from Altera Infrastructure. The company is scheduled to take control of the FPSO by June. Amplus Energy managing director Steve Gardyne added: “Steve brings exactly the right blend of technical depth, leadership, and operational focus that is required for leading the yard campaign for FPSO Petrojarl I. His experience will be invaluable as we prepare Petrojarl I for its next mission and continue to build out our capability as a high-performance FPSO operator.” © Supplied by EnerMechEnerMech senior vice-president for project performance Mehul Tamboli. Mehul Tamboli has been appointed as senior vice-president for project performance at Aberdeen-based EnerMech. Based in Houston, Tamboli joins EnerMech with over 20 years of global experience leading project management, finance and commercial operations within the oil and gas industry, both in the upstream and midstream sectors. In his new role at EnerMech, he will serve as the project management subject matter expert (SME) for the business and will assist with the development and

US Eases Downhole Commingling Policy to Boost Oil Production

The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) said Thursday it has expanded the allowable pressure differential for single-wellbore oil production from multiple reservoirs in the Gulf of America’s deep waters, saying the policy change will boost output. The pressure differential limit for downhole commingling in the Paleogene Wilcox deepwater play has been raised from 200 pounds per square inch (psi) to 1,500 psi. “This change, the result of extensive technical consultation with offshore industry leaders, could increase production output by roughly 10 percent, which would translate into over 100,000 barrels per day production increase over the next 10 years”, the DOI’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said in an online statement. “Additional gains are possible as operators provide further data”. The BSEE cited a study by researchers at the University of Texas’ Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department. The study, published September 2023, claimed commingled production maximizes per-well production compared to sequential schemes. Over 30 years commingling improves oil recovery by 61 percent, and by more than 21 percent over 50 years, according to the study. “The policy shift is grounded in modern reservoir performance analysis and updates outdated guidance based on a 2010 government study”, the BSEE said. “Under the updated rules, operators can now safely produce from multiple reservoirs with greater pressure differences, provided they meet new conditions including fluid compatibility certification, pressure monitoring and regular performance reporting to BSEE”. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said, “This is a monumental milestone in achieving American Energy Dominance. We’re delivering more American energy, more efficiently, and with fewer regulatory roadblocks”. The BSEE added, “This policy will not only increase production but also enhance resource conservation by expediting development from each reservoir – helping prevent waste and get more value from every well”. “By delivering more oil from current operations without

Texas House bill would create state nuclear office, funding program

Dive Brief: Legislation the Texas House of Representatives passed on a bipartisan basis on Tuesday could position the Lone Star State as a national leader on advanced nuclear energy, industry advocates said Wednesday. House Bill 14 would establish a state office to promote advanced nuclear supply chain and power generation projects in Texas and create a fund to provide grants of up to $200 million for eligible nuclear construction projects. The bill heads to the Texas Senate with about six weeks to go in the 2025 regular legislative session. Dive Insight: The Electric Reliability Council of Texas added 43 GW to its five-year load growth forecast last year, or more than one-third of an expected 128 GW of U.S. load growth through 2029, Grid Strategies said in December. New data centers (18 GW), cryptocurrency mines (6 GW), hydrogen production (5.8 GW), other industrial facilities (5.7 GW) and oil and gas facilities (2.8 GW) will drive the bulk of the expected load growth through 2029, ERCOT said earlier this month in an updated forecast. On Thursday, the Public Utilities Commission of Texas approved three 765-kV transmission lines — the state’s first — to reduce congestion in the rapidly-electrifying Permian Basin oil patch. “As Texas considers its energy future, the time has come to invest in nuclear power — an energy source capable of ensuring grid reliability, economic opportunity, and energy and national security,” Texas Nuclear Association President Reed Clay said in a statement Wednesday. Advanced nuclear firms have already proposed or begun developing projects in Texas. The farthest along is Natura Resources’ 1-MW, molten salt-cooled thermal research reactor under construction since late last year at Abilene Christian University. In February, Texas A&M University invited Aalo Atomics, Kairos Power, Natura and Terrestrial Energy to build reactors on its RELLIS campus near College Station,

Meet the All-Energy 2025 Ambassadors: Iain Sinclair, Global Energy Group

The UK’s leading clean energy event returns to the SEC this May for two days of networking, connections, and uninterrupted business with the renewable energy community. This year’s event is set to be bigger, with over 12,000 visitors expected, 600+ expert speakers and 270+ innovative exhibitors Developers, investors and buyers are coming to the conference to discover the latest trends and solutions. You’ll be able to meet with representatives and colleagues in the industry management, sales or procurement. The event in Glasgow will also see buyers from sectors such as local government authorities, consultancy services, power suppliers, software developers, OEMs, and education, hoping to check out the next big thing in renewable energy solutions. All-Energy helps to connect your technology and solutions to the UK renewable energy industry to better engineer an integrated Net Zero energy future. Driving progress across the industry Tina Abulashvili, event organiser, said: “At All-Energy, we’re proud to collaborate with a group of expert Ambassadors representing five key sectors driving the energy transition: Offshore Wind, Onshore Wind, Grid & Networks, Hydrogen, and Decarbonisation & Sustainability. “These Ambassadors act as advocates for the events, bringing invaluable insights and ideas from their areas of expertise to help shape the direction of the conference. They’re actively involved in developing content, contributing to conference sessions, and helping us spotlight the issues, innovations, and opportunities that matter most. “From editorial features and articles to on-stage discussions, our Ambassadors are at the heart of our mission—to drive meaningful dialogue and progress across the industry.” Introducing Iain Sinclair, Global Energy Group © Supplied by Global Energy GroupIain’s conference session, Offshore Wind 2: Are We There Yet? The Long Port Infrastructure Journey, will take place on Wednesday 14 May. Iain Sinclair’s professional expertise, sector knowledge – and infectious enthusiasm for clean energy – make him

Valero at a Loss for Q1 after Booking Impairments

Valero Energy Corp. on Thursday reported a loss attributable to shareholders of $595 million, or $1.9 per share, for the first quarter, impacted by $1.13 billion in pre-tax impairments. The write-downs came from the Benicia and Wilmington refineries in California. On April 16 Valero said it had notified the California Energy Commission of its intent to “idle, restructure, or cease refining operations at Valero’s Benicia Refinery by the end of April 2026” and that it was evaluating “strategic alternatives” for the rest of its assets in the state. Before impairments, net profit landed at $282 million, or $0.89 per share assuming dilution. That is down 77.86 percent from Q1 2024 as margins fell. Valero’s stock closed lower at $113.36 on the New York Stock Exchange on results day. In its conventional fuel production segment the San Antonio, Texas-based company logged a refining margin per barrel of throughput of $9.78 in the January-March 2025 period, compared to $14.07 in Q1 2024. Production rose year-on-year to 2.85 million barrels a day. Meanwhile renewable diesel sales averaged 2.44 million gallons per day, down from 3.74 million gallons per day in Q1 2024. For the remaining segment, ethanol, Valero reported an average production volume of 4.47 million gallons per day, stable compared to Q1 2024. The refining segment recorded an operating loss of $530 million. The renewable diesel segment also took an operating loss of $141 million. The ethanol segment generated $20 million in operating income. Operating activities registered $952 million in net cash, down from $1.85 billion for Q1 2024. Revenues totaled $30.26 billion, compared to $31.76 billion for Q1 2024. Ethanol contributed $1.23 billion, while $900 million came from renewable diesel. “We delivered positive results for the first quarter despite heavy maintenance activity across our refining system and a challenging margin environment

National Grid, Con Edison urge FERC to adopt gas pipeline reliability requirements

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should adopt reliability-related requirements for gas pipeline operators to ensure fuel supplies during cold weather, according to National Grid USA and affiliated utilities Consolidated Edison Co. of New York and Orange and Rockland Utilities. In the wake of power outages in the Southeast and the near collapse of New York City’s gas system during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, voluntary efforts to bolster gas pipeline reliability are inadequate, the utilities said in two separate filings on Friday at FERC. The filings were in response to a gas-electric coordination meeting held in November by the Federal-State Current Issues Collaborative between FERC and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. National Grid called for FERC to use its authority under the Natural Gas Act to require pipeline reliability reporting, coupled with enforcement mechanisms, and pipeline tariff reforms. “Such data reporting would enable the commission to gain a clearer picture into pipeline reliability and identify any problematic trends in the quality of pipeline service,” National Grid said. “At that point, the commission could consider using its ratemaking, audit, and civil penalty authority preemptively to address such identified concerns before they result in service curtailments.” On pipeline tariff reforms, FERC should develop tougher provisions for force majeure events — an unforeseen occurence that prevents a contract from being fulfilled — reservation charge crediting, operational flow orders, scheduling and confirmation enhancements, improved real-time coordination, and limits on changes to nomination rankings, National Grid said. FERC should support efforts in New England and New York to create financial incentives for gas-fired generators to enter into winter contracts for imported liquefied natural gas supplies, or other long-term firm contracts with suppliers and pipelines, National Grid said. Con Edison and O&R said they were encouraged by recent efforts such as North American Energy Standard

US BOEM Seeks Feedback on Potential Wind Leasing Offshore Guam

The United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Monday issued a Call for Information and Nominations to help it decide on potential leasing areas for wind energy development offshore Guam. The call concerns a contiguous area around the island that comprises about 2.1 million acres. The area’s water depths range from 350 meters (1,148.29 feet) to 2,200 meters (7,217.85 feet), according to a statement on BOEM’s website. Closing April 7, the comment period seeks “relevant information on site conditions, marine resources, and ocean uses near or within the call area”, the BOEM said. “Concurrently, wind energy companies can nominate specific areas they would like to see offered for leasing. “During the call comment period, BOEM will engage with Indigenous Peoples, stakeholder organizations, ocean users, federal agencies, the government of Guam, and other parties to identify conflicts early in the process as BOEM seeks to identify areas where offshore wind development would have the least impact”. The next step would be the identification of specific WEAs, or wind energy areas, in the larger call area. BOEM would then conduct environmental reviews of the WEAs in consultation with different stakeholders. “After completing its environmental reviews and consultations, BOEM may propose one or more competitive lease sales for areas within the WEAs”, the Department of the Interior (DOI) sub-agency said. BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said, “Responsible offshore wind development off Guam’s coast offers a vital opportunity to expand clean energy, cut carbon emissions, and reduce energy costs for Guam residents”. Late last year the DOI announced the approval of the 2.4-gigawatt (GW) SouthCoast Wind Project, raising the total capacity of federally approved offshore wind power projects to over 19 GW. The project owned by a joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE received a positive Record of Decision, the DOI said in

Biden Bars Offshore Oil Drilling in USA Atlantic and Pacific

President Joe Biden is indefinitely blocking offshore oil and gas development in more than 625 million acres of US coastal waters, warning that drilling there is simply “not worth the risks” and “unnecessary” to meet the nation’s energy needs. Biden’s move is enshrined in a pair of presidential memoranda being issued Monday, burnishing his legacy on conservation and fighting climate change just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Yet unlike other actions Biden has taken to constrain fossil fuel development, this one could be harder for Trump to unwind, since it’s rooted in a 72-year-old provision of federal law that empowers presidents to withdraw US waters from oil and gas leasing without explicitly authorizing revocations. Biden is ruling out future oil and gas leasing along the US East and West Coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and a sliver of the Northern Bering Sea, an area teeming with seabirds, marine mammals, fish and other wildlife that indigenous people have depended on for millennia. The action doesn’t affect energy development under existing offshore leases, and it won’t prevent the sale of more drilling rights in Alaska’s gas-rich Cook Inlet or the central and western Gulf of Mexico, which together provide about 14% of US oil and gas production. The president cast the move as achieving a careful balance between conservation and energy security. “It is clear to me that the relatively minimal fossil fuel potential in the areas I am withdrawing do not justify the environmental, public health and economic risks that would come from new leasing and drilling,” Biden said. “We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient and the food they produce secure — and keeping energy prices low.” Some of the areas Biden is protecting

Biden Admin Finalizes Hydrogen Tax Credit Favoring Cleaner Production

The Biden administration has finalized rules for a tax incentive promoting hydrogen production using renewable power, with lower credits for processes using abated natural gas. The Clean Hydrogen Production Credit is based on carbon intensity, which must not exceed four kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilogram of hydrogen produced. Qualified facilities are those whose start of construction falls before 2033. These facilities can claim credits for 10 years of production starting on the date of service placement, according to the draft text on the Federal Register’s portal. The final text is scheduled for publication Friday. Established by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the four-tier scheme gives producers that meet wage and apprenticeship requirements a credit of up to $3 per kilogram of “qualified clean hydrogen”, to be adjusted for inflation. Hydrogen whose production process makes higher lifecycle emissions gets less. The scheme will use the Energy Department’s Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model in tiering production processes for credit computation. “In the coming weeks, the Department of Energy will release an updated version of the 45VH2-GREET model that producers will use to calculate the section 45V tax credit”, the Treasury Department said in a statement announcing the finalization of rules, a process that it said had considered roughly 30,000 public comments. However, producers may use the GREET model that was the most recent when their facility began construction. “This is in consideration of comments that the prospect of potential changes to the model over time reduces investment certainty”, explained the statement on the Treasury’s website. “Calculation of the lifecycle GHG analysis for the tax credit requires consideration of direct and significant indirect emissions”, the statement said. For electrolytic hydrogen, electrolyzers covered by the scheme include not only those using renewables-derived electricity (green hydrogen) but

Xthings unveils Ulticam home security cameras powered by edge AI

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Xthings announced that its Ulticam security camera brand has a new model out today: the Ulticam IQ Floodlight, an edge AI-powered home security camera. The company also plans to showcase two additional cameras, Ulticam IQ, an outdoor spotlight camera, and Ulticam Dot, a portable, wireless security camera. All three cameras offer free cloud storage (seven days rolling) and subscription-free edge AI-powered person detection and alerts. The AI at the edge means that it doesn’t have to go out to an internet-connected data center to tap AI computing to figure out what is in front of the camera. Rather, the processing for the AI is built into the camera itself, and that sets a new standard for value and performance in home security cameras. It can identify people, faces and vehicles. CES 2025 attendees can experience Ulticam’s entire lineup at Pepcom’s Digital Experience event on January 6, 2025, and at the Venetian Expo, Halls A-D, booth #51732, from January 7 to January 10, 2025. These new security cameras will be available for purchase online in the U.S. in Q1 and Q2 2025 at U-tec.com, Amazon, and Best Buy. The Ulticam IQ Series: smart edge AI-powered home security cameras Ulticam IQ home security camera. The Ulticam IQ Series, which includes IQ and IQ Floodlight, takes home security to the next level with the most advanced AI-powered recognition. Among the very first consumer cameras to use edge AI, the IQ Series can quickly and accurately identify people, faces and vehicles, without uploading video for server-side processing, which improves speed, accuracy, security and privacy. Additionally, the Ulticam IQ Series is designed to improve over time with over-the-air updates that enable new AI features. Both cameras

Intel unveils new Core Ultra processors with 2X to 3X performance on AI apps

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Intel unveiled new Intel Core Ultra 9 processors today at CES 2025 with as much as two or three times the edge performance on AI apps as before. The chips under the Intel Core Ultra 9 and Core i9 labels were previously codenamed Arrow Lake H, Meteor Lake H, Arrow Lake S and Raptor Lake S Refresh. Intel said it is pushing the boundaries of AI performance and power efficiency for businesses and consumers, ushering in the next era of AI computing. In other performance metrics, Intel said the Core Ultra 9 processors are up to 5.8 times faster in media performance, 3.4 times faster in video analytics end-to-end workloads with media and AI, and 8.2 times better in terms of performance per watt than prior chips. Intel hopes to kick off the year better than in 2024. CEO Pat Gelsinger resigned last month without a permanent successor after a variety of struggles, including mass layoffs, manufacturing delays and poor execution on chips including gaming bugs in chips launched during the summer. Intel Core Ultra Series 2 Michael Masci, vice president of product management at the Edge Computing Group at Intel, said in a briefing that AI, once the domain of research labs, is integrating into every aspect of our lives, including AI PCs where the AI processing is done in the computer itself, not the cloud. AI is also being processed in data centers in big enterprises, from retail stores to hospital rooms. “As CES kicks off, it’s clear we are witnessing a transformative moment,” he said. “Artificial intelligence is moving at an unprecedented pace.” The new processors include the Intel Core 9 Ultra 200 H/U/S models, with up to

The vibes are shifting for US climate tech

The past few years have been an almost nonstop parade of good news for climate tech in the US. Headlines about billion-dollar grants from the government, massive private funding rounds, and labs churning out advance after advance have been routine. Now, though, things are starting to shift. About $8 billion worth of US climate tech projects have been canceled or downsized so far in 2025. (You can see a map of those projects in my latest story here.) There are still projects moving forward, but these cancellations definitely aren’t a good sign. And now we have tariffs to think about, adding additional layers of expense and, worse, uncertainty. (Businesses, especially those whose plans require gobs of money, really don’t like uncertainty.) Honestly, I’m still getting used to an environment that isn’t such a positive one for climate technology. How worried should we be? Let’s get into the context. Sometimes, one piece of news can really drive home a much larger trend. For example, I’ve read a bazillion studies about extreme weather and global warming, but every time a hurricane comes close to my mom’s home in Florida, the threat of climate-fueled extreme weather becomes much more real for me. A recent announcement about climate tech hit me in much the same fashion.
In February, Aspen Aerogels announced it was abandoning plans for a Georgia factory that would have made materials that can suppress battery fires. The news struck me, because just a few months before, in October, I had written about the Department of Energy’s $670 million loan commitment for the project. It was a really fun story, both because I found the tech fascinating and because MIT Technology Review got the exclusive access to cover it first. And now, suddenly, that plan is just dead. Aspen said it will shift some of its production to a factory in Rhode Island and send some overseas. (I reached out to the company with questions for my story last week, but they didn’t get back to me.)
One example doesn’t always mean there’s a trend; I got food poisoning at a sushi restaurant once, but I haven’t cut out sashimi permanently. The bad news, though, is that Aspen’s cancellation is just one of many. Over a dozen major projects in climate technology have gotten killed so far this year, as the nonprofit E2 tallied up in a new report last week. That’s far from typical. I got some additional context from Jay Turner, who runs Big Green Machine, a database that also tracks investments in the climate-tech supply chain. That project includes some data that E2 doesn’t account for: news about when projects are delayed or take steps forward. On Monday, the Big Green Machine team released a new update, one that Turner called “concerning.” Since Donald Trump took office on January 20, about $10.5 billion worth of investment in climate tech projects has progressed in some way. That basically means 26 projects were announced, secured new funding, increased in scale, or started construction or production. Meanwhile, $12.2 billion across 14 projects has slowed down in some way. This covers projects that were canceled, were delayed significantly, or lost funding, as well as companies that went bankrupt. So by total investment, there’s been more bad news in climate tech than good news, according to Turner’s tracking. It’s tempting to look for the silver lining here. The projects still moving forward are certainly positive, and we’ll hopefully continue to see some companies making progress even as we head into even more uncertain times. But the signs don’t look good. One question that I have going forward is how a seemingly inevitable US slowdown on climate technology will ripple around the rest of the world. Several experts I’ve spoken with seem to agree that this will be a great thing for China, which has aggressively and consistently worked to establish itself as a global superpower in industries like EVs and batteries. In other words, the energy transition is rolling on. Will the US get left behind? This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

Google adds more AI tools to its Workspace productivity apps

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Google continues to bring its flagship AI models to its productivity apps, expanding its Gemini features. The company today announced several updates to its Workspace products, including the addition of Audio Overviews and new streamlined methods for tracking meetings. Audio Overviews, which was first introduced in Google’s popular NotebookLM, allows people to create podcasts on their chosen research topic. Now, through Gemini, users can create audio files based on uploaded documents and slides. They can also generate audio overviews within deep research reports. These podcast-style audio files are downloadable. Audio Overview generates voices and grounds its discussions solely on the provided documents. Google previously told VentureBeat that its tests showed some people prefer learning through listening, where information is presented in a conversational format. The company also launched a new feature called Canvas in Gemini, which lets people create drafts and refine text or code using the Gemini model. Google said Canvas helps “generate, optimize and preview code.” Canvas documents can be shared with Google Docs. Updated calendars Google also streamlined how users can add events and meetings to their calendars. Gemini will detect if an email contains details of events and can prompt people to add it to their calendar. The model will surface emails with potential appointments if the user misses them. Some plug-ins for Google, such as Boomerang, offer similar features that display appointments above the subject line. The Gemini-powered calendar feature will open a Gemini chat window alerting the user of the event. Pointing AI models to surface data or events from emails has become a cornerstone of enterprise AI assistants and agents. Microsoft’s new agents parse through emails for input. Startup Martin AI has an AI assistant

Former DeepSeeker and collaborators release new method for training reliable AI agents: RAGEN

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More 2025 was, by many expert accounts, supposed to be the year of AI agents — task-specific AI implementations powered by leading large language and multimodal models (LLMs) like the kinds offered by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek. But so far, most AI agents remain stuck as experimental pilots in a kind of corporate purgatory, according to a recent poll conducted by VentureBeat on the social network X. Help may be on the way: a collaborative team from Northwestern University, Microsoft, Stanford, and the University of Washington — including a former DeepSeek researcher named Zihan Wang, currently completing a computer science PhD at Northwestern — has introduced RAGEN, a new system for training and evaluating AI agents that they hope makes them more reliable and less brittle for real-world, enterprise-grade usage. Unlike static tasks like math solving or code generation, RAGEN focuses on multi-turn, interactive settings where agents must adapt, remember, and reason in the face of uncertainty. Built on a custom RL framework called StarPO (State-Thinking-Actions-Reward Policy Optimization), the system explores how LLMs can learn through experience rather than memorization. The focus is on entire decision-making trajectories, not just one-step responses. StarPO operates in two interleaved phases: a rollout stage where the LLM generates complete interaction sequences guided by reasoning, and an update stage where the model is optimized using normalized cumulative rewards. This structure supports a more stable and interpretable learning loop compared to standard policy optimization approaches. The authors implemented and tested the framework using fine-tuned variants of Alibaba’s Qwen models, including Qwen 1.5 and Qwen 2.5. These models served as the base LLMs for all experiments and were chosen for their open weights and robust instruction-following capabilities. This

Former DeepSeeker and collaborators release new method for training reliable AI agents: RAGEN

Amazon’s SWE-PolyBench just exposed the dirty secret about your AI coding assistant

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Amazon Web Services today introduced SWE-PolyBench, a comprehensive multi-language benchmark designed to evaluate AI coding assistants across a diverse range of programming languages and real-world scenarios. The benchmark addresses significant limitations in existing evaluation frameworks and offers researchers and developers new ways to assess how effectively AI agents navigate complex codebases. “Now they have a benchmark that they can evaluate on to assess whether the coding agents are able to solve complex programming tasks,” said Anoop Deoras, Director of Applied Sciences for Generative AI Applications and Developer Experiences at AWS, in an interview with VentureBeat. “The real world offers you more complex tasks. In order to fix a bug or do feature building, you need to touch multiple files, as opposed to a single file.” The release comes as AI-powered coding tools have exploded in popularity, with major technology companies integrating them into development environments and standalone products. While these tools show impressive capabilities, evaluating their performance has remained challenging — particularly across different programming languages and varying task complexities. SWE-PolyBench contains over 2,000 curated coding challenges derived from real GitHub issues spanning four languages: Java (165 tasks), JavaScript (1,017 tasks), TypeScript (729 tasks), and Python (199 tasks). The benchmark also includes a stratified subset of 500 issues (SWE-PolyBench500) designed for quicker experimentation. “The task diversity and the diversity of the programming languages was missing,” Deoras explained about existing benchmarks. “In SWE-Bench today, there is only a single programming language, Python, and there is a single task: bug fixes. In PolyBench, as opposed to SWE-Bench, we have expanded this benchmark to include three additional languages.” The new benchmark directly addresses limitations in SWE-Bench, which has emerged as the de facto standard

Roundtables: Brain-Computer Interfaces: From Promise to Product

Available only for MIT Alumni and subscribers.
Recorded on April 23, 2025

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Brain-Computer Interfaces: From Promise to Product Speakers: David Rotman, editor at large, and Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been crowned the 11th Breakthrough Technology of 2025 by MIT Technology Review’s readers. BCIs are electrodes implanted into the brain to send neural commands to computers, primarily to assist paralyzed people. Hear from MIT Technology Review editor at large David Rotman and senior editor for biomedicine Antonio Regalado as they explore the past, present, and future of BCIs. Related Coverage

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