Nate’s Notes 182: The Future of Energy | Professor Shon Hiatt

Thanks for listening to this episode of Meikles & Dimes with Shon Hiatt. What interesting insight he shared about energy, which is the cornerstone of economic growth and human flourishing.

The demand for energy, specifically and surprisingly for coal and petroleum, has never been greater, especially with the growth of energy-intensive data centers that power AI. But each energy source comes with tradeoffs, so the more diversified energy sources countries have, the greater potential for resiliency when shocks hit the system.

And understanding the tradeoffs is important if we want to make a difference. For example, an electric car only becomes less carbon intensive than a combustion engine after it’s been driven for 100,000 miles, in part because so called dirty energy is often used to charge the batteries, plus mining the material to create the batteries is energy intensive.

While nuclear is quite clean and becoming much safer, it is especially expensive due to regulatory burdens that haven’t been updated with the latest technology. And while wind and solar help meet overall demand, they cannot reliably hit base load demand.

As Shon tells his students, the holy grail for energy production balances security, safety, affordability, reliability, and cleanliness. In other words, there are no solutions. Only tradeoffs.

It’s a simple idea. Please take it seriously.

Shon Hiatt Bio:

Shon Hiatt is a business professor and director of the Business of Energy Transition initiative at the University of Southern California. He researches entrepreneurship, strategy, innovation and sustainability, with an emphasis in energy and agribusiness. His work has been published in leading academic journals and featured in popular media outlets. Before joining USC, he was a faculty member at Harvard Business School. I hope you enjoy learning from Shon Hiatt today.