Al Gore on the $4.5 Trillion Clean Energy Opportunity

Connie Loizos (0:01)

Hi, I'm Connie Loizos.

Alex Gove (0:02)

And this is Alex Gove.

Connie Loizos (0:03)

And this is StrictlyVC Download.

Hello, and welcome back to StrictlyVC Download. Today, Alex and I are joined by former Vice President Al Gore and Lila Preston, Co-Head of Growth Equity at Generation Investment Management. In this conversation, we get into the massive energy demands of AI and data centers, why Gore thinks the backlash deserves concern but not panic, and where he and Preston see some of the biggest opportunities for investors and founders as the energy transition accelerates even faster than Gore imagined it would, due largely to some unhappy world events, including the war in Ukraine and the fight over the Strait of Hormuz as part of the US war with Iran. We relatedly talk about the surprising pace of solar adoption, the challenges facing nuclear power, and why advances in AI could ultimately help make industries from agriculture to energy far more efficient, even as those data centers needed to support it face growing opposition. This has become something of an annual chat with Gore and Preston, one we always enjoy. We hope you enjoy hearing from them too, and we will see you back here next week.

Guys, thank you so much. I know it's a busy week for you, Lila. We were just talking about how crazy your schedules are. So thank you both so much for making time for us. I love your report. Always fascinating to read through. This one certainly sounds, I don't know, more optimistic even than in recent years. But Mr. Gore, I wanted to start with the headlines first, which of course is AI and data centers.

So much focus on this right now. You have called the data center backlash a cause for deep concern, but not panic. That the strain on land and water and grids is real, but also that the build out is probably inevitable. So this fight should really be about forcing data centers to pair with renewable power rather than trying to just stop construction outright. This fight is getting much bigger and escalating really quickly. What do you make of what's happening out there?

Al Gore (2:25)

Well, the list of concerns where advanced AI is concerned is a long list. And the comments that I've made about energy use and emissions from AI data centers is really focused on that concern. And I do think it's not a cause for panic where the emissions are concerned.

It is a matter of deep concern that some of the hyperscalers are jumping into new methane turbines. And I much prefer those who are supplying their energy needs with renewables and batteries. And I think there's going to be a continued shift in that direction for a lot of reasons, not least because they're more competitive when they get the cheapest sources of electricity. But of course, there are other concerns related to advanced AI that have been much in the news just in the last few days. And I do think that regulating the frontier models is one of the two issues most appropriate for a renewed cooperation between the US and China. Just in the last few days, one high official in China expressed concern about the implications of advanced AI for the Communist Party's continued dominance of that country. And other than Donald Trump, most everybody else in the US is concerned about some of the risks that people inside the industry have raised, both at Anthropic and OpenAI, and Elon Musk joined in as well. And I think that it's unfortunate that Donald Trump is probably not going to be able to reawaken U.S.-China cooperation. I hope I'm proven wrong about that. But I think the agenda for the years ahead is very clear. And I think that the elections coming up in November will also contribute to that shift. But, you know, overall, the increased electricity production from renewable energy plus batteries now matches and even exceeds the increase in global energy use. So we are seeing the momentum continue to build, and we're seeing the beginnings of displacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy, even as overall energy use increases.

One reason, as this year's Sustainability Trends Report highlights, is that the interruption of oil and gas supplies from the Persian Gulf, and now, of course, the Red Sea route is threatened also. This is the second time in four years that the world has been brutally reminded that fossil fuels are a very difficult and unreliable source of energy. Price volatility has increased dramatically. The cutoff of supplies, again, the second time in four years. This has caused a break in the previous pattern. The president of South Korea said just recently, this shows us we can no longer put off the transition away from fossil fuels. Just a few days ago, the leadership in Thailand made a dramatic announcement that they're switching from LNG to solar.