42 43 While gas power generation may appear cheaper on an LCOE basis, the economics are highly dependent on the assumed load factor (LF), as highlighted in Fig 19. However, with the exception of data centers, it is seldom that all the demand comes at once or is in one place. As a result, levelized costs of electricity should also take into account the infrastructure (grid) and up-front capital required. Infrastructure-light solutions can cut down the upfront capital required but often cost more per kW. However, with availability of cheap solar PV modules and batteries from China, renewables can be placed close to the source of demand and scaled with demand growth, reducing the upfront capital and the need for expensive infrastructure, with the benefit of limiting running costs. With planning, the strategic deployment of infrastructure- light distributed energy systems could significantly reduce the cost of access to energy and, with innovative financing such as enterprise-backed credit obligations for future capacity (ECO capacity) or catalytic equity to seed economic development (such as from Alterra), could unlock huge economic potential. Infrastructure-light solutions should not be limited to energy: • Digital access is often constrained by connectivity and latency to data centers. Low-orbit satellite broadband can cut down latency over large distances, reducing the need to bury fiber optics over long and often impassible terrains. The DRC partnered with Japan’s Solafune to use AI and satellite data for mineral exploration, enabling real-time geological insights, improving resource governance, and combating illicit mining. A $400m satellite project with Monacosat aims to expand high-speed internet access and support AI-driven applications in telemedicine, e-learning, and cybersecurity, especially in underserved regions. • Harvesting water from the atmosphere is not only a solution to water stress in an increasingly arid world, but also cuts down the need for infrastructure or the transportation and containment of water. Professor Omar Yaghi won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a scientific breakthrough that his startup is now on the verge of commercializing, and will be targeting data centers in the US. The harvesters don’t require electricity and can produce ultrapure water using just ambient sunlight or waste heat from data centers and other industrial facilities. • Drones have become commonplace in modern warfare because they are cheap, efficient and not constrained by geography. As such they are a technology ready to carry not only warheads, but to deliver medicines, goods, food etc to less accessible areas, reducing the need for roads, bridges and tunnels. The infrastructure-light future of transportation will cut down the need for the amount of transport infrastructure in use today, just as mobile phones have transformed the need for landline infrastructure. With help from AI, we can design an infrastructure-light world which needs less capital, less energy and less resources to turbo-charge the global economy. In a capital-constrained world, infrastructure-light solutions may be needed Unattributed quote Funding the Growth Proposed Solutions 8 Turbo-charge the Global Economy through Well-Funded Energy and AI The governments that move first to signal demand — for turbines, for grid upgrades, for gas plants — will win. AI can transform the physical world, but only if we send the right demand signals to industry now. OPTIMIZING THE ENERGY SYSTEM • Energy mapping to balance supply and demand and minimize energy, resource and capital intensity. • Optimize the grid, understanding centralized & distributed solutions • Build battery siting and optimization models and policies to maximize load factors and optimize grid usage • Support energy efficiency alliance to increase the efficiency of energy consumption, sharing AI tools and applications. • Produce energy infrastructure maturity assessment • Accelerate new tech generation • Better demands side management of Data Center usage and future baseload requirements. IMPROVE ACCESS TO, AND USE OF, CAPITAL • Define new capital market models which are more aligned to production capacity and minimizing the LCOE of the energy system, not individual projects • Drive adoption of new financial models such as catalytic equity and enterprise-backed credit to unlock capacity • Accelerate low-cost infrastructure-light solutions to increase access to energy intelligence • Increase access to online banking for all and easier access to credit scores MAXIMIZING THE VALUE OF DATA CENTER SITING • Defining archetypes for the next wave of sitings outside of US & China • Agreeing data partnerships to overcome constraints of data sovereignty • Aligning community integration with data centers for win-win solutions, including demand-side management tools. • Develop data center standards for use of market vs location-based accounting and efficiency • Develop regional tech maturity and talent scores Unattributed quote For the first time in human history, you can take a kilowatt of electricity and turn it directly into intelligence. But we cannot achieve the dream of artificial intelligence without more power. Power is knowledge now.