75% of new “clean” data center power is gas. (#223)
Weekly Brief: 3 decisions. 3 minutes.
Welcome to Climate CEOs — where climate tech leaders navigate growth, capital, and sanity. Built from work with 300+ climate CEOs and 25 years of meditation.
This Week:
📊 Finance — Speed > Purity: 30% of data centers are going behind-the-meter
⚙️ Tools — The Gap vs. the Gain: Confidence is built on evidence.
⛰️ Leadership — What’s the limiting factor? Get maniacal on one thing
📊 Finance
Speed > Purity: 30% of data centers are going behind-the-meter
46 projects. 56 GW. 90% announced this year.
But this behind-the-meter power is not all clean. Data provider Cleanview notes these oddball sources:
Mobile gas generators strapped to semitrucks
Aeroderivative turbines originally designed for aircraft and warships
Reciprocating engines that ramp fast, but are less efficient
Refurbished turbines acquired from industrial operations
Time-to-power beats carbon intensity. For now.
They confirm: Headlines mention renewables, hydrogen, or nuclear. But permits tell the truth. 75% of the identifiable capacity is gas.
And most of this DG power is happening in red states.
So what?
Audit your Geography: For financial returns, fast permitting > Whole Foods per capita. Are you in the right states?
Play the long game: Underwrite for 2035, not 2026. How can you partner on-site with natural-gas-powered generation today to enable more clean-energy GW in the years ahead?
⚙️ Tools
The Gap vs. the Gain: Confidence is built on evidence.
Which are you focused on?
The Gap between where you are and where you want to be (future)
The Gain between where you are and where you have been (past)
The CEO’s disease: Horizon watching. You keep staring but never arrive.
I should have secured that offtake from the big tech giant.
I could have led the engineering team to remove costs from our pilot projects.
I would have done more if I weren’t torn between competing board priorities.
Switch your focus. Confidence compounds when Gains are measured. “We did it before. We can do it again.”
Thanks to Dan Sullivan for this framing.
So what?
Build confidence: What are 3 major wins on customer traction and product development over the last 3 years? What role did you play?
Institutionalize a monthly “Gain Review”: Quantify in contracted revenue, unit economics, pipeline quality, and customer feedback.
⛰️ Leadership
What’s the limiting factor? Get maniacal on one thing.
Elon Musk asks this question across his companies. Then he creates a “maniacal sense of urgency” to “help the team address that limiting factor.”
Having co-created [7] companies valued at over $1 billion, he’s worth listening to. Even if you don’t agree with his “fast way” to terraform Mars by dropping nuclear weapons to warm its atmosphere.
Imagine a carbon removal tech that makes engineers weak in their knees, but it has one energy-intensive process that crushes its net carbon benefits.
One important caveat: Maniacal urgency on the problem, equanimity in the leader.
So what?
Ask your team: If demand doubled tomorrow, what would break first?
Ask yourself: How am I the bottleneck limiting the team’s velocity?
Finally…
If you care about virtual power plants and power grid resilience, listen to our Climate CEOs podcast: $40M for Virtual Power Plant Startup and Battery Backup-As-A-Service | Vinnie Campo, CEO of Haven Energy
If you know a climate CEO navigating data center rollout, forward this to them.
My final question for you: What limiting factor is your team tackling with maniacal urgency right now?
Hit reply. I read every response and appreciate the input.
~ Chris
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