I also really enjoy all the "everything is sunlight" metaphors. Bill McKibben spoke about this recently, but this piece closed the loop for me. Coal = old fern sunlight, oil = old dinosaur sunlight, hydro = evaporation sunlight, wind = differential planet heating sunlight. Even uranium probably came from an exploding star somewhere.... :D
Have you guys considered how much more effective nuclear power will be on the grid and that solar does have a place but only off-grid where large capacity is not needed?
Great article and amazing slides. I have a newsletter that goes out to economic developers across the country, and I am going to highlight this article. Thanks for "shedding a light" on this issue (pun definitely intended).
It's certainly an exciting time to witness the unfolding of the Electrotech Age, although the AI portion isn't as developed or certain as the renewable and electrification aspects. Given my own interests and field of study, I can't help but imagine the next age (possibly 30 years or so from now) being the Biotech Age including interventions on the biology of aging.
AI’s ability to greatly accelerate to accelerate the renewable energy transition is greatly underestimated. Compressing R&D timelines of everything from material discovery to battery chemistry to meaningfully reducing permitting and regulatory timelines has so much benefit that it is hard to quantify. That’s before we get to robotics and other ways where installation and construction itself could increasingly see large productivity improvements that slash costs and timelines — something that we’ll also increasingly see over the next 10 years.
Great piece! I love Ember too. They had a piece over the summer about the cost of light that I loved https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-long-march-of-electrification/
I also really enjoy all the "everything is sunlight" metaphors. Bill McKibben spoke about this recently, but this piece closed the loop for me. Coal = old fern sunlight, oil = old dinosaur sunlight, hydro = evaporation sunlight, wind = differential planet heating sunlight. Even uranium probably came from an exploding star somewhere.... :D
Have you guys considered how much more effective nuclear power will be on the grid and that solar does have a place but only off-grid where large capacity is not needed?
Great article and amazing slides. I have a newsletter that goes out to economic developers across the country, and I am going to highlight this article. Thanks for "shedding a light" on this issue (pun definitely intended).
It's certainly an exciting time to witness the unfolding of the Electrotech Age, although the AI portion isn't as developed or certain as the renewable and electrification aspects. Given my own interests and field of study, I can't help but imagine the next age (possibly 30 years or so from now) being the Biotech Age including interventions on the biology of aging.
AI’s ability to greatly accelerate to accelerate the renewable energy transition is greatly underestimated. Compressing R&D timelines of everything from material discovery to battery chemistry to meaningfully reducing permitting and regulatory timelines has so much benefit that it is hard to quantify. That’s before we get to robotics and other ways where installation and construction itself could increasingly see large productivity improvements that slash costs and timelines — something that we’ll also increasingly see over the next 10 years.
Excellent presentation of Ember's data showing the positive transition to clean electricity. I hope your message gets distributed widely.