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Technology
Data Centers: How We Power $7 Trillion by 2030. [💡 5 Ideas]
```json { "summary": "In this episode, we explore the implications of McKinsey's projection that $7 trillion will be spent on data centers by 2030. We discuss innovative ideas fo...
Data Centers: How We Power $7 Trillion by 2030. [💡 5 Ideas]
Technology •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hi there and welcome to the audio version of our newsletter, also called of course climate
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CEOs.
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Got five ideas before you hear the same format most weeks.
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Starting with our title, which is a lead into our CEO to know 24 steps to build great
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climate and energy ventures based on experience across hundreds of startups.
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Are you intrigued?
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You should be.
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I'm intrigued.
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All right.
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The other topics for today, one climate data, going to talk about what it means when McKinsey
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projects $7 trillion to be spent on data centers by 2030.
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Yes, that's trillion with a T.
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Number two, CEO to know this ties to our titles is Todd Hines at magent spilled M.A.I.G.E.N.T.
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Also M.I.T. as well.
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Number three, investors spotlight cream, debug and Joe Goodman and below earth ventures.
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Number four, AI insight can AI be your cognitive reframing coach.
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That is an earful, but trust me, it's quite quite useful to tackle the voices in our in our head.
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No, not those voices.
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In number five, mindful moment, despair is a failure of imagination.
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Quite quite a challenge there.
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Number one, back to these this $7 trillion on data centers,
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expected by 2030 according to McKinsey, even if that's off by 50%.
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The implications are huge for new energy generation and of course climate impacts.
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How are we going to power all these new data centers?
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I know there's a super original question and not every single podcast or conference topic
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references the same thing.
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So, apologies for being almost right here.
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Look, is it through natural gas?
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No, as you probably know, there's for a four to six year wait for the turbines.
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Is it through new solar and wind?
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Wouldn't that be nice?
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But there's also a four year connection on average.
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There's a course by size and location plus plenty of permitting friction as well.
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Or, during number three, flexible data center demand.
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My colleagues at Duke University wrote a paper that has become the coolest kid at all the best
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parties. I think one week, this paper showed up on two podcasts I was listening to.
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Anyway, it's called rethinking load growth, assessing the potential for integration of large
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flexible loads in U.S. power systems.
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Shout out to Tyler Norris, Tim, Dahlia, and Adam and the team there at Duke.
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So, two main takeaways from a great paper here.
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Number one, the U.S. grid could handle about 76 gigawatts of new demand.
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If data centers eased off their power just 0.25% of the time,
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that's the low level of flexibility we're talking about here.
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Or, at 1% curtailment, the grid could welcome 126 gigawatts of new load.
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And despite what I guess I used to believe, the assumption that the data centers
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did not have any ability, capacity for flexibility, that happy to be wrong here.
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Number two, CEO to know Todd Hines at MAgent and MIT.
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So, he's a co-founder and CEO of MAgent, an MAIG-ENT,
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senior lecturer at MIT and also board chairman at the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
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Fathers raised over $500 million across various organizations
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and helped hundreds of teams of students,
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launch companies through the MIT Climate and Energy Ventures class and the MIT Climate and Energy
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Prize. His new book, along with co-authors Bill Alette, Ben Sultauf, Francis O'Sullivan,
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and Libby Weiman, is called 24 Steps to Build Great Climate and Energy Ventures.
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His newest venture, MAgent, leverages AI to accelerate climate solutions by turning
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all of us into super connectors to the right investors and the right partners needed to scale
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all kinds of solutions, in this case solutions in climate. In the newsletter version,
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I've got a short, whatever, 90 seconds or so, clip of a conversation with Todd as a teaser.
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Of course, listen to the full podcast. Number three, investor spotlight,
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cream and Joe over at Volo Earth Ventures. Volo is an early-stage climate-tech
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BC firm investing in clean energy, mobility, built environment, and industry.
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They're investing out of $220 million across two funds. So far, 36 companies they've invested in.
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And a shout out to EFI Connected, Volo Earth CEOs, Ben at Cambium,
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prior podcast guest Arun at Skyvin, also prior podcast guest Megan at Infcycle,
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an EFI climate CEO Fellow and also because at ReFrame Systems,
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also an EFI climate CEO Fellow, four great builders among 35 or 36 plus
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builders in their portfolio. The co-founders, Karim and Joe bring decades of experience and
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startups project finance and grid modernization across organizations such as Solar City,
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SunRot, RMI, DOE, and Aurora Solar, also a short clip in front of the podcast in the
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newsletter to give you a sense for what else is in the full podcast version.
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Number four, number four of five, this is your AI insight, AI as a cognitive reframing coach.
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Look folks, don't, don't bother them. When we vent constructively about,
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then honestly about problems, we could also ask AI to pretend to be
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look a stoic philosopher or cognitive behavioral therapy CBT based therapist as well.
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Three examples for you here. Number one, maybe you say, look man, those investors hated
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my pitch. By the way, in parentheses, that's going to be true 95 plus percent of the time or
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really getting them, getting investors to the point of investing. But if you've trained AI
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to respond like this, you know, as a stoic or CBT trained therapist, it could say this is just
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feedback data, not identity damage. What part can you test to improve the next pitch? And by the way,
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maybe they're just communicating they're the wrong investor for you. Two ways, three, baby,
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two ways, three. Second example, this is again what you could say, I'm falling behind my peers,
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everyone's going faster than I am. Scrolling LinkedIn makes me feel like a total slacker.
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I think we can all agree with that last part. The AI could say, look man, you're comparing someone
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else's highlight reel to your behind the scenes, super sloppy and honest, single shot type
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footage. Also remember, your KPIs, for example, flexibility and impact, may be different from theirs.
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For example, unicorn status and high high high high high valuations.
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Third example, my team missed another deadline. I just can't trust them to deliver. Your AI could
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respond. You're carrying the weight unnecessarily on your own shoulders all alone. However, what part of
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the process, not the people could your redesign, so success depends less on willpower and more on
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structure. Anyway, you get the idea. We have these voices in our head. They tend towards a
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negativity bias for for sure for kind of survival reasons, but they're not the full story. So
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have someone else, someone, something, what do you call AI these days? Have someone else serve
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as that balance to the inner voices. Number five, mindful moment to spare is a failure of imagination.
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We can't let the weight of the world crush us like little tiny ladybugs.
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One solution is, of course, to get more creative, to build the muscle of imagination,
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to find more solutions. I've got four four ways that I think are helpful to flex this muscle
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of imagination. One, have joking, take more showers and more walks, not because we're stinky or lazy,
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but giving our brain space can't allow for new ideas to emerge. I think we've all experienced this.
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Number two, surround yourself with why not people versus really why? Anyway,
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few are mental constraints can lead to more possibilities being on the table.
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Number three, reverse the problem. Instead of asking, how do I fix this?
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Maybe ask, how do I make this even worse? The absurdity can unlock unexpected solutions and
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maybe turn us around to the right direction. Finally, borrow other lenses. Imagine your challenge,
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as if you were a child, a poet, a plumber, a scientist on Mars, you get the idea,
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pick a very different perspective than one that you own. Constraint plus perspective could be
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creativity on steroids. Shout out to Jack Cornfield, Buddhist teacher and PhD in clinical psychology
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for that quote, despair, being a failure of imagination, one of my podcast regulars.
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Last part here, two minute favor, if this newsletter sparked an idea or a laugh, refer a few friends
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or maybe enemies where you want to clog up their inbox. Who knows? If you do, you can get access to
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a capital raising playbook, a climate funding library or a one-on-one strategy call
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with me. As you know, mill ads or sponsors here, just us building the climate
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climate tech start of ecosystem together. That's all y'all. Make it a great week. It's usually a choice.