Thanks John. Excellent text!
I'd acknowledge also @nworbmot.bsky.social who made a pivotal contribution to the work on 24/7 CFE.

in this context, an excellent slide deck by Prof. Hannah Daly
www.friendsoftheearth.ie/assets/files...

(i) 24/7 CFE buyers can spread funding across a tech portfolio, with iron-air as one option (here we were rather conservative in the paper) (ii) Iron-air procurement also happens outside the analysis zone, incl. buyers not focused particularly on 24/7 CFE. 2/2

Yes, you get an estimate by proportional scaling; but when communicating this calculation I'd use careful wording, since there are several hard-to-quantify factors affecting demand pull: 1/2

5/5 Funny observation -> let's calculate average utilisation of DE data center fleet: 17.9 * 1e6 / (1955 * 8760) = 1.045. Either one of these numbers is off, or someone’s Bitcoin farm got spotted. Honestly, not sure why. 🤔

4/5 For reference, so far in 2025, German total load has varied between 40,009 MW and 76,582 MW.
🔗 www.energy-charts.info/charts/power...

3/5 On power: the same report says there are 1,994 data centers in DE with >50 kW load. Over 309 of these are colocation data centers with 1,300 MW load. The total load is near 2 GW (or exactly 1,955 MW -- as can be dug out from another GDA report).

2/5 On energy: with German C&I annual consumption is at 323 TWh (Eurostat energy balances), that is ~5.5%. If we take the commercial sector only with 117 TWh -> 15.3%.

1/5 Good point, let's take a look. The German Datacenter Association's 2024 report says the total energy consumption of data centers in DE was 17.9×1e9 kWh → 17.9 TWh
🔗 www.germandatacenters.com/fileadmin/do...

Taking average capacity factor for offwind at 0.36 and 0.11 for solar PV (rough values for DE), and ~1.8 GW of PPA capacity for each tech (from dena report), and German C&I demand at 323 TWh (Eurostat), and assuming all PPAs are signed by C&I (seemingly right, see p.6 dena) --> yields roughly 2.3%

The German Energy Agency (dena) reports that the combined capacity procured via PPAs was at 3.6 GW in 2023 (with nearly all energy signed from solar PV and offshore wind). There is no numbers related to energy, but let's make back-of-the-envelope calculation 1/2
www.dena.de/en/infocente...

💰 With tight fiscal budgets & uncertain governmental support, 24/7 CFE offers a demand-driven path to scale new technologies. By creating a demand for long-duration storage & clean firm power, we can help these technologies get off the ground—without waiting for perfect policies 7/7

When early adopters commit to 24/7 carbon-free energy, they create a self-reinforcing “virtuous circle”—driving innovation, attracting investment & making advanced energy tech widely available. A handful of companies & governments can set this in motion 🚀 6/7

3️⃣ As advanced technologies are deployed repeatedly, they become more competitive and are adopted widely in the bulk system, leading to emissions reductions far beyond the original voluntary commitments 5/7

2️⃣ Hourly CFE matching becomes economical by deploying advanced tech—clean firm power & LDES—alongside wind, solar & batteries. This creates an early market, driving learning & cost reductions, lowering the cost of 24/7 CFE, and making it more accessible for others 4/7

1️⃣ Companies aiming for 24/7 CFE directly reduce their emissions by matching a greater share of energy consumption with clean electricity on an hourly basis, which reduces the need for dispatchable fossil generation to firm variable renewable supply 3/7

Matching electricity demand with carbon-free supply every hour isn’t just about reducing your own emissions—it’s a catalyst for the energy transition. Here’s how it works: 🧵⬇️ 2/7