Securing The Energy For Our Future, Today [Newsletter #40]

Hello, AI enthusiasts from all around the world! Welcome to the weekly newsletter for the AI and The Future of Work odcast.

Today, we discuss a critical aspect of AI and our future: where will we get the energy to fuel it?

Many people are racing to answer this question. The solution to this dilemma is and will be multi-pronged. 

Working together is the only way to meet our energy demands. 

Today's guest sheds light on one way we can meet our energy demands, and it's all thanks to the sun.

Let's dive into this week's highlights! 🚀

🎙️ New Podcast Episode With Scott Wharton, Tandem PV CEO

We need energy more than ever, but we also need it from clean, renewable sources. So, where do we get it from?

Once Scott Wharton makes his case, we might all say: why didn’t we do this sooner? It's been right above us all along!

The sun can help shape the future of technology, but solar power has faced many historical challenges. 

A crucial part of ensuring its success is dispelling the many myths surrounding solar energy. 

Fortunately, society’s perception of solar power has improved in recent years. For one, technology has improved so much that the cost of solar panels has dropped considerably. 

As a result, we're entering a positive cycle in which our investments improve efficiency, making this technology more appealing and cheaper, motivating others to invest, and so on.  

That's where Scott comes in–he's the CEO of Tandem PV. This pioneering solar energy company recently landed $50 million to turn the US into a solar energy leader. 

Scott sat down with our CEO, Dan Turchin, to discuss solar energy's blisteringly fast evolution, and the critical decisions we must make soon to ensure a sustainable future. 

In this conversation, Scott and Dan talk about: 

• How Scott diverted from a career in investment banking and consulting to instead take the path less traveled—and landed in solar energy and Tandem PV.

• Many people are unaware of the fact that solar power has become 90% cheaper in the last decade, making it the most affordable energy source in the world.

• As the world migrates to electric vehicles, solar power will become crucial, and it's the perfect moment for the United States to retake leadership in this sector.

• How one secret ingredient can revolutionize solar panels in the future.

• How AI and solar power converge in more ways than one, from supplying large data centers to managing energy demands.

This issue is inspired by our conversation with Scott Wharton in the latest podcast episode of AI and the Future of Work.

🎧 Listen to the full episode embedded below for more of Scott's in-depth analysis of the ever-changing world of solar power.

Click here to connect with Scott Wharton and stay up to date on his latest work. Let him know that you heard his podcast!

📖 AI Fun Fact Article

AI faces a dilemma that we don't discuss enough: it requires massive amounts of energy.

As Spencer Kimball writes on CNBC, data centers powering AI could use more electricity than entire cities—and not necessarily small ones. 

The challenge comes in two forms. Producing enough power to drive them is one.

Another is finding enough sustainable land to house them. 

These facilities could demand a gigawatt or more of power—that’s about twice the residential electricity consumption of the Pittsburgh area in 2024. With the United States' current energy system, there isn’t enough renewable energy to meet these power needs.

At this rate, natural gas and other energy sources will become necessary.

By turning to these sources, we could slow our progress towards meeting carbon dioxide emissions targets. 

Our CEO, Dan Turchin, believes that AI's demand for power will only increase unless we find ways to dramatically reduce the runtime cost of AI inferences. 

As we’ve seen in the news recently, China's DeepSeek shows promising gains that new AI training architectures may lead to breakthroughs with regard to energy consumption.

These breakthroughs are becoming ever more critical. Consumers have an appetite for power-hungry technology, legacy non-renewable power producers have powerful economic interests, and there's also a desire to mitigate global climate change. 

Dan urges us to have a more thoughtful dialogue about where we can innovate, what we're willing to spend, and—perhaps most importantly—what compromises we're willing to make.

🎶 Worth a Read

👋 That's a Wrap for this Week!

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