Kann: Startups relying on zero-cost energy must show positive unit economics today
Shayle Kann · Mailbag episode! Biotech, layoffs, battery recycling and more · Feb 2, 2023 · at 38:39
Shayle Kann (Energy Impact Partners) critiques early-stage climate tech startups that build economic models around zero-marginal-cost power assumptions.
0:00 / 0:22exact quote · 22.0s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“We see a lot of startups who are doing something where their sort of fundamental assumption is marginal cost of energy is going towards zero, and maybe that, that could be true over a longer time horizon, but show me how you can deliver positive unit economics with electricity costs as they are today. Otherwise, I think you're sort of putting yourself in a pretty risky position.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Shayle Kann
Kann: Electric vehicles will never discharge to the grid at scale
“I do not think we'll ever see vehicles discharging into the grid at scale.”
Kann: Sulfur injection could cool Earth 0.5°C for $2 billion
“Specifically, you might be able to get about a half a degree Celsius of global cooling out of stratospheric sulfur injection for a couple of billion dollars, which is nothing, basically, comparatively.”
Kann: Software engineering is the only job category truly displaced by AI to date
“And in fact, the only jobs that have been lost really because of AI to date are like software engineers.”
Kann: V2G economics do not pencil for EV drivers with $7,000 hardware
“GM, for example, their bi-directional charging bundle runs about 7000 dollars before installation. And grid programs so far have paid drivers a lot less than that. It just doesn't pencil.”
Kann: Power is the rate limiter to AI growth
“And understanding the multiple factors that drive failure of new transmission, I think, is key to understanding why power is, in my opinion, The rate limiter to AI growth, and why upward pressure on electricity prices will probably sustain for a while.”
Kann: Almost none of the 50 GW data center pipeline is off-grid
“There's like, 50 gigawatts of behind-the-meter generation and development at data centers, right? And they, and some people have interpreted that to be, oh, 50 gigawatts of off-grid data centers getting built. It's actually close to zero of those that are true…”