Terawatt's energy mission

We just held the Terawatt Annual Summit, where we get together as a company to celebrate the milestones we’ve hit and set our goals for the year ahead. We also unveiled our new mission: to deliver the future of mobility today. This got me thinking about the moment we are in right now and the role that Terawatt can play in building that future.  

2026 has already been an important year for us: we will have turned up a half dozen more sites in multiple markets by year end, and are actively developing sites in 15 new markets. As we enter our sixth year, I could not be more proud of what we have built or more excited about the future. 

This has also been a year when the reality of the energy transition has been front and center for a lot of people. On the one hand we are seeing both supply and demand shocks as the AI data center buildout and the war in Iran shake up the global energy economy. In the near-term this affects us all – countries, companies and consumers are all trying to find workarounds to keep things moving – but the medium-term impacts will be significant too. At the same time, clean energy technologies are making a massive leap and fast becoming leaders on cost as well as security of supply.  

‍The transition is here

‍To me this shows that we are truly in a midpoint of the transition. The old way of powering the economy is giving way but the new one is not yet fully realized. Electricity demand and fuel supply crunches mean everyone is looking for ways to shortcut, but the new energy system is not built out everywhere yet. Those who have already made the jump – countries that have developed alternative energy supply, companies that electrified operations or locked in long term fixed price clean energy contracts, consumers who moved to EVs – are better positioned to absorb the impact today. 

A big question is how this will play out over time. Previous energy shocks accelerated structural shifts – the 70s oil shocks led to the development of fuel standards in America and the nuclear industry in France. This is not always a straight line. Record oil prices in the buildup to the 2008 financial crisis made shale oil economically viable, and right now the oil and gas industry is cashing in on price volatility. But if you look across production, consumption and cost the overall direction of travel is clear: clean energy gets better over time. A key feature of any transition is that you reach a tipping point where the new technology does not just compete on cost but wins most of the time and becomes the obvious choice. 

‍The power of obvious 

‍We’ve seen this with solar and wind which are now the cheapest forms of energy in many parts of the world even without subsidies. When I led energy strategy at Google procuring renewable energy was a choice we made not only to encourage emerging technologies and hit our sustainability goals, but to also have a long term energy price hedge, and in some markets, access the lowest cost of energy. By the time I left, renewable energy was the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE) available for our global data center fleet so it was the economically rational choice in addition to the environmental benefits. Seeing the impact of our corporate buying strategy on the development of clean energy at scale, and how that contributed to making those technologies the most cost effective option is what inspired me to bring that approach to the transport sector. 

At Terawatt, I see our role as creating the conditions that make the decision as obvious for fleet owners today just as it was for tech companies a decade ago. Like a lot of people at the company, I care about creating an energy system that can deliver clean air and abundant power for generations to come. The best way to do that is by building products that compete on quality as well as cost and by making our service so good that it’s the clear choice. 

‍Delivering the future 

‍Our vision is to build the network to electrify all miles, for a cleaner, safer planet. That means delivering the technology and infrastructure to enable fast clean charging at scale for every kind of EV fleet: heavy-duty trucks, rideshares, taxis, autonomous vehicles and more. Our goal is to build a product so good that it shifts the incentive structure and cost equation for the industry as a whole. That’s when the flywheel kicks in: run-up in demand pushes the supply/demand curve and drives further efficiencies, compounding the benefits. This is the power of scale and ultimately that’s how we have the most positive impact on the future. 

I’m strongly optimistic about the contribution Terawatt is going to make in moving that needle. This is something that motivates a lot of us and it’s closer than ever. The energy transition shouldn’t mean subsidies or sacrifices: it should make economic and operational sense. Our job now is to make it the obvious choice for our customers and for society as a whole. 

- Neha Palmer