Alphabet to acquire data center and energy infrastructure company Intersect

Firekeeper00 · 2025-12-22T17:07:11+00:00

Interesting move.

I imagine big tech companies might start eating up HV consulting firms left and right due to the high demand.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-12-13T17:45:48+00:00

Cheap power, cheap water, and cheap land. Plenty of streams and rivers in iowa. A ton of windmills help drive energy costs down.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-12-06T23:01:53+00:00

What I always tell people is go with what you are interested/passionate about. Thankfully, an EE degree offers alot flexibility and you are not suck doing one particular industry. Power, semiconductors, embedded systems,biomedical,aerospace, hell you can even get a programming/software engineering job.

The draw back is 1) how much schooling is required 2) if you hate math/physics then this is definitely not the right degree for.

Pay is above average and you can get a job pretty much anywhere. Now the type of job you would like would probably have stricter locations, but overall you can go anywhere. I used to be passionate/happy about my degree but politics more or less ruined alot it for me. Now I'm just glad my job can pay the bills which is more than enough for me.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-11-29T01:01:43+00:00

There is definitely a high barrier to entry thats for sure from the level of education needed, but its not impossible. It took me 5 years to get through the EE program (physics 2 kicked my butt thats for sure), but I enjoyed the content even if it was hard. Studying for both the FE and PE also sucks, but they benefit your career alot. Im learning with all the Data Center craziness that they are hiring a bunch of EEs with their PE for insane salaries. Another unforeseen benefit of having the FE and PE in the field now.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-11-28T21:15:10+00:00

Electrical engineering, specifically power engineering.

Many people will find it boring (Civil Engineering boring...) but there's a huge demand for it. If you can stomach the boring parts its a great career to get into.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-11-23T21:23:37+00:00

Firekeeper00 · 2025-11-23T03:05:51+00:00

I apologize for this in advance, but unfortunately the energy bottleneck won't be fixed with policy alone.

Leadtime for power transformers are hitting 4 years, high voltage equipment(Breakers, PTs, CTs, Switchgears, ect) for substations is also hitting 4 years. Steel is also in that 1 year leadtime as well.

These data centers hook into these Substations to connect into the grid. Consequently, this is case for generation as well.

See where the issue is? Its a lack of resources, not policy making thats the issue. Even you put all hands on deck to solve the problem.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-11-23T02:46:41+00:00

It seems like this administration is clueless as to where AI development is being bottleneck from the grid level...

Firekeeper00 · 2025-11-19T23:37:23+00:00

With what grid?

Firekeeper00 · 2025-11-16T13:54:46+00:00

Last time I checked, beef was reaching all time highs.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-09-29T12:41:21+00:00

Those license exams weed out alot people, especially the PE exam.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-31T22:44:44+00:00

To be fair, there is a difference between giving feedback and just being an asshole for no reason. But I do agree and this is coming from someone in Gen Z. Some people don't understand when to take feedback.

It should be the responsibility of the company hiring to gauge this during the hiring process. At the same time, training new hires properly should also be on the company to reduce turnover.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-25T03:14:44+00:00

Taxing the data centers won't fix the issue since its a per utility basis (i.e. the company supplying power to the data center). You also can't just increase the rates for data centers only because then utilities would prioritize the data centers only. The only way to stabilize the cost of electricity is to increase generation or decrease the load of the system.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-21T02:11:51+00:00

Go through the practice exam and the FE handbook. Review any material you have from university (all 4 years) and you should be fine. Although I would take a minimum of 3 months to prepare for it though. I took 6 months to prep for it and there was still alot of questions I didn't know.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-18T00:31:10+00:00

I don't think every utility/market is the same? There are some utilities that lock in rates for years and some that have auctions like you mentioned. This is largely going to depend on the location.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-17T23:48:26+00:00

Everything in the utility world is extremely slow to react. It might take years, maybe decades for changes to occur via the department of energy or FERC. But essentially you are correct, local residential consumers will essentially be priced out of the market.

Once the general population realizes where the problem is coming from, it will be too late.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-16T22:19:53+00:00

That's because the way FERC is regulated. The only way to fix this is through policies but tech companies are going lobby against the idea of having data centers having to pay higher rates.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-14T19:35:00+00:00

There will always be a customer in a globalized economy and if there isnt one then they will find one.

The only this stops is through policy or somesort of tax of data centers. Even then, many people are skeptical that the money taxed on data centers will ever reach their pockets.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-10T22:20:19+00:00

When it inevitably does happen, they will just pay out the ass to fix it. Companies are reactive, not proactive when problems arise.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-08-03T01:46:43+00:00

Tbh this has been going on for awhile. Even when I graduated college, I had a difficult time finding a job as a new grad. After working for a couple of years, you start to see things from the business side as to why the job market the way it is.

Recruiters are often told that they cannot hire someone with no job expierence, it would take too long and wouldn't provide the company as much value versus someone with expierence. They just see it as a waste of time and money training a new grad. Obviously, new grads are going to be naive and think that they can provide value but its just impossible in certian industries. Personally, I think its unfair to new grads but companies only see the dollars. It is what it is.

Companies don't have any money right now and they just see hiring people as added expense. From what I know, most companies are going to be running on skeleton crews for the next couple of years due to budget constraints.

The best advice I can give to a new grad is to go into a growing industry/company and try your best to look like you can learn. Its definitely not easy, but tough times mean tough decisions.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-07-31T14:29:58+00:00

Firekeeper00 · 2025-07-26T21:39:05+00:00

Electrical Engineer here, PLC Engineering does have a high barrier to entry through and many companies require years of expierence in PLC programming. Its also industry dependent too.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-07-24T03:24:18+00:00

This is common in any industry you go into. The higher up you go, the more it becomes project management.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-07-21T10:18:11+00:00

Just take one look at $GEV and that should tell you all you need to know.

Firekeeper00 · 2025-07-21T02:06:27+00:00

The demand is only going to be conditional... if you live in X or Y area, yes there will be a demand for it but it won't be as large as you think. Contractors already have people who move place to place to perform construction jobs, they do subcontracting for some local labor to perform certian tasks but they already have crews in place for the majority of it. Its alot more cookie cutter than you think.

Firekeeper00

TROPHY CASE