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- 🔌 Powering Chicago's Energy Future
77th Edition
✍🏽 This Week on Landon in the Loop:
🔌 Powering Chicago's Energy Future
📊 Chart of the Week
📆 Events Around the City
🔙 Highlights from Last Week
On Tuesday, we hosted our 12th AI Tinkerers meetup at the Drive office. 👇🏽
There were five demos at the event. Here’s a brief overview of what we covered👇🏽
We had some super cool demos at @aiclubchicago last night.
— Landon (@landon20s)
2:41 PM • Sep 18, 2024
On Wednesday, I collaborated with the V1 Michigan student organization at UMich to help launch the new AI Tinkerers Ann Arbor group on campus. 👇🏽
🔌 Powering Chicago's Energy Future
Our city, like many others, is confronting a power surge that our grid is not fully equipped to handle.
This challenge is driven by the increasing demand for AI and the broader push toward electrification.
Let’s dive in and discuss our options:
Managing the Surge
Exelon projects a 900% increase in Chicago's power consumption, largely fueled by AI demand from new data centers.
Currently, 25 new data center projects are underway, requiring a total of 5GW of energy—equivalent to the output of five nuclear large power plants.
Chicago's existing data centers consume 900MW of power, indicating a need to scale production tenfold to meet future demand.
Rising Challenges
Our current energy solutions, such as utilizing excess grid capacity and relying on imported electricity, are only temporary fixes.
In addition to data centers, the grid is under increasing strain from the rising demand for electric vehicles, factories, and the transition of household appliances to electric power.
Our limited power availability is already beginning to restrict data center growth, which could hinder our region's tech expansion.
Exploring Real Solutions
Expanding natural gas plants will provide a flexible, reliable energy source during peak demand, especially as gas plants can quickly ramp up and down as needed. This could help fill the gap while major energy infrastructure projects are being developed.
Our larger goal should be investing in more large-scale reactors, as this would ensure consistent energy output with a smaller footprint, stabilizing the grid and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
📊 Chart of the Week
According to Bloomberg's 2024 Business School Rankings, two of the top four schools are located in Chicago: University of Chicago and Northwestern.
These top schools help our reputation when it comes to developing talent in the region. Additionally, many students choose to stay in the city after graduation.
📆 Events Around the City
Chicago Health tech Happy Hour
Monday
Early-Stage B2B SaaS VC/Founder Chicago Coffee Meetup
Tuesday
Coffee, Capital & Conversations - Sponsored by TriNet
Wednesday
MuniTech 2024: Chicago
Thursday
AI Meetup (Chicago): Generative AI, LLMs and ML
Thursday
The EdTech Institute of Chicago - End of Summer Meetup
Thursday