PPA aggregation marketplace for aluminum smelters

🦔AI data centers are crushing the US aluminum industry by outbidding smelters for electricity. Aluminum smelters need 10-20 year power contracts at $30-40 per megawatt-hour to operate profitably. Amazon and Microsoft are willing to pay over $100 per megawatt-hour. Alcoa is now considering selling assets to Big Tech companies that might get more use out of the power generation equipment than the aluminum it produces. The Problem Producing one metric ton of aluminum requires about 14 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power an average US home for nearly a year and a half. A new domestic smelter would need as much electricity annually as Boston or Nashville. Only six smelting sites remain in the US, with just four operating commercially, producing under 1% of global supply. Even at full capacity, US smelters could only meet one-third of domestic demand. Meanwhile, data centers need aluminum for cooling units, server racks, and radiators. Goldman Sachs expects aluminum prices to fall 15% by Q4 2026 as international supply increases, further squeezing margins. My Take This is the AI infrastructure buildout eating itself. Data centers need aluminum to build more data centers, but the power demand from existing data centers is making it impossible to produce aluminum domestically. The companies creating the demand are outbidding the suppliers who would fill it. Alcoa's CEO said they haven't seen competitive long-term energy prices in the US, and "the opposite of that is occurring." The Aluminum Association says rebuilding domestic capacity would take five years, five new smelters, and $25 billion. But why would anyone build a smelter when Big Tech will pay three times the electricity rate you need to stay profitable? This is what happens when one sector can outbid everyone else for power. The AI boom doesn't just strain the grid, it restructures who gets access to electricity and at what price. Hedgie🤗