tyler fitch

Just clean power @RockyMtnInst & a friendlier world everywhere. Earlier:@SynapseEnergy @VoteSolar @UMSEAS @UNC. Plus: @[email protected]. Banner: Huong Ngo.

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@NiyerEnergy consumer surplus but only for nerds

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@bigblackjacobin honestly shame on the institutions that put emma camp in a position where she’s been asked to an rewarded for doing this over and over again. hard to imagine coming out of that having a normal reaction to basically anything

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@autumntjohnson We need some kind of professional association that can award you some kind of medal

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@xiaowang1984 @SimonMahan i'm ok with sniping from the sidelines, i think -- you're pretty familiar with that too afaict

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@xiaowang1984 @SimonMahan "see?! my LLM told me I was right!"

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@NiyerEnergy IMO they're just different configs. at same MW, twice the duration is twice the MWh. That'll be more expensive, but not twice as expensive. To me, your RT is more about what length of discharge is required to be in the money given system dynamics

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@kaLauntra @NatBullard we are so far past dignity at this point

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

Wow. Buckle up, folks -- the data center infrastructure boom is just getting started. h/t @natbullard and Halcyon!

(part of me wonders, do we have the infrastructure to support this level of investment??? What amount of that capex has a reserved spot for power already?)

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

Like -- do these people have any self-respect? Good lord

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

IEA's press release from their Electricity 2026 report here: : https://t.co/eIcZiSwpdq

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

Some helpful context from IEA via Semafor this morning: While data centers are shaping future load in the US, they are part of a bigger story of electrifying economies when we look across the world.

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

How many newsrooms could 1% of AI-related revenues sustain? 5%?

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

In the context of load that is grid-transformational and unprecedented, with emergent impacts from multiple projects -- what can we do to understand and quantify grid impacts? https://t.co/k8LqZjkVwk

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

One thing I haven't seen discussed (and another insight from thinking about unexamined, load-bearing assumptions) -- do we have the tools and framework to understand the impacts/costs of new data centers on the grid?

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

Our tools for evaluating costs often assume a) changes at the margin and b) looking backward, rather than forward (as in cost-of-service-studies).

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

@FT @doctorow Paraphrased:

One venture capitalist who used to work at OpenAI told me that obsessing over who has the best model is no longer an issue... if OpenAI focuses on what it has, which is a consumer product with a huge audience, and can retain and monetize them, it will be successful

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

In @FT's briefing this morning, the inevitable logic of enshittification rears its head at OpenAI: https://t.co/AVNwGGT0gx

h/t @doctorow obviously!

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

Sources:

US households: EIA https://t.co/rOvolhbrBb
Costco: Dave Larson https://t.co/8eF3DLslE1
Gen capacity: NERC https://t.co/9dJAeK0WY9
Data centers: Cleanview https://t.co/vLomJAaAYx

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

It can be hard to hold onto a sense of scale when we're talking about the grid. A few references::

- Each US household uses ~1 kW of demand.
- One Costco uses ~1 MW of demand (not sure if that's average or peak!)
- There's 1,000 GW of generation today, growing fast

[tyler fitch @ty_fi]

- The top 9 data center projects by capacity (from Cleanview) add up to ~26 GW of demand.

So -- if we were powering them with what's online today, those 9 projects would use 1/30th of the country's electricity generation. Whoa.