From Bloomberg, September 18/19:
Five Takeaways From the BNEF Barrel of Tomorrow Summit
A few key forces — President Donald Trump, the rise of artificial intelligence and global electrification — have compelled companies across the energy spectrum to adjust their sustainability goals and investment priorities.
That was the message from executives, investors and industry leaders at BloombergNEF’s Barrel of Tomorrow in the Age of AI Summit in Houston on Thursday.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which preserved incentives for some sectors while clawing them back for others. Meanwhile, the nation’s shakeup of clean energy policy has prompted some companies to look for opportunity elsewhere, and the AI boom is forcing grids to expand.
Here are five takeaways from the summit about the state of the energy transition in the age of Trump and AI....
....Grid must double in size in 15 years
The US grid took more than 100 years to build out and now has to double in size to meet demand. And it has to do it in the next 15 years, according to industry executives.
Connecting the three power main grids is one of the “most cost effective things to do,” said Michael Skelly, co-founder and CEO of transmission developer Grid United. A national policy to develop high voltage power lines would facilitate that, he said.
Frank Kreikebaum, engineering chief for Smart Wires, said his company was able to help data centers connect in half the time of alternate solutions with the aid of hardware to better manage flow across power lines, substations and other equipment.
Read: JB Straubel Says Batteries Can Make Gas Plants More Efficient
The data center build-out is costly
The bitter battle brewing over how to accelerate the AI data-center build-out without unduly burdening consumers was a key point of discussion, with NRG Energy Inc. CEO Larry Coben asking “Who pays for this expansion?”
Coben also noted that this new wave of infrastructure-building isn’t creating the jobs generated by past build-outs. “Data centers are extremely important, both business wise and to national security, but the long term job creation generally isn’t there,” he said.
Terawatt Infrastructure CEO Neha Palmer, meanwhile, emphasized the need for new power generation as electric vehicles proliferate. Like data centers, EVs need power “as fast as possible but the cost is also incredibly important” especially for heavy duty truck fleets that are comparing the cost per mile versus diesel, she said.
Redwood Materials Inc. Chief Executive Officer JB Straubel said batteries have a role to play in stabilizing the load for data centers, which see oscillating rather than steady power demand....
....MUCH MORE
