The boom in data centres is requiring a lot more power. Could solar energy be the fix?
What’s happening:
- Renewable energy startup Exowatt has launched their new modular design for powering data centres through solar energy known as Exowatt P3
The big idea:
- The innovative technology underpinning Exowatt P3 harnesses solar energy and then stores it in a long duration, sensible heat battery
- The Exowatt P3 is designed to be roughly the size of a shipping container and is able to deliver energy on demand as its required by data centres for high performance computing
Why it matters:
- Exowatt previously came out of stealth and raised a large round of seed funding, which was led by a16z, Atomic and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman
- The relentless demand for new data centres to host artificial intelligence cloud computing and Bitcoin mining has led to a scramble to figure out where new power supply will come from, leading technology giants such as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to begin acquiring data centres powered by nuclear energy and Meta (NASDAQ: META) to even begin exploring new technologies such as geothermal energy
Going deeper:
- Exowatt was co-founded by Jack Abraham, who is also the founder of Atomic which is a venture studio that has incubated notable breakout companies such as Hims & Hers Health (NASDAQ: HIMS) and rapidly growing Shopify (NASDAQ: SHOP) brand acquisition company OpenStore
- Exowatt is sourcing all of the raw materials for their modular energy platform domestically and will construct new Exowatt P3 energy systems exclusively in the United States of America
The intrigue:
- Soluna Holdings (NASDAQ: SLNH) recently began construction of their new renewable energy powered data centre located in Texas which is co-located near a wind farm and aims to use the excess energy being generated that is unfit to go into the grid to power their operations
