Tag Archives: sustainability

November 11, 2025 · 17:58

TYS squared

That is the setting, but before we go there, a little reminder from past blogs. Just so you know I wasn’t kidding. On January 29th I wrote ‘And the bubble said ‘Bang’’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/01/29/and-the-bubble-said-bang/) as well as ‘What do bubbles do?’ on November 1st 2025 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/11/01/what-do-bubbles-do/), so this is not out of the blue. Yet several facts were revealed which requires me to give you the setting of power shortages which I raised in ‘As limits are reached’ on June 29th 2024 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/06/29/as-limits-are-reached/), so this are the settings I warned people about and now we see

So, it started today with a person named Torben Hansen on LinkedIn giving us “Oracle just shelved a €2 billion Al datacenter project. Amazon paused €7 billion in investments. Not because of tech limitations or lack of capital – but because they can’t get electricity. In Frankfurt – Europe’s digital heartland – new Al data centers face 8-13 year wait times for grid connections. Here’s the brutal reality:” as well as “Germany’s electricity: €0.25-0.30/kWh vs €0.05-0.07 in Asia (3-6x more expensive) GPT-4 training consumed 51,773+ MWh of energy One datacenter powering Al needs 4 gigawatts
Additional cost per training run: €500M+
Germany’s Al ranking: Dropped from #3 to #9 globally in 2 years
Imagine having world-class talent, billions in investment, and world-leading research – then telling companies “sorry, we don’t have the power lines.” That’s Germany in 2025.
While the US adds 400+ MW of Al capacity annually, Germany accepts ZERO new data centers until 2030. The result? Our brightest minds migrate. Research stays. Jobs leave.”

So, the ‘presentation’ reflects what I foretold. But now the sad part, there is no news on any of this. There is even a ‘Google set to reveal “largest ever” investment plan for Germany – report’ a mere 4 days ago (at https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/google-set-to-reveal-largest-ever-investment-plan-for-germany-report/) this is why I check EVERYTHING. The setting from both Amazon and Oracle cannot be vetted, but a mere 4 days ago (as well) we are given “But Oracle stock is now trading down around 25% from its 52-week high as investors grow critical of artificial intelligence (AI) spending. Oracle is not alone. Last week, Meta Platforms sold off because investors didn’t like how its operating expenses were outpacing revenue growth.” That too was predicted and it is the effect of a bubble, so to say the stock is going bubblelicious. But that does not reflect on who is giving us the facts and who is giving us the runaround. I am trying to give you the facts. The second fact that seems to ‘contradict’ the ‘facts’ by Torben Hansen as the DCD gives us (at previous given address) “Amazon Web Services (AWS), meanwhile, committed some $9.44bn to its Frankfurt cloud region in June 2024, and a further $8.47bn to establishing a European sovereign cloud in the country, which was launched as a separate entity earlier this year.” So something is amiss. I still believe in the predictions I gave you all, but a bubble tends to be presented at the moment it goes boom. Yet a week ago (at https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/lacking-grid-access-major-obstacle-germanys-energy-transition-technologies-associations) we are given ‘Lacking grid access major obstacle for Germany’s energy transition technologies – associations’ with “Germany needs to “significantly improve access to grid connections” for electric vehicle charging stations, storage facilities and large heat pumps, a group of 13 associations from the energy, housing and consumer protection sectors said in a joint appeal. “Industry, commerce and private households are ready to invest, build and transform,” the group wrote. “But without access to a modern grid infrastructure, many projects remain unimplemented.”” As well as “Germany’s lagging electricity grid expansion remains a key hurdle for the shift to renewables. Electricity retailers have warned that significant delays in connecting EV charging points and solar PV installations to the local power grid are putting the brakes on the country’s energy transition.” So there are issues, but I do not see any shortages that would halt data centers and Oracle gave us in may that millions are invested in both Germany and the Netherlands. I reckon that there would be clear signals if the presented facts were actually true. So whilst I am really reeling for a “told you so” setting, even a squared setting of told you so, there is a larger setting that requires all our attentions. The verification and validation of presented facts requires checking at nearly every bend, curve and turn of the way. So whilst the cartoon image is highly entertaining, it is all it is, entertaining.

But I do like to check all the ins and outs of statements thrown my way and in this case I though I would get to loudly go ‘told you so’ and in the end I cannot yet do that and that is the setting that I face today. I till believe that this bubble comes crashing down, but in its own right, not by presenting (what I perceive to be) false settings towards at least one titan in the IT business who has always steered a straight course.

And in the final setting we see that “hyperscale centers requiring 100 megawatts or more”, how much more is really depending on the centre, but to set the power ‘demand’ to 40 times that for an AI centre becomes debatable, especially as both the Netherlands and Germany have a good grasp on the energy they have and what is required. So I am seeing all kinds of red flags at present. And I still have the ‘told you so’ setting because verification and validation are pretty important markers in the AI field. So the next move is on the Media and to run down the truth of both German energy as well as Amazon and Oracle, but that is merely my point of view. Have a great day.

A new low

Yup and it is not a bad thing, but a setting of happy happy joy joy. I learned a few hours ago that Saudi Arabia (of all places) was mentioned (at https://renewablesnow.com/news/saudi-arabia-claims-record-low-wind-cost-in-4-5-gw-renewables-awards-1283966/) with ‘Saudi Arabia claims record-low wind cost in 4.5 GW renewables awards’ not the Netherlands, or Sweden (where stormy winds are king) it is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is heralded as the new low in wind power. I have to admit that it took me by surprise. The mention of “a record-low global cost for wind power generation at USD 13.38 (EUR 11.49) per MWh” for the people in Saudi Arabia. That makes a setting of €0.01149 per kWh (if I calculated that correctly) is is one way to put down the living expenses of people all over the planet and when you consider that in Europe (EU) the price of electricity is approximately €0.1899 we can assume that even at 50% the electricity firms will still make a profit. As I see it, good news for all the people in Europe (and a few more places beyond that) and I never expected that the land of oil would set the charge of renewables, not in my lifetime. So we should see the joy on what Saudi Arabia achieved here. We are given “The government-owned entity, which is responsible for procuring electricity from independent power producers (IPPs), said on Monday that the initiative is part of the sixth phase of the National Renewable Energy Programme, supervised by the Ministry of Energy. The contracted projects are spread across four provinces in the Kingdom and represent a combined investment of more than SAR 9 billion (USD 2.4bn/EUR 2.06bn)” as well as “The wind project, the 1.5-GW Dawadmi in Riyadh Province, has achieved the lowest leveled cost of electricity (LCOE) for wind power generation so far, according to the statement.” So a hip hip and a hurray for the people who made that happen. Because that is the kind of achievement that could help over a billion people getting their expenses down and the setting that we might see a 50% less costs on energy is a new threshold for anyone requiring power. The article also shows a table of the 5 places where this is happening and how much is being generated. As I see it, the wind-farms currently being created might see a revisit from new people with additional insights in this strength of the energy woods and I reckon we will see a lot more additions in a few places soon enough drowning costs for people all over the world.

I feel giddy at this point. It is not often that you see an impressive downing of the cost of living, but this is definitely one we all should applaud.

Have a great day today.

The view over a distance

That is what I see, at a distance my old country (the Netherlands) is setting a new premise of pressure. In the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn40y9yxkgvo) we are given ‘Netherlands’ renewables drive putting pressure on its power grid’ and that is fine. For me (my intake) is that the setting is that when there is no renewable energy, they will have to resort to the old setting (like gas or oil) and there is ample reason for this. Yet we are given “In a Dutch government TV campaign called “Flip the Switch” an actress warns viewers about their electricity usage. “When we all use electricity at the same time, our power grid gets overloaded,” she says. “This can cause malfunctions. So, use as little electricity as possible between four and nine.”” A setting we comprehend, the other option is that we are ‘handed’ the setting of “Renewable energy prices in the Netherlands are not a separate category but are included in the overall electricity price, which currently averages around €0.33 per kWh” so we could end the setting that renewable energy above a certain usage is delivered at €0.99 per kWh, the rest can either adhere to the additional prices or accept that oil is the other party in the mix (at €0.33 per kWh), a simple solution for the Dutch to increase what they have going in renewable settings. And there is no blame on the Dutch admittedly we are given “it leads the way in Europe for the number of solar panels per person. In fact, more than one third of Dutch homes have solar panels fitted.

The country is also aiming for offshore wind farms to be its biggest source of energy by 2030.” And that is a time pressured setting and the Dutch political systems know this. There is no averting your eyes from the needs and the Dutch know this too well. The other nations face a similar setting, the Dutch were however a lot more hands on into finding these options and they have 18 million people in that nation, it is almost as much as the Australian population (27 million) but the area differences is that the Netherlands is only 0.54% of Australia, setting the premise that the Netherlands has the population pressure of Sydney on a national foundation, they needed a renewable energy policy in place. No one denies that. But the needs are not matching the availability. As such my solution at a premium (which might achieve the same setting) or accept that oil isn’t a thing of the past yet and perhaps in 2030 when there are the actual additional kWh available it will be possible and at that point the Dutch are still the first by a mile over all other European nations to be the first to get to a positive carbon setting, even above zero carbon (meaning that no carbon emissions are being produced from a product or service) and that is quite the achievement to have. Oh, and I reckon that these kids squandering energy as they mine for bitcoins will foot that bill as they are eager to get wealthy and those who do not, get to explain to their mummies and daddies why they need a RTX 5090 32gb AMD Ryzen 9 9900x3d to play Frogger (or Minecraft). I wonder how many excuses they will employ and in the meantime it will reduce the pressures as well, I just wonder how much as there is no real number on the number of bitcoin miners, but they do have a top100 in the Netherlands, so anything is possible.

The other part of the explanation is given to us by Kees-Jan Rameau, chief executive of Dutch energy producer and supplier Eneco. ““Nowadays we’re switching to renewables, and that means there’s a lot of power being injected into the grid in the outskirts of the network where there are only relatively small power lines.” And these small power lines are struggling to cope with all the electricity coming in from wind turbines and solar panels scattered around the country.” OK, that is a fair assessment, but those cases could be renewed or reviewed and separate cables could be set to whatever the renewable setting is to a clear hub (my lack of technical knowledge is optionally at fault here) and that could have been seen in advance to the renewable farms being designed (as I personally see it).

We get all the excuses and not the simple setting that even as the Netherlands is already at 70% renewable, there was no way that they would be ready before 2035 and that is likely a decade ahead of several other EU nations, the only exception might be Sweden as it constructed Vattenfall some time ago, so they get to have a head start, and they only have 11 hungry mouths to supply and that is as it is 1 times larger, but the bulk of that nation is in the southern third of that country. So they are in a comfortable league to stay even with Dutch ingenuity as I personally see it.

So whilst the BBC is correct in its article, I fail to see the applaud that the Dutch are due as they are one of the few EU nations that achieved what was needed to achieve (with Sweden in second place) I am missing that part in the article, no matter the laurels that are due Kees-Jan Rameau of Eneco. It is a side we should have been given in this all. So where do Germany, France and the United Kingdom stand in this, how far are they? Just simple questions that come to mind.

Have a great Sunday (I am having mine with chocolate sprinkles) and enjoy the pre Monday bash you will enjoy, except Canada, they started the weekend a day early due to the Toronto Blue Jays giving the Dodgers (LA) a thrashing with their 11-4 victory. Lucky bastards, a long weekend where none was given.

Tag Archives: sustainability

TYS squared

A new low

The view over a distance

Recent Posts

Archives