One of the key uncertainties ahead is whether there will be an LNG glut. US and Qatar = main factors.
To get Beetaloo gas to market, we need an expensive pipeline. Either way, Canberra may have to plug any financing gap to bail out the East Coast and avoid an energy crisis. But it would help if LNG demand keeps growing strongly vs supply.
Daniel Loeb - billionaire hedgie - has a reputation for turning risk into success. His Third Point Q1 2024 Letter has some interesting perspectives on future gas demand:
“After our investment, the market started to focus on two trends that we think will have profoundly positive impacts on Vistra’s future value: increased penetration of intermittent generation (renewables), and an inflection in power demand from AI/data centers and electric vehicles.
While increased renewable generation is clearly a positive for reducing CO2 emissions, many supporters of green energy are naïve to the impacts of solar and wind on the reliability of grids (lower) and volatility of electricity prices (higher). Price signals have become so distorted that rather than building new dispatchable (gas) power generation, we are shuttering capacity. However, when the wind stops blowing or the sun stops shining, we are increasingly reliant on huge amounts of dispatchable generation to turn on quickly, even though it may have been losing money an hour prior. Counterintuitively, electricity generated by gas in Texas has grown 30% since 2016 despite a twenty-fold increase in solar and a three-fold increase in wind. Texas recently created a $10 billion fund to incentivize new gas generation to strengthen the grid. We believe the only way to incentivize new capacity is to improve the long-term profit outlook for dispatchable gas assets via market reforms or other legislation and expect this to benefit those like Vistra who already own existing dispatchable generation.
We also believe US electricity demand is poised for significant growth for the first time in decades, and Vistra’s fleet of baseload power (both nuclear and natural gas) is uniquely positioned to benefit. As the AI arms race commences, McKinsey estimates new data center build could drive an incremental 800 TWh of global electricity demand by 2030, with 40% of this driven by Generative AI1. The US is expected to capture roughly half of this demand, as bargain-basement power prices make it the world’s leading destination for new data centers despite higher labor and real estate costs. We expect data centers to drive domestic demand growth to accelerate 1-2% per annum over the next five years against a baseload supply backdrop that continues to decline as coal is phased out. Rising electric vehicle penetration is subsequently expected to add an additional 1% to annual growth (Pacific Gas & Electric, who serves a region with over 20% EV penetration, highlights that every two new EVs is equivalent to a new household in terms of demand).
Because many data centers require 24/7 power (which cannot easily be provided by renewables) and connection timelines for utility grids exceed three years in some cases, hyperscalers have shown growing interest in contracting directly with nuclear plants behind the meter to ensure speedy, consistent access to electricity. For example, Amazon recently signed a 20-year agreement with nuclear operator Talen to buy power at a ~60% premium to market prices. Despite this premium, nuclear remains by far the cheapest direct source of clean energy for a hyperscaler; the estimated levelized cost of electricity for a renewables system fit to provide 24/7 power is an eyewatering $200 per MWh, roughly triple what Amazon will pay Talen2. Vistra is in the pole position to capitalize on these trends, and we expect the discount applied to their assets to continue to narrow as their business becomes increasingly essential to serving domestic power demand.”
(20min delay)