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30 GW hours. 
That is the number on the table 

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today. 
We're looking at AA300 MW 

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battery system going up in 
Minnesota. 

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00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,320
But the power output isn't even 
the headline here, it's the 

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duration. 
This system provides 100 hours 

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of storage. 
Which is. 

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Just total capacity, 30 GW 
hours. 

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That makes it the largest 
battery project by energy 

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capacity ever announced in the 
world. 

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It is really hard to overstate 
the sheer scale of 30 GW hours. 

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I mean, usually when we talk 
about grid batteries, we're 

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talking about, you know, a 
lithium ion container sitting at

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a substation somewhere, and 
that's just designed to handle a

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quick spike in air conditioning 
use between maybe 5:00 and 9:00 

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PM. 
This is an entirely different 

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animal. 
And it's not for general grid 

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storage either. 
No, exactly. 

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This massive battery is 
specifically being built to 

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power a new Google data center. 
They're partnering with Xcel 

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Energy to handle the massive, 
just continuous electrical load 

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coming from artificial 
intelligence. 

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00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:01,920
It really feels like a shift 
from simply, you know, 

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supporting the public grid to 
building an entirely new kind of

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infrastructure for just one 
specific customer. 

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It is. 
This represents a very physical 

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answer to that AI energy crunch 
we keep hearing about. 

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But what makes this specific 
case study so compelling is that

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it touches on three really 
distinct layers. 

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First, you have the chemistry, 
which is radically different 

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from what is sitting in your 
phone right now. 

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Then you have the financial 
structure which involves Google 

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paying for essentially 
everything. 

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And then finally you have the 
local reality on the ground in 

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Pine Island, MN where this the 
sci-fi technology literally 

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meets small town zoning 
politics. 

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So the question hanging over all
of this for you listening is 

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00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:47,360
pretty straightforward. 
If we can actually build 

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batteries that last for days 
instead of hours, and using 

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materials as cheap as iron and 
air, does that finally solve the

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00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:56,000
reliability problem for 
renewables? 

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00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:58,840
Or does it just create a grid 
where only the wealthiest 

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companies in the world can 
afford for the lights to stay 

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00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,120
on? 
And to answer that, you really 

44
00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:05,320
have to look at the pressure 
driving the deal in the 1st 

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00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:07,520
place. 
It isn't just that Google wants 

46
00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:09,520
to be green for PR reasons. 
Right. 

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00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:12,920
It's operational. 
Highly operational data centers,

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00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:15,360
especially the ones running 
large language models. 

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00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:19,640
Your Geminis, your TAT GPTS, 
they have a totally flat 

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00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,120
relentless demand profile. 
They run 24/7. 

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And wind and solar obviously do 
not, right? 

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The sunsets, the wind dies down.
That mismatch is the fundamental

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problem of the whole energy 
transition, and until now the 

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primary tool to fix it has just 
been lithium ion batteries. 

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00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:40,560
Which are literally everywhere. 
I mean they run our phones or 

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00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:43,640
EVs a huge chunk of our short 
term grid storage. 

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00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,600
And lithium ion is an incredible
technology. 

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00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,160
It is highly power dense and it 
reacts instantly. 

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00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:53,280
If a cloud passes over a solar 
farm, a lithium battery creates 

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00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,280
a bridge in milliseconds to keep
the grid frequency stable. 

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00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,400
Yeah, but financially and 
chemically, lithium ion just 

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00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:02,400
hits a hard wall right around 4 
hours of duration. 

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00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:04,560
Which four hours gets you 
through the evening peak? 

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00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:08,200
Yeah, but it doesn't help you if
a storm system just parks itself

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00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,600
over the Midwest for three days.
Exactly. 

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00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:15,040
And in the energy industry, 
there is a very specific German 

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word for that exact scenario, 
dunkle float. 

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00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:19,360
Dunkle Float. 
Yeah, dunkle float. 

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00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:23,640
It translates roughly to dark 
doldrums. 

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00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:24,880
Dark doldrums. 
Right. 

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00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:28,000
These are periods where there is
absolutely no sun and no wind 

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00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,840
for days at a time. 
So if you are a data center 

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00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:37,040
manager and your mandate is to 
run on 100% carbon free 

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00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:38,720
electricity. 
Which, by the way, is 

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00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:41,240
Minnesota's official state goal 
by 2040. 

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00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,560
So dunkle flout is the thing 
that keeps you up at night. 

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00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,920
Because if your battery dies 
after four hours and the 

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00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,680
forecast says there's no wind 
for another 40 hours, you have 

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00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:53,720
to fire up a natural gas plant. 
And that totally destroys your 

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00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:56,200
carbon free goal. 
So that is why the 100 hour 

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00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:59,680
duration is the specific answer 
to the dunkle flout problem. 

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00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:00,920
It's a bridge. 
Right. 

83
00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:03,960
This battery system isn't 
designed for speed, it's 

84
00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:07,360
designed for endurance. 
It bridges those multi day gaps 

85
00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:10,040
without burning fossil fuels. 
OK, so let's actually look at 

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00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,360
the machine itself. 
The company making these is Form

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00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:14,760
Energy. 
Yeah. 

88
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,360
And I was looking at their spec 
sheet and under chemistry it 

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00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:22,840
literally just lists iron air. 
It sounds almost too simple, 

90
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:24,800
because the fundamental 
principle is something we 

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00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,920
usually spend a lot of time and 
money trying to prevent. 

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00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:32,160
It relies on rusting. 
Hold on, we are trusting the 

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00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:36,320
reliability of the grid to Rust.
In a highly controlled way, yes.

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00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:39,440
The process is officially called
reversible rusting. 

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00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,400
The battery uses iron, water and
air. 

96
00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:43,280
That's it. 
OK. 

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00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,160
When the battery is discharging,
meaning it's sending power out 

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00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:49,480
to the data center, it takes in 
oxygen from the outside air and 

99
00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:51,840
exposes the iron inside the cell
to it. 

100
00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:55,800
The iron turns into iron oxide. 
Rust and that releases energy. 

101
00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,320
Exactly. 
That chemical reaction releases 

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00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:00,440
electrons. 
So the active rusting creates 

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00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:03,440
the electricity wait back up. 
How do you recharge a box of 

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00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:04,920
Rust? 
You reverse the current. 

105
00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:07,720
When the wind is blowing hard 
and you have excess electricity 

106
00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,720
on the grid, you push that power
back into the battery. 

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00:05:10,840 --> 00:05:14,400
That incoming energy forces the 
oxygen to detach from the rust, 

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00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,720
turning it back into metallic 
iron, and then it just expels 

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00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:19,200
the oxygen back out into the 
air. 

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00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:22,480
It's essentially breathing. 
That is actually the best way to

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00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,120
visualize it. 
It breathes in oxygen to 

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00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,560
discharge and it breathes out 
oxygen to recharge. 

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00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:30,440
I'm trying to picture the 
physical unit here. 

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00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:33,120
Is this just a giant tank of 
metal? 

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00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,040
It's modular. 
Each individual module is about 

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00:05:36,040 --> 00:05:39,960
the size of a side by side 
washer and dryer set OK, and 

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00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:44,320
inside that box you have stacks 
of about 50 cells, each 1A meter

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00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:47,240
tall. 
They contain the iron anode, the

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00:05:47,280 --> 00:05:49,880
air electrode and a water based 
electrolyte. 

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00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,200
That water based part seems 
really significant for safety 

121
00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,240
because we constantly hear about
lithium batteries Catching Fire 

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00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,320
or going at the thermal runaway.
It is a major differentiator 

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00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:02,280
because the electrolyte is water
based. 

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00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,120
It is completely non flammable. 
There is 0 risk of thermal 

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00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:06,960
runaway. 
Wow. 

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00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:09,480
You could technically shoot a 
hole in the side of this thing 

127
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,640
and it wouldn't explode. 
I mean it might leak water, but 

128
00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:13,920
it will not burn. 
That has to make the permitting 

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00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,640
process so much easier compared 
to putting in a massive lithium 

130
00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:19,200
installation 0. 
Absolutely. 

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00:06:19,280 --> 00:06:23,080
But if it's safer and it holds 
power longer, why isn't this 

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00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:25,280
exact chemistry in our electric 
cars right now? 

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00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:30,640
Wait, iron is incredibly heavy. 
You do not want an iron air 

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00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:33,040
battery in your car. 
It would weigh as much as the 

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00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:36,160
vehicle itself, right? 
But for a stationary grid 

136
00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,480
battery just sitting in a field 
in Minnesota, weight is totally 

137
00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,240
irrelevant. 
Cost is what matters. 

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00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:45,600
And Form Energy claims they can 
store energy at less than 110th 

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00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:49,280
the cost of lithium ion. 110th 
That is the economic trigger 

140
00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:51,760
here. 
Lithium ion packs cost somewhere

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00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:57,160
around 130 to $150.00 per kWh. 
OK, Form is targeting closer to 

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00:06:57,320 --> 00:06:59,280
$20. 
That is a massive. 

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00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:00,800
Gap. 
It entirely comes down to the 

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00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:03,240
materials. 
Iron is the most abundant metal 

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00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:04,960
on earth. 
We know exactly how to work with

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00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,360
it and it's extremely cheap. 
We aren't mining cobalt in 

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00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:11,600
unstable regions. 
Yeah, the entire supply chain is

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00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:13,840
domestic. 
In fact, these specific 

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00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:16,880
batteries are being manufactured
right now in Weirton, WV. 

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00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:18,520
That's form factory 1. 
Right, right. 

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00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:20,840
And the location really tells 
the story. 

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00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:23,960
Weirton used to be a massive 
steel town. 

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00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,560
Form Energy actually built their
factory right on the side of a 

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00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:31,440
defunct steel mill, so they're 
using the legacy workforce and 

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00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:35,200
the existing infrastructure of 
the old steel industry to build 

156
00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,640
the storage medium for the 
renewable age. 

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00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:39,480
That is a fascinating 
transition. 

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00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,800
So we have a battery that is 
cheap, safe, and last for 100 

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00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:47,240
hours, but 30 GW hours of 
storage is still a massive 

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00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:50,440
infrastructure project. 
Usually when a utility builds 

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00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:53,840
something this big, the cost 
just gets passed right on to the

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00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:56,160
ratepayers. 
And this is where the so-called 

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00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:59,960
Minnesota model comes into play.
The regulatory framework here is

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00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:02,240
honestly just as innovative as 
the chemistry. 

165
00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:05,960
It's being called the Clean 
Energy Accelerator Charge, or 

166
00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:08,880
CEAC. 
Clean energy accelerator charge.

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00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,040
How does that actually differ 
from a normal utility rate hike?

168
00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:15,800
Well, in a traditional utility 
model, if Xcel Energy builds a 

169
00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:18,880
new power plant, they take that 
cost, they add a Guaranteed Rate

170
00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:21,320
of return, and they just spread 
it out across everyone's 

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00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:24,360
electric bill. 
You, me, the local bakery, we 

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00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:26,680
all pay a slice. 
Which is standard since we all 

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00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:30,920
ostensibly use the grid, but 
this project is explicitly for 

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00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:33,480
Google. 
Exactly, and that is why the 

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00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:37,159
Cesc is so different. 
Google is paying all the costs 

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00:08:37,159 --> 00:08:38,720
for this service. 
All of them. 

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00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:40,440
All of them. 
They're paying for the wind 

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00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:44,400
farms, the solar panels, the 
form energy batteries, and this 

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00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:48,080
is critical, the grid 
infrastructure upgrades required

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00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:51,160
to actually hook it all up. 
So Excel Energy is claiming that

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00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:54,720
residential bills will not go up
1 cent to support this growth. 

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00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:57,840
That is the promise. 
Excel has been very clear that 

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00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:00,880
the residential customer pays 
nothing extra for this specific 

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00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:03,640
project, and this connects 
directly to the broader 

185
00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:06,760
ratepayer protection debate we 
are seeing nationally right now.

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00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:08,760
Yeah, we heard about this 
recently in the State of the 

187
00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:10,560
Union. 
President Trump announced A 

188
00:09:10,560 --> 00:09:13,880
ratepayer protection pledge, 
basically demanding that data 

189
00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:16,800
centers pay their own way so 
they don't drive up prices for 

190
00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:18,400
regular families. 
Right. 

191
00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:20,800
And it is a very politically 
popular stance. 

192
00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:24,960
You have these trillion dollar 
tech companies coming into town 

193
00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:27,920
and demanding literal gigawatts 
of power. 

194
00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:31,600
It is completely natural to 
worry that regular people are 

195
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,600
going to foot the bill. 
But there is some disagreement 

196
00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:36,960
on whether a Plex like that is 
even necessary. 

197
00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:41,120
Yes, Brian Janis, who used to 
lead energy at Microsoft, argued

198
00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:43,760
recently that the pledge is, 
quote, meaningless. 

199
00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:46,600
Meaningless because the data 
centers are already paying. 

200
00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,760
His argument is that industrial 
customers have always had 

201
00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:53,080
entirely different rate 
structures than residential 

202
00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:55,280
ones. 
Data centers have generally 

203
00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:58,520
always paid for their own load. 
Janus is basically saying we 

204
00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:00,160
were already going to pay for 
this anyway. 

205
00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:02,400
So Google might look at the 
pledge and say it's completely 

206
00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:03,280
redundant. 
Right. 

207
00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:07,360
But the Minnesota deal 
formalizes it in a new way. 

208
00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,040
It creates a highly specific 
tariff that totally isolates the

209
00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:13,680
cost. 
So just to reset here, Google 

210
00:10:13,680 --> 00:10:16,680
gets the clean power and the 
reliability they need for AI, 

211
00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,880
Excel gets a massive upgrade to 
their grid paid for by a 

212
00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,640
corporate client, and the 
residential customer 

213
00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:26,480
theoretically sees no change in 
their monthly bill. 

214
00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:29,520
That's the deal on paper. 
I want to look at the sheer 

215
00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:31,720
scope of what Google is actually
buying here. 

216
00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:33,800
We talked about the battery, but
what is charging it? 

217
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:38,680
The agreement involves 1.9 
gigawatts of new clean energy 

218
00:10:38,680 --> 00:10:41,320
total. 
So you have the 300 megawatts of

219
00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:45,480
storage we discussed, but that 
is paired with 1400 megawatts of

220
00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:50,600
wind and 200 megawatts of solar.
1400 That is a lot of wind. 

221
00:10:50,680 --> 00:10:54,200
Minnesota is a very wind rich 
state, but there is another 

222
00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:56,280
detail in the deal that is 
really worth highlighting. 

223
00:10:56,280 --> 00:11:01,080
It's a $50 million investment in
something Excel calls Capacity 

224
00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:02,960
Connect. 
Capacity Connect. 

225
00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:04,920
What does that money actually go
toward? 

226
00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:06,920
It's a distributed energy 
program. 

227
00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:09,600
Instead of putting all the 
batteries in one giant field 

228
00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:12,560
strictly for Google, this money 
goes toward putting utility 

229
00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:15,280
owned batteries at local 
businesses and industrial sites 

230
00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:17,320
throughout the grid. 
So local factory just gets a 

231
00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:20,880
battery on site. 
Yes, the idea is to help grid 

232
00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,240
reliability at the edges, not 
just at the central data center.

233
00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:26,880
It's essentially A sweetener for
the broader grid. 

234
00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:30,200
Let's zoom in on where this 
giant battery and data center 

235
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are actually going. 
Pine Island, MN. 

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Yeah, a small city population is
less than 4000. 

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It's roughly an hour South of 
the Twin Cities. 

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And before this, their biggest 
claim to fame was holding a 

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world record for a 6000 LB block
of cheese on a railroad flat 

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car. 
Which is a very, very different 

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kind of heavy industry than 
artificial intelligence. 

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Just a little bit. 
But clearly, not everyone in 

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Pine Island is happy about this 
transition. 

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No, they aren't. 
There is a Facebook group called

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Stop the Pine Island Data Center
that currently has over 600 

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members and in a town of 4000 
that is a significant percentage

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of the local population. 
What are their specific 

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concerns? 
It's the usual friction you see 

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with data centers, mostly water 
usage and noise. 

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Data centers need massive 
amounts of water for cooling. 

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Even with closed loop systems, 
the overall consumption is high.

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Locals are worried about drawing
down the local aquifer. 

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And then there is the noise from
the cooling fans. 

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Yeah, we've seen reports from 
Ohio, where residents living 

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near data centers complain about
just a constant, inescapable 

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hum. 
Right. 

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And while this specific project 
avoids the air pollution 

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concerns you normally get with 
diesel backup generators, since 

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they are using the iron air 
batteries instead, the physical 

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industrial footprint is still 
massive. 

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You are turning quiet farmland 
into a high tech industrial 

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park. 
It's that classic tension 

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between wanting all these 
digital services to work 

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instantly but not wanting the 
physical infrastructure next 

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door. 
Exactly. 

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However, from a political 
standpoint, this project is 

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being held up nationally as the 
model. 

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Former Energy Secretary Jennifer
Granholm specifically praised 

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this exact deal. 
Really. 

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Yeah. 
She called it the prime example 

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for how sighting should be done.
Just because of the Google 

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funding structure. 
That and the legislative 

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groundwork that made it 
possible. 

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Minnesota passed laws in 2025 
that set very strict 

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environmental guardrails for 
these types of projects. 

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Granholm's point is that you 
can't just let a massive build 

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out like this happen in a 
vacuum. 

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You need state legislation that 
protects the environment 1st, 

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and then you need a utility 
willing to actually create a 

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contract structure like the CEAC
to protect the race. 

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00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:43,000
So let's pull back and look at 
what all of this means for the 

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energy transition as a whole. 
We have the world's largest 

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battery by energy capacity, made
of iron and air, funded entirely

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by Google to basically bypass 
the limitations of the public 

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grid and weather intermittency. 
It essentially proves that you 

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can get firm 24/7 carbon free 
power if you are willing to move

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beyond lithium ion. 
That is the key take away here. 

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It feels like the Minnesota 
model shows that Big Tech can 

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00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:12,440
actually act as a catalyst. 
They aren't just buying paper 

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00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:14,800
credits to offset their carbon 
footprint anymore. 

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00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,200
They're funding the hard 
physical hardware that makes the

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00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:20,880
grid reliable. 
That is the major shift. 

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00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:23,400
For years, companies would just 
buy renewable energy 

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00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:25,800
certificates. 
They'd pay for a wind farm in 

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00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,960
Texas to technically offset set 
the emissions of a data center 

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00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:31,120
in Virginia. 
It was purely accounting. 

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00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,320
Yeah, spreadsheet exercise. 
Exactly. 

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00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:37,240
But this deal is about physics. 
It's about Google saying I need 

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actual power here in this spot 
right now, regardless of the 

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weather, and I will pay for the 
infrastructure to make that 

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happen. 
But if this technology works at 

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00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,640
this scale, if these iron air 
batteries do exactly what they 

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say they can do, does that 
finally kill the argument that 

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renewables are too unreliable? 
It weakens it significantly. 

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00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:59,720
The main argument against a 
purely renewable glid is always 

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intermittency. 
But if you can cost effectively 

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00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:06,080
store 100 hours of energy, you 
simply don't need a gas peaker 

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00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:07,560
plant. 
You just have four days of 

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00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:09,360
backup sitting in a box. 
Right. 

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The catch, of course, is the 
price tag. 

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00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:14,920
Google can afford to be the 
first mover and pay the premium 

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00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:17,760
to build this out. 
Can a municipal utility in a 

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00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:19,800
small town afford to do the same
thing? 

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00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,560
That is the risk. 
Does this technology get cheap 

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00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:27,200
enough for everyone or do we 
create a 2 tiered grid, 1 tier 

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00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:29,920
for the googles of the world 
with these private bulletproof 

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00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:33,160
green energy islands, and 
another tier for the rest of us 

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00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:36,360
relying on an aging grid that 
flickers every time the wind 

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00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:38,680
dies down? 
That is the real test of the 

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00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:40,520
Minnesota model. 
We'll be watching to see if the 

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00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:43,760
technology actually trickles 
down or just stays at the top. 

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00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,840
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00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:49,600
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