Henk Rogers says an aim to 1 to 2 degree reduction is too abstract for most people. 100% renewable energy by 2045 is easier to grasp.
Can we power supermassive data centres — required for the needs of AI — without reverting to nuclear power? Tetris entrepreneur Henk Rogers has a cunning plan.
Thanks to last year’s Apple TV+ movie Tetris (Rotten Tomatoes rating: 87%), Henk Rogers is best known as the man who went behind the Iron Curtain to do a deal that brought the addictive computer game to the West.
Tetris was developed by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov. “When the Communist Party bans your video game from state computers because it’s lowering workers’ productivity, you know you have a hit on your hands,” The New York Times wrote. But in 1988, Pajitnov was giving away copies for free in the pre-capitalist USSR.
After happening on a Tetris demo at a trade show, Rogers headed to Russia to secure worldwide licensing rights, where he encountered a KGB femme fatale and rival bidder Kevin Maxwell, son of then-British media tycoon Robert Maxwell. Rollicking hijinks ensured, with Rogers largely outmanoeuvring the opposition. He and Pajitnov, who emigrated to the US in 1991, formed The Tetris Company, which today holds worldwide rights to the title, which has sold more than 600 million copies.
There’s been a mind-bending series of Tetris licensing deals across different gaming platforms as various commercial entities have traded hands. In January this year, Forbes said all told, the block-falling game had earned Rogers a personal fortune of around US$150 million ($247m).
Today the Dutch-born, part-Indonesian Rogers lives on a ranch in Hawaii, where he runs the Blue Planet Alliance — a non-profit he founded that advocates for “the world to legislatively mandate a commitment to 100% renewable energy by 2045”.
Rogers spoke to the Herald during a brief stopover in Auckland en route to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, where he’ll be pushing his message.
How did he get from video games to renewable energy?
It started after he sold a mobile gaming company in 2005 for a reported US$67m, plus stock.
“A month later, I found myself in an ambulance with 100% blockage of the “widowmaker” — that’s the largest artery in your heart. Ninety-five per cent of the people die in that ambulance,” he says.
It turned out he was one of the 5%.
“In the recovery room, I started looking for my missions in life. And the first one came from an article on the back of the newspaper, which said we’re going to kill all the coral in the world by the end of the century, ocean acidification, caused by carbon dioxide; caused by us.” Acidification would kill plankton, which produce about half the world’s oxygen. “So mission number one was to end the use of carbon-based fuel.”
Megapacks at KES are supporting the replacement of Hawaii’s last coal plant and proving the grid-forming technology that is critical to stabilizing the grid pic.twitter.com/mHtIqEyRwZ
— Tesla Megapack (@Tesla_Megapack) September 19, 2024
He invited scientists and policymakers to his ranch and started on his new career, lobbying for change.
“I tell the scientists and the engineers: ‘You got us into this. You get us out. Whatever it takes. You have to mend the science, then you know, engineering, whatever it takes.’ Then to the politicians, I say, Your job as a leader is to make a decision to end the use of carbon-based fuel in your country by 2045. I like that date because it’s the 100th anniversary of the United Nations.”
In 2015, Hawaii adopted a law mandating 100% renewable energy by 2045. California and a number of other states followed.
This year, Hawaii’s last coal plant was replaced by 158 Megapacks of Tesla batteries, holding 185MW of power. The batteries will help keep the grid stable as the use of solar and geothermal power increases.
While Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is pro-fossil fuel, Rogers sees state-level policy driving a continued shift to lower-emission options.
Renewable power is cheaper for consumers and has a higher profit margin for the companies that generate it, Rogers says.
He adds small island states such as Samoa suffer most from high fossil fuel prices and global warming, so have the most to gain by joining his 2045 campaign. In 2021, he established the Blue Planet Alliance to assist island communities affected by climate change in transitioning to 100% renewable energy, which he’ll be speaking about at CHOGM.
Rogers’ flying visit to New Zealand came — coincidentally, on the heels of Regional and Resource Development Minister Shane Jones calling for a new Crown entity that would take on the expense of drilling deeper wells to secure the country’s geothermal supply. And in the here-and-now, Contact Energy last week flicked the switch on Te Huka 3, a $300m geothermal station near Taupō that will run at 51.4 megawatts (MW) — enough to power the equivalent of 60,000 homes.
But elsewhere in the world, a form of zero-emission power is making a comeback.
Nuclear energy stocks have hit record highs on surging demand from AI.
Google revealed last week it had ordered six to seven small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) from Kairos Power, becoming the first tech company to commission new nuclear power plants to provide low-carbon electricity for its energy-hungry data centres.
That followed Microsoft’s pledge to buy 100% of the power if the Three Mile Island plant was restarted in the United States.
Rogers doesn’t like the earthquake risks, and worries about nuclear waste and what happens to old plants when they go out of commission.
“Geothermal gives you all the energy you want, basically. So I don’t see the need to go to nuclear. If you want a new data centre, build it next to a geothermal source.
Last week, Google’s energy boss said while his company was investing heavily in renewables to power its AI-hungry data centres, its modelling had made clear “that to really get grids to be carbon-free it will take more than just wind, solar and lithium-ion storage; you are going to need this next set of advanced technologies” like modular nuclear power plants.
And you could say not every country has, say, Australia’s natural advantages with solar, or ours with hydro, or the geothermal advantages from being on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Rogers isn’t buying that.
“We don’t have to be in places like Hawaii, New Zealand and Iceland. If you go deep enough, you’ll find it [residual heat for geothermal power]. And one thing that we know how to do is drill.”
So Rogers is doing his bit to try to save the planet.
More importantly, does he still have time for Tetris?
“Definitely. I have it on my phone. I play every day,” he says.
“But from time to time, I get a new game. The one I’ve been playing the longest now is Wordle — with family and friends. Six of us play, and we add up all of our scores for the week, from Sunday to Saturday. Whoever gets the lowest score wins.”
During his Auckland visit, Rogers signed a memorandum of understanding with Generate Zero, maker of a platform that allows enterprises to measure scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in line with international and local standards, and monitor their organisations overall environmental impact.
He also appeared on a discussion panel with a range of business leaders at an event organised by Generate Zero and Tower Insurance.
Generate Zero founder Carmen Vicelich said having no data or technology to do something is no longer an excuse. She said her firm had used AI to “create a world-first finance and operational decarbonisation platform which is now used by leading organisations including Westpac, Tower, AIG, BNZ, Kiwibank, TSB. Cooperative Bank and MBIE.”
Rod Drury discussed how he is helping make Queenstown 100% renewable and electrifying the city. There is a massive opportunity for NZ to be a supplier of the lowest-cost renewable energy in the world, Drury said. Given the growing demand for generative AI and the issues that other countries have faced meeting its energy demands this is critical. “If the private sector can prove the commercial case for low carbon projects it can help the conversation and help shift mindsets and policy,” Drury said. The Xero founder has recently pushed for changes in the energy industry that would mirror the break-up of Telecom into wholesale and retail companies. Drury is also one of the backers of Lonestone Energy, which raised $300m to fund five large solar farms and recently staged a $55m Series C round.
Kiwibank CEO Steve Jurkovich said constraints actually empower you to be more innovative and focus on clear problems. He urged the audience to view limitations not as obstacles, but as opportunities to think differently and devise unique solutions.
Amanda Ellis talked about the huge global fossil fuel subsidies and how we need to shift that financial support to renewables.
And Tower CEO Blair Turnbull discussed the work his company is doing to support the Pacific islands under high physical risk of climate change. Tower offers parametric insurance to cover certain risks - which is now being supported by the UN, Turnbull said. His company’s aim was to “building back better” to help mitigate poverty traps in the region.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
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