Brian Janous, co-founder and CCO of Cloverleaf Infrastructure, shares his extensive expertise in data centers and energy from his decade-long tenure at Microsoft. He discusses the pressing demand for power in AI-driven data centers and the hesitations surrounding construction amid rising costs. The conversation highlights the 'watt-bit spread' concept, emphasizing the urgent need for higher electricity prices to stimulate new energy generation. Janous also offers innovative solutions for improving electricity pricing and expediting infrastructure development in this competitive landscape.
42:59
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Days of Data Center Energy
Brian Janous initially questioned the purpose of an energy role at Microsoft in 2011, viewing it as a cost center.
He recalls a manager mentioning that Steve Ballmer likely only considered energy for a minute annually.
insights INSIGHT
The Shifting Bottleneck
Data center companies face the challenge of determining how much infrastructure to build, similar to the cloud boom in the 2010s.
Unlike the previous era, the current bottleneck is not real estate or fiber, but access to sufficient power.
insights INSIGHT
Power Takes Precedence
While factors like fiber, land, water, and labor remain important for data center siting, access to power has become paramount.
The need for significant construction labor for larger data centers presents a potential challenge, especially in remote locations.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Every data center company is after one thing right now: power. Electricity used to be an afterthought in data center construction, but in the AI arms race access to power has become critical because more electrons means more powerful AI models.
But how and when these companies will get those electrons is unclear. Utilities have been inundated with new load requests, and it takes time to build new capacity.
Given these uncertainties, how do data center companies make the high-stakes decisions about how much to build? How sustainable is the rate of construction? And how much will these data center companies pay for electricity?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Brian Janous, co-founder and chief commercial officer at data center developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure. Brian recently explained how he thinks about these questions in a LinkedIn post titled “The Watt-Bit Spread,” which argues that the value of watts is incredibly high right now, and the cost of those watts is too low. Shayle and Brian cover topics like:
The unclear data center demand and high costs that are making data center companies hesitant to build
How the skills required for data center development have shifted from real estate and fiber to energy
Why higher power prices are needed to incentivize new generation
Potential solutions for better pricing electricity and speeding up the construction of new generation
Recommended resources
Latitude Media: AES exec on data center load: 'It's like nothing we’ve ever seen'
Latitude Media: Mapping the data center power demand problem, in three charts
Latitude Media: Are we thinking about the data center energy problem in the right ways?
Catalyst: Can chip efficiency slow AI's energy demand?
Catalyst: Under the hood of data center power demand
Catalyst is brought to you by EnergyHub. EnergyHub is working with more than 70 utilities across North America to help scale VPP programs to manage load growth, maximize the value of renewables, and deliver flexibility at every level of the grid. To learn more about their Edge DERMS platform and services, go to energyhub.com.
Catalyst with Shayle Kann