Benjamin Leibowicz
@BDLeibowicz
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Associate Professor @UTAustin @ut_orie | operations research, economics, energy, environment, policy | Views my own, RT ≠ E
Austin, TX
Joined October 2017
Closing out 2025 with a statement. Unbeaten in our last five matches against Top 40 FIFA Ranked Opponents, all who are qualified for the 2026 World Cup.
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Amazing how many people are arguing with this. Tbc, it's not opinion or a forecast. Globally, solar is a large majority of new installed capacity over the last three years & ICE vehicles have declined significantly since 2017. You don't have to like it, but it is the reality.
"Solar PV capacity additions increased by ten-times from 2015 to 2024, with nearly 540 gigawatts (GW) added in 2024...Sales of EVs continued to expand in 2024, accounting for over 20% of sales... ICE cars decreased by 1.5% in 2024 and are now almost 25% lower than in 2017..."
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More Americans think nuclear energy is a bigger source of “unhealthy air pollution and climate change” than natural gas. Absolutely unhinged stuff.
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@steve__pants @FortyAcreVibes @UTBarstool @NashTalksTexas @kyleumlang Agree 100%. Texas RBs (Wisner + Baxter) carried the ball 6 times for 33 yards on the opening drive. And then RBs had only 4 total carries the entire rest of the game! Prematurely and totally abandoning the run like that is a foolish approach that undermines offense & defense.
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ABSOLUTE CINEMA KIERAN CORR DRILLS A 52-YARD FIELD GOAL TO WIN IT 📺 https://t.co/8oOFxoFh06 📻 https://t.co/hEVv11DZR8 📊 https://t.co/OtJ5xL5LM1
#GoCrimson
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Brexit has cut UK GDP by 6 percent to 8 percent by 2025. These negative impacts come from higher uncertainty, reduced demand, diverted management time and trade costs, from @I_Am_NickBloom, Philip Bunn, @mizenpaul, Pawel Smietanka, and @GregoryThwaites
https://t.co/1kiRe29ETc
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Here's the wild part: IEA's solar projections have usually just matched the actual additions in the year the forecast was made... basically assuming solar stays flat forever. Thankfully, the future keeps showing up early.
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We are excited to welcome three new tenure-track Assistant Professors who are joining the UT Austin ORIE faculty in 2025 and 2026! Jisun Lee, Yashaswini Murthy, and Hairong Wang all bring new methodological and application domain expertise to our program: https://t.co/BHtAgz6Z3c
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China is the majority of electricity growth on Earth. 3/4 of new supply is solar. That's the case globally, in China, in the U.S. — basically everywhere.
Solar was 3/4 of the growth in electricity supply in both China and the U.S. in the last 12 months. The difference is that China is growing 4x faster.
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Texas is getting 45% of their power from solar right now. And power prices are a penny and a half.
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Congratulations to my student Abdullah Albeladi for successfully defending his PhD dissertation in @ut_orie! 🤘🎓 After graduating next month, Abdullah will return to his native Saudi Arabia as an Assistant Professor at King Abdulaziz University. #orms #optimization #energy
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I love #Austin and qualify of life here is high overall. But there is some truth to this view that we're now a major #city that is deficient in major city attractions (museums, zoo, pro sports) and infrastructure (public transit, hub airport). In general, I find Austin a
This is Austin’s major problem in my eyes. I want to build a future here. I love the energy and culture- but for a MAJOR US city (now)- we don’t have major city things NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, major zoo, notable museums, a real aquarium, and other large city amenities. 4 things to
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Updated data on renewables and energy storage deployment. The race between California and Texas is... how shall we say... no longer close.
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Solar and wind OUTPACED global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025, leading to a slight fall in fossil fuels compared to this time last year ☀️🌪️ Record solar and steady wind growth is reshaping global power as renewables OVERTAKE coal. https://t.co/P4hP6W3I8i
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This is how we get energy abundance.
.@SPPorg (the Southwest Power Pool, serving the central Great Plains states) approved a new regional transmission plan with $8.6 billion in projects, including ~950 miles of ultra-high voltage 765 kV lines, and with estimated benefits 18X the costs More of this please!
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California shows how solar-heavy grids resolve the "Net Load Swing" problem In 2025 CAISO's grid saw average net load ramps of ↑6.5 GW at sunset - huge demand swings that risk breaking the grid Batteries, responding to prices, smooth this out Source: https://t.co/kE8rVvB7fW
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We often forget how far we have come: Today almost 3/4 of EU electricity generation is from non-fossil energy sources. It is not long ago that fossil fuels dominated the EU's electricity mix. This year their share is approaching 1/4 of EU electricity generation. Source is
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How's this for energy abundance? Millions of Aussies will start receiving three hours of free power each day in 2026. This is what happens when you make rooftop solar less than a buck a watt!! "Rooftop solar installations cost about $840 (U.S.) per kilowatt of capacity before
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Texas is moving so fast, EIA can't keep up. According to S&P, at the end of Q2, ERCOT had 14,000 megawatts of batteries. According to ERCOT, we're now at 15,712 megawatts. Texas has added more batteries in the last quarter than PJM has added in its entire history.
Battery capacity by power grid in the US: CAISO (California): 14,609 MW ERCOT (Texas): 10,982 MW PJM (Mid-Atlantic): 441 MW Crazy that California has built 33x more battery capacity than the largest grid in the US (PJM).
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