Energy demand doesn't flex to match supply
Clean energy isn't scaling fast enough
The world needs to replace fossil fuels with clean energy sources fast — but we're not moving nearly quickly enough. Even as solar and wind costs have plummeted, we're still adding more fossil fuel capacity than clean energy in many regions. The challenge isn't just building more renewable power plants. It's also storing that energy when the sun isn't shining, upgrading ancient electrical grids, speeding up painfully slow permitting processes, and dealing with the reality that we've already built trillions of dollars worth of coal and gas infrastructure that someone paid for and expects to keep running.
Meanwhile, nearly a billion people still lack electricity entirely, and even in wealthy countries, our energy systems are rigid and wasteful. We need technology solutions that make clean energy cheaper, faster to deploy, and more reliable than fossil fuels — not just sometimes, but always.
Energy demand doesn't flex to match supply
Most energy users — from factories to households — consume power whenever they need it, regardless of whether clean energy is available at that moment. This inflexibility forces the grid to maintain expensive backup power and makes renewable integration more difficult.
We need technologies that can automatically shift energy use to times when clean power is abundant and cheap, reducing overall system costs and emissions.