Apoorv Mathur

Reji Kumar Pillai at WE3 Asia highlighted an upcoming California–Rajasthan utility collaboration — grid modernisation, renewables, and policy frameworks crossing continents. A model for how advanced and emerging energy markets co-evolve and accelerate the clean energy transition. #WE3Asia #CaliforniaEnergy #RajasthanEnergy #GridModernisation #EnergyTransition #Renewables #UtilityCollaboration #IndiaEnergy #CleanEnergy #GlobalEnergy

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The Era of Copper Optimization is Here Copper Shock: “We Must Mine 10,000 Years’ Worth in Just 18 More Years” Robert Friedland at USC Energy Summit: To hold 3% GDP growth (no EVs, no AI, no renewables), we’ll need as much copper in the next 18 years as humanity mined in the last 10,000. Reality check: the energy transition is impossible without massive new supply. Wake up. #Copper #EnergyTransition #Mining

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As Demand and Build Costs Rise, is PJM’s Capacity Market Delivering the Right Outcome for Customers? Rising data center demand is part of the story — but market design matters too. At the center of the current debate is a structural tension: PJM’s market design is paying a lot more to existing assets while still under-incentivizing the long-term supply response needed for reliability. That tension is easy to miss if the focus remains solely on demand growth. This structural efficiency gap stood out to me while reading the Independent Market Monitor (IMM) report on PJM’s 2027/28 auction published earlier this week and recalling Brattle’s Cost of New Entry (CONE) report published last summer. The IMM correctly identifies data center load growth as a primary driver of incremental demand. However, the conversation is incomplete without examining how PJM’s market design translates that demand — and the resulting scarcity — into cost to customers. Under PJM’s uniform clearing price, the scarcity signal required to attract new supply — which Brattle shows is now near multi-decade highs due to supply-chain constraints, labor shortages, and longer lead times — is paid to every existing resource on the system, regardless of original build cost or depreciated value. The math illustrates the resulting tension: ·      The IMM estimates that an unrestricted auction — one reflecting the full demand curve and without the current price caps — would have resulted in approximately $26.3B in total capacity payments for a single year, roughly $10B higher than the payments that actually cleared. ·      Brattle’s cost data suggest that the one-time capital cost to build the roughly 6.5 GW of missing supply is on the order of $11.7B (at a representative ~$1,800/kW). While annual systemwide payments and one-time capital costs are not directly comparable, the key takeaway is that the current market design can signal system-wide reliability premium in a single year that approaches the total equipment cost needed to address the shortfall. An additional challenge is that these price and scarcity signals are only guaranteed for one year, while new projects face 44+ month development timelines and uncertainty about future auction outcomes. As a result, high costs to consumers today do not reliably translate into bankable new capacity in the future. Worth reflecting on as PJM heads into the next auction cycle — and whether market design innovations like longer-term price visibility for new entrants or scarcity-based pricing that differentiates new from existing capacity could help close the gap. IMM report: https://lnkd.in/epH-YGwc   Brattle CONE report: https://lnkd.in/eQqUvMbQ

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What if the future of clean energy isn't just solar and wind? A new Rockefeller Foundation report just dropped some eye-opening findings: 🔋 Next-gen nuclear could deliver up to 30% of electricity in emerging economies 💰 System costs could drop by 31% compared to renewables-only by 2050 🌍 8 countries analyzed: Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa Here's what caught my attention: Most sustainability conversations focus on either/or thinking. But this research shows nuclear and renewables working together—not competing. The real game-changer? AI-powered grid optimization that can seamlessly integrate multiple clean energy sources. Imagine: → Smart algorithms predicting energy demand → AI managing nuclear + renewable hybrid systems → Real-time optimization reducing waste and costs Emerging economies don't have to choose between reliable power and clean power anymore. What's your take: Are we ready to embrace hybrid clean energy systems, or are we still stuck in old either/or thinking? #CleanEnergy #NuclearEnergy #Sustainability #AIForGood #EnergyTransition #ClimateAction

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Exciting news from a recent collaboration between Google and National Renewable Energy Laboratory ! 🚀 We recently co-hosted an AI hackathon in Washington, D.C., bringing together brilliant minds from U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. The mission? To leverage Google's generative AI and large language model tools to tackle critical energy challenges facing U.S. data centers. This initiative aimed to pave the way for future technology scaling while ensuring energy reliability and affordability. It was inspiring to see leading researchers collaborate and innovate in this crucial area. A huge thank you to all the participants and our partners at NREL for a successful event! #AI #Hackathon #EnergyEfficiency #DataCenters #Google #NREL #Innovation #Sustainability #GoogleAI https://google.smh.re/51ox

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I continue to be thrilled working on these investments as part of the NosTerra Venture Capital team. Please take a look at the most recent post in our series on energy and data centers. The U.S. power grid is now one of the most significant constraints on AI’s speed, economics, and sustainability. Fixing the grid will take $5 trillion in modernization investments. The public, private, and nonprofit innovators tackling infrastructure, permitting, energy demand, and environmental protections are shaping the next era of American energy, and seizing a rare, generational opportunity to get to clean, affordable and abundant energy for all.

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For manufacturers in Upstate New York who are National Grid customers, there is a unique opportunity where National Grid will cover 100% of the cost for both an energy audit and a Real-Time Energy Monitoring (RTEM) system — including hardware, software, and installation. This is a limited-time program offered on a first-come, first-served basis, making early participation critical. Akila is proud to be among a select group of certified vendors approved by National Grid to deliver these services. This program enables facilities to identify and capture meaningful energy savings with no upfront investment. If you’re interested in learning more or exploring whether your facility qualifies, feel free to reach out at sharon.chen@akila3d.com. .

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The #Electricity industry is undergoing a fundamental shift as distributed energy resource adoption continues to accelerate. While this creates exciting opportunities for cleaner and more resilient energy systems, it also introduces new complexity for utility planning. Nick Tumilowicz, director of distributed energy management at Itron, Inc., explains how #Utilities can adapt with real-time resource management in this T&D World article:

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🚀 AI Growth Could Rewrite the U.S. LNG Story 🚀 The global race for AI dominance is accelerating U.S. electricity demand — and it’s creating major shifts in the natural gas market. With tech giants like Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft investing billions into AI-powered data centres, U.S. data centre power demand is set to more than double by 2030, reaching 13% of total electricity use (International Energy Agency (IEA)). And while renewables and nuclear will help, natural gas remains essential for providing the reliability ("five-nines" uptime) these facilities demand. Here's the challenge: ⚡ Gas demand is soaring for domestic power generation. ⚡ U.S. production is forecast to peak early next decade. ⚡ Infrastructure is aging, strained, and expensive to upgrade. ⚡ Henry Hub prices could nearly double by 2035 (EIA). Higher domestic gas prices could erode the competitive advantage U.S. LNG exporters have enjoyed for years. LNG plants, reliant on low-cost feedgas, could find their margins squeezed — just as global LNG competition heats up. This could leave policymakers with a tough decision: 🔵 Prioritise affordable energy for the booming AI economy? 🔵 Or defend LNG’s position in the global market? The intersection of AI, energy security, and global trade is coming fast — and the winners will be those who adapt first. Ecologic Trading Eco Logic Partners Credit - LSEG Data & Analytics #Energy #AI #LNG #Gas

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