The Surplus Rider
Founders building energy-intensive systems (DAC, rock grinding, plasma gasification) designed to run on surplus electricity from the manufactured energy build-out, co-located with generation.
A category of founder building energy-intensive solutions, including DAC, rock grinding for enhanced weathering, electroporation water treatment, and plasma gasification, designed from the outset to run on the surplus electricity that the manufactured energy build-out will produce. Surplus riders co-locate with generation and treat grid connections as a bonus rather than a prerequisite. Their strategic advantage is temporal: by building operational expertise today, they accumulate learning that compounds as energy prices fall.
First introduced in: Chapter 6