The Download: how to store energy underground, and what you may not know about Trump’s AI Action Plan
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Summary
An independent startup based in Texas called Quidnet Energy has announced that it successfully completed a test that demonstrated the long-term viability of using water as a means of storing energy, in this case electricity generated by solar panels.
Pumped hydro storage is a well-established method of energy storage but is limited to locations that include mountains and deep lakes, whereas Quidnet’s method could be used almost anywhere.
Last week President Trump launched an AI action plan with ambitious goals, but with little in the way of detail, targeting the buildout of data centres, withholding funds from state governments that intend to impose “burdensome AI regulations” and only contracting with AI firms that demonstrate their models are “free from top-down ideological bias”.
Democrats are concerned that the Trump administration is using export controls as bargaining chips in trade negotiations with China, concerning technology companies.