Field notes The Energy Transition for the Rest of Us

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Interconnection

22 notes · Catalyst 19 · Steel For Fuel 3

  1. Catalyst · 20 Aug 2026 Can AI revolutionize grid operations? with Josh Wong, CEO and founder, ThinkLabs AI What actually happens inside a utility’s planning and operations functions, and where could AI change it?
  2. Catalyst · 9 Jul 2026 Inside the AI power wars with Jeremie Eliahou Ontiveros, leads infrastructure and power research, SemiAnalysis Everyone can describe how the AI companies differ on chips. How do they differ on power?
  3. Steel For Fuel · 6 Jul 2026 Data centers need the grid — so we have to make the grid better by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners If the grid cannot connect AI data centers fast enough, is building a power plant next to each one the way out?
  4. Catalyst · 23 Apr 2026 Live from Transition-AI 2026: Inside Google’s massive AI capex with Amin Vahdat, chief technologist for AI infrastructure, Google As AI shifts from training models to serving them, does that change the size, the reliability and the power profile of what Google builds with the $175 to $185 billion of capital expenditure it has planned for this year?
  5. Catalyst · 9 Apr 2026 The rise of flexible data centers with Varun Sivaram, CEO, Emerald AI Almost everyone now agrees data centers should be flexible grid assets. What is actually stopping it from happening at scale?
  6. Catalyst · 12 Mar 2026 AI scaling pathways: On grid, on edge, off grid, off planet with Jake Elder, senior vice president of research and innovation, Energy Impact Partners If demand for compute keeps climbing, which ways of siting and powering data centers can actually scale: large grid-connected sites, small sites at the edge, off-grid sites, or data centers in orbit?
  7. Catalyst · 29 Jan 2026 The rise of permissionless DERs with James McGinniss, co-founder and CEO, David Energy What are “permissionless” distributed energy resources, and can batteries small enough to plug into a wall outlet ever add up to enough capacity to matter?
  8. Catalyst · 15 Jan 2026 2026 trends: Gas turbines, Texas’ load queue, and China electrifies with Nat Bullard, co-founder, Halcyon; energy and climate analyst and writer There isn’t one. This is the annual walk through Bullard’s 200-slide data deck, part one of two, with Kann picking favorite slides rather than building a thesis. The loose through-line: how much new demand is coming, and is anyone positioned to serve it?
  9. Catalyst · 18 Dec 2025 Will inference move to the edge? with Dr. Ben Lee, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, University of Pennsylvania; visiting researcher, Google How much AI inference will move out of giant centralized data centers into smaller local ones or onto personal devices, and what would that do to the energy picture?
  10. Catalyst · 30 Oct 2025 Unpacking DOE’s proposal to transform data center interconnection with Allison Clements, FERC commissioner 2020-2024, now partner at ASG and principal of 804 Advisory; and Tyler Norris, doctoral student, Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment The US Secretary of Energy has told federal regulators to rewrite how large electricity loads connect to the grid. What does the proposal actually do, and would it work?
  11. Catalyst · 2 Oct 2025 The new wave of DERs with Dana Guernsey, co-founder and CEO, Voltus How did demand response get from emergency phone calls to an everyday grid resource, and what can it now do about load growth?
  12. Catalyst · 12 Sep 2025 When to colocate data centers with generation with Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer, Cloverleaf Infrastructure When does it actually make sense to build generation on site at a data center, and when has the idea simply become fashionable?
  13. Catalyst · 28 Aug 2025 The mechanics of data center flexibility with Varun Sivaram, founder and CEO, Emerald AI What does it actually take to make an AI data center flexible, and how much flexibility is really there?
  14. Catalyst · 12 Jun 2025 The state of play of data center development with Chris Sharp, chief technology officer, Digital Realty Is the AI buildout spreading data centers out to wherever cheap power happens to be, or concentrating them further into the regions that are already full?
  15. Catalyst · 27 Mar 2025 The potential for flexible data centers | Catalyst with Tyler Norris, PhD candidate, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University How much additional data center load could the existing US grid absorb if that load agreed to be a little bit flexible?
  16. Catalyst · 13 Feb 2025 The case for colocating data centers and generation with Sheldon Kimber, founder and CEO, Intersect Power Why build generation on a data center’s own site instead of connecting the data center to the grid, and does that logic run all the way to going off grid?
  17. Catalyst · 5 Dec 2024 Explaining the ‘Watt-Bit Spread’ with Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer, Cloverleaf Infrastructure; previously vice president of energy at Microsoft Why can data centers not get power, when the companies that want it are willing to pay almost anything for it?
  18. Catalyst · 9 Aug 2024 Understanding the transmission bottleneck with Rob Gramlich, founder and president, Grid Strategies The United States has nearly stopped building transmission at exactly the moment it needs far more of it. What is actually blocking it, and is it fixable?
  19. Catalyst · 13 Jun 2024 Under the hood of data center power demand with Brian Janous, co-founder, Cloverleaf Infrastructure; former vice president of energy, Microsoft Granting that AI will pull a large amount of new load onto the grid, how do we actually serve it, and what does serving it do to the grid and to the tech companies’ climate commitments?
  20. Catalyst · 28 Mar 2024 The electricity gauntlet has arrived with Andy Lubershane, partner and head of research, Energy Impact Partners Everyone has suddenly woken up to the fact that electricity demand is outrunning our ability to supply it. Now that the problem is mainstream, what actually happens next, and is the alarm overdone?
  21. Steel For Fuel · 23 Oct 2023 Adolescence for renewables, retirement for oil by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners Why did renewable power prices reverse after a decade of falling, and is the reversal temporary?
  22. Steel For Fuel · 31 Mar 2023 The ten biggest questions in energy & climate tech, Question 1 by Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research, Energy Impact Partners Will the United States clear the path for a lot more electric transmission?