Plugged In with Barrio Energy https://www.barrioenergy.com en-us © 2026 Barrio Energy Where energy meets bitcoin. Andi and Marco break down the biggest moves in power markets, data center deals, and bitcoin mining — the stories that matter for anyone building at the intersection of energy and compute. New episodes monthly. Barrio Energy Barrio Energy ivan.pinney@gmail.com no episodic Ep. 5: The Biggest Utility Ever, and the County That Got SuedAndi and Marco break down May 2026: NextEra agrees to buy Dominion for ~$67B in the largest utility acquisition in U.S. history, the Bitcoin miners officially stop pretending with Hut 8's $9.8B NVIDIA-spec lease and Nvidia's $5.5B into IREN, a data center developer sues Hill County in federal court over its moratorium, and solar outproduces coal in ERCOT for the first full year ever as ERCOT's Batch Zero queue reset comes up for its June 1 board vote.The month the utility business went all-in on AI load. NextEra's $67 billion bet to become the largest regulated utility on Earth, a $9.8 billion miner-to-landlord lease that resets the comp, and a Texas county that froze the data center land rush and got sued in federal court for it. Plus: solar quietly passes coal, and 238,000 MW of queue meets its reckoning.

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]]>pluggedin-episode-5Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -050098215fullno Ep. 4: The Forecast Nobody BelievesAndi and Marco break down April 2026: ERCOT files a 368 GW load forecast then asks the PUCT not to use it, Texas lawmakers eye repeal of $1.3B in annual data center tax breaks, GE Vernova's gas turbine backlog hits 100 GW with 2030 lead times, and Base Power scales a 50 MW residential battery fleet that bypasses the queue entirely.The month Texas' grid operator filed a four-times-peak demand forecast and disowned it 48 hours later. The legislature put a $3.2 billion price tag on the tax exemption that built the data center boom. Wärtsilä sold 42 reciprocating engines because GE turbines are sold out through 2029.

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]]>pluggedin-episode-4Fri, 01 May 2026 12:00:00 -0500108114fullno Ep. 3: Build Your Own GridAndi and Marco break down March 2026: $23 billion in private power generation announced in one week, Microsoft-Chevron build a $7B gas plant, NextEra scores $16B federal backing, Fermi upsizes to 17 GW, Bitcoin miners liquidate everything to pivot to AI, and Texas communities kill billion-dollar data center projects.<p>The month Texas energy went from "moving fast" to "building parallel infrastructure because the real grid can't keep up." $23B in new generation in a single week. Miners selling 97% of their Bitcoin. Towns of 7,000 fighting gigawatt-scale hyperscalers.</p><p>Subscribe at <a href="https://www.barrioenergy.com">barrioenergy.com</a> | Follow <a href="https://x.com/BarrioEnergy">@BarrioEnergy</a> on X</p>pluggedin-episode-3Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0500102713fullno Ep. 2: Plugged In — 226 Gigawatts, Google Buys the Line, and Batteries Save the Grid Andi and Marco break down February 2026: ERCOT queue hits 226 GW, Google buys Intersect Power for 4.75B, miners pivot to AI, batteries double to 13.9 GW, and SMRs near approval. <p>The biggest Texas energy stories from February. Subscribe at <a href="https://www.barrioenergy.com">barrioenergy.com</a></p> pluggedin-episode-2 Sun, 01 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0600 1046 1 2 full no Ep. 1: Miners Pivot, Google Goes Nuclear, and ERCOT's Identity Crisis Andi and Marco kick off Plugged In by unpacking the biggest energy moves of the month: Starboard's play to turn Riot Platforms into an AI data center company, Google's $4.75B hyperscale bet with Intersect Power, ERCOT reform battles, and why NRG is building 2GW of gas plants in a renewable-heavy Texas grid. <p>Andi and Marco kick off Plugged In by unpacking the biggest energy moves of the month: Starboard's play to turn Riot Platforms into an AI data center company, Google's $4.75B hyperscale bet with Intersect Power, ERCOT reform battles, and why NRG is building 2GW of gas plants in a renewable-heavy Texas grid.</p><p>Subscribe at <a href="https://www.barrioenergy.com">barrioenergy.com</a> | Follow <a href="https://x.com/BarrioEnergy">@BarrioEnergy</a> on X</p> pluggedin-episode-1 Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0600 985 1 1 full no