Tanya Weaver Thu 12 Dec 2024
Collected at: https://eandt.theiet.org/2024/12/12/google-reveals-its-new-ai-data-centres-will-be-powered-site-clean-energy-sources
Google, Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate have partnered to ensure Google’s data centre growth is powered with clean power generation.
Data centres are energy hungry . This is not only due to their 24/7 computational-heavy operation, but also the air conditioning systems needed to cool down the signifiant heat generated during computation.
With the growth of AI technology, data centres are set to consume even more electricity in the coming years.
Indeed, in July 2024 Google reported that its reliance on data centres to power its new AI products caused its carbon emissions to soar by nearly 50% in five years.
However, the tech giant recently announced that it is partnering with clean energy company Intersect Power and dedicated climate investing platform TPG Rise Climate to use on-site clean energy to power its forthcoming data centres.
In a blog post on Google’s website written by Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google, she said that this partnership will enable “US leadership in AI development, while thoughtfully building data centre load next to new additional power generation where possible – reducing both the timeline to operation and the amount of new transmission required”.
She revealed that the first phase of the first “co-located clean energy project” is expected to be operational by 2026 and fully complete in 2027.
However, increasing energy capacity in this way will put constraints on the existing energy grid. In the US, many regional grids face generation capacity and transmission bottlenecks.
To ease grid burden, Google says that its new data centres will ensure that clean energy generation built on size will be ‘right-sized’ for the data centre.
As Porat said in the blog, the Google data centre would come online alongside its own clean power, bringing new generation capacity to the grid to meet our load, reduce time to operation and improve grid reliability.
Jim Coulter, managing partner of TPG Rise Climate, said: “Bringing together a leading carbon-free power producer, one of the world’s largest hyperscalers and the leading private equity investor in climate solutions to capitalise on this opportunity, we are committed to delivering carbon-free data centres at lower cost and greater scale.”
Sheldon Kimber, CEO and founder of Intersect Power, said: “Deep, collaborative partnerships combined with creative problem-solving are the only way that we can meet the explosion of AI growth, as well as society’s accelerating electricity demand.”
Google hopes that this “power first” approach to data centre development will be a blueprint for the future.
Porat concludes the blog post by saying that “in close coordination with grid planners, operators and communities, Google will continue to otherwise invest in local clean energy resources that drive economic benefits and competitively-priced clean energy capacity”.
In October 2024, Google announced that it has signed a deal with California’s Kairos Power to power its AI services using nuclear energy generated by small modular reactors.
Earlier this week, the tech giant revealed Willow – a 105-qubit quantum computing chip that not only demonstrates exceptional computational performance, but also significantly reduces error rates as the system expands.
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