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Casey Handmer

👤 Speaker
748 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

There's also a bunch of generators on the grid that are notionally turned down and they're like operators, say 40, 50 percent capacity factor.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

But they max out at about 80 percent capacity factor because you got to bring them down for maintenance pretty often, especially if they're old.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

And so they're saying, well, we could pay you just to operate this old coal plant or something at high capacity.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

It'll go down this power line to this place where the smelter used to be.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

We'll set up there.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

And then we promise to curtail when you need the power, which basically means they just have a massive captive battery plant as well, which is fine.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

You just buy that and it arrives on a truck.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

The major advantage of doing that over the pure solar play is that the power is already there.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

So there's no risk there.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

And then you don't need a massive amount of land.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

The problem with the solar approach is that there's no two ways about it.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

It's a farming operation.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

You need a huge amount of land.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

The total amount of land that you're using, less than 1% is under batteries, under roads, under data center structures, et cetera, et cetera.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

It's mostly solar.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

It's kind of a nightmare.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

I mean, like...

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

There's this very popular misconception that like there's not enough land to do solar.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

Right.

Dwarkesh Podcast
China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer

Right.