Adam Forni

24/7 carbon-free energy technologies and such @Google. Opinions my own.

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@gilbeaq Love to see it. Let's catch up soon Alex.

[Todd Jones 🦊 @toddrjones]

Here are some ways in which the world has gotten better.

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@kbassalleck @aniruddh_mohan @duncancampbell @JessePeltan @ShanuMathew93 @solar_chase Thanks Kevin! Dm'ing

[Adam Forni @xternality]

Who has datasets on how fast solar PV really gets built? Analysis of real schedules for construction (+contracting, permitting etc) pref to labor level. Granularity cost is bonus. add who i missed @duncancampbell @JessePeltan @ShanuMathew93 @solar_chase @aniruddh_mohan

[Adam Forni @xternality]

Come check it out! I will work closely with both

[Tyler Norris @tylerhnorris]

More openings on Advanced Energy @Google - come help us change the world!

[Adam Forni @xternality]

Amazing addition to the team! Welcome aboard @tylerhnorris, looking forward to great things.

[Tyler Norris @tylerhnorris]

Big professional update: I’m thrilled to share that I’ve joined @Google as Head of Market Innovation on the Advanced Energy team, and today is my first day.

The power sector is undergoing a transformation as rapid load growth, emerging technologies, and ambitious decarbonization goals all converge. In this role, I’ll be focused on identifying and advancing innovations to better enable electricity markets to accommodate AI-driven demand and clean energy technologies.

As I transition to the Bay Area, I'm excited to be joining a world-class team working at the frontier of energy innovation, and to collaborate with partners across the energy ecosystem. I'm also grateful that I can continue my PhD research and stay close to the research community.

I wouldn't be here without the support of incredible mentors and colleagues at @DukeU and beyond – thank you for everything.

Let’s get to work!

[Jeff Dean @JeffDean]

AI efficiency is important. Today, Google is sharing a technical paper detailing our comprehensive methodology for measuring the environmental impact of Gemini inference. We estimate that the median Gemini Apps text prompt uses 0.24 watt-hours of energy (equivalent to watching an average TV for ~nine seconds), and consumes 0.26 milliliters of water (about five drops) — figures that are substantially lower than many public estimates.

At the same time, our AI systems are becoming more efficient through research innovations and software and hardware efficiency improvements. From May 2024 to May 2025, the energy footprint of the median Gemini Apps text prompt dropped by 33x, and the total carbon footprint dropped by 44x, through a combination of model efficiency improvements, machine utilization improvements and additional clean energy procurement, all while delivering higher quality responses.

See the blog or technical paper for more about our methodology and ongoing efforts.

Blog:
https://t.co/CoMm5gV9SR

Link to detailed paper: https://t.co/UBi9rd6gEC

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@Beazy_Rampezy I'm so impressed you have that! thank you Brett. Now to see the acceleration happen. Do we have staffing for this?

[James Hewett @JamesHewettDC]

This is my quant... @ddpaolella talking about the new @Breakthrough GRIDS initiative to help speed up grid modeling and get study times down to weeks not months or years. Thanks @gurobi for having us in Berlin!

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@nickvanosdol You'd get a much cheaper $/ton (maybe $100-150 avg) -- up to, say, a GT.

Constrained innovation proving what techs might actually scale (across both DAC + point source).

Flue stack retrofits not necessarily slam dunks, need long lived assets.

Net positive for humanity, probly

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@duncancampbell Maybe they read ur paper yo

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@JessePeltan Agree, generally. But all relevant tech are within ~1 order of mag of 1.0, so the math is done kinda automatically.

Also, thinking in the $ M/MW can be useful to remind us that line items like a substation or admin building can cost many millions - scaling matters

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@joelhedwards @JessePeltan Thanks again Joel. Be in touch

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@joelhedwards @JessePeltan Fantastic, thanks, Joel. What is the data source there?

I've heard generically 0.5% to 2% per year resource decline, that's wide range (4:1 ratio) but is it reasonable incl for newer techs?

[Adam Forni @xternality]

Burning fuels like oil, gas, and coal feels comfortable and familiar. We've been doing it in our homes for centuries. Human impact gradual.

Hazards from things like batteries and nuclear feel much more exotic. Interaction much more rare.

Education needed for long time to come.

[Michael Thomas @curious_founder]

Moss Landing, the largest battery in the US caught fire yesterday.

A journalist just asked me, "Are batteries safe?"

I told him the fossil fuel plants batteries replace kill 1,000s of people in the US / year.

Batteries aren't perfect. But they're way better than coal/gas.

[Max Kanter @maxk]

The speed at which batteries have taken over ancillary services in ERCOT is impressive!

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@gnievchenko Thank you for this psa, has been working for me since saw this tweet. Happy new year buddy

[Adam Forni @xternality]

@duncancampbell 93% for SMRs in early 2030s is ambitious, as the kinks get worked out. but, they are modular, and failure modes can be relatively isolated. there's probably a sweet spot of reactor MWe and # units for this type of application. there are diseconomies of scale the smaller you get