Examining Google's Push to Grow Data Centres Sustainably
With AI demand growth placing more pressure on data centres, big providers like Google are therefore looking for a number of ways in which they can expand, but keep emissions under check.
The tech giant has therefore spearheaded a three-pronged partnership that it hopes will break down some of the energy barriers that are slowing AI’s journey towards carbon neutrality.
Joining forces with Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate to tightly couple data centre growth with clean power generation, the three parties hope that, by thoughtfully building data centre load next to new additional power generation, it will reduce the operational timeline and the amount of new transmission required.
The blueprints
Announced via a blog written by Ruth Porat, President & Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet and Google, she says it will “synchronise new clean power generation with data centre growth in a novel way”.
Ruth adds that it will “enable US leadership in AI development”.
The project will see Google, Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate develop industrial parks with gigawatts of data centre capacity in the US, co-located with new clean energy plants to power them.
"The first phase of the first co-located clean energy project is expected to be operational by 2026 and fully complete in 2027," says Ruth.
Part of the announce revealed Google, TPG Rise Climate and other investors are also making a capital investment in Intersect Power.
The imperative of the partnership
Sustainability Strategy Lead – gTech at Google Robert Little, said on LinkedIn that there is an urgent need to speed up the time it takes to get power projects operational, saying “More than four years — that's how long it takes to build power projects in the US, more than double the time it took just 15 years ago.
“This lag in electricity grid planning, coupled with the urgent need for sustainable solutions, presents a significant challenge to economic growth, especially with AI's potential to add over a trillion dollars annually to US GDP by 2030.”
Ruth adds: “This partnership was motivated by the reality that resources are necessary to capture AI’s extraordinary potential to advance scientific breakthroughs and solve critical challenges in healthcare, education and beyond — and generate economic growth.”
Ruth points to a number of benefits from harnessing the power of AI, sustainability and swiftly:
- Economists estimate the GDP uplift of AI in the US could be in excess of a trillion dollars annually by 2030
- The upside from two additional catalysts for the US economy and job creation: onshoring of manufacturing operations and the electrification of the transport, heating and cooling sectors
"These profound opportunities require expanding electricity capacity with reliable, secure power sources," Ruth explains.
“But to capture the upside, the public and private sector each need to do their part to support the development of job-creating power infrastructure.”
Already, understanding the issue that AI data centres will place on power demands, Google inked a world's first agreement to purchase nuclear energy from small modular reactors (SMRs).
Google see the agreement as not only meeting its own energy needs, but as part of a broader strategy to accelerate the development and deployment of advanced clean electricity technologies.
Working together
America’s electricity grid planning and investment are lagging behind the country’s economic growth.
Yet Jim Coulter, Executive Chairman of TPG and Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate, says: “The convergence of two megatrends – decarbonisation and digitisation – is creating unique opportunities for innovative partnerships.
“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.”
Many regional grids face generation capacity and transmission bottlenecks, leaving them unable to accommodate load increases.
“As a result, for US power projects, the typical time from proposal to construction has more than doubled, from less than two years for projects built in 2000-2007 to more than four years for those built in 2018-2023," Ruth explains.
The partnership will see Intersect Power build new clean energy assets in regions and projects of interest, while Google will be able to provide power offtake as an anchor tenant in the co-located industrial park that would support data centre development.
“Once built, this means 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," she explains.
Robert believes this innovative approach will synchronises clean power generation with data centre growth, "ensuring reliable and carbon-free energy for AI; reduces the timeline to operation by bringing data centres online alongside their dedicated power source; minimises the need for new transmission infrastructure by building where power is generated.
“This strategy not only accelerates the transition to a carbon-free future for AI but also helps alleviate grid constraints and improve overall reliability.”
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