In recent months, nuclear power has gained a lot of attention from tech companies that are eager for energy, with Google being one of the key players. However, it seems that simply building new nuclear reactors won’t be enough to meet the energy demands of their artificial intelligence (AI) projects. To address this, Google is now collaborating with other companies to create a significant amount of renewable energy, battery storage, and improvements to the electrical grid to ensure their data centers have enough power.
On Tuesday, Google announced that it has signed a deal with a renewable energy developer named Intersect Power and an investment fund called TPG Rise Climate. This partnership aims to generate a large amount of carbon-free energy, enough to support several massive data centers. The total investment in this renewable energy initiative is expected to be around $20 billion, and Intersect Power is already working on financing the first project, according to Dandali.
As part of this agreement, Google will invest $800 million in equity into Intersect Power, with TPG leading this funding round, along with participation from Google, CAI, and Greenbelt Capital Partners.
Tech companies like Google are racing to enhance their AI capabilities, which has led to a rapid expansion of data centers. Experts predict that by 2027, these new data centers might not have enough power to operate effectively, pushing tech companies to seek out new energy sources.
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For this new renewable energy project, a typical data center that requires 1 gigawatt of power will be paired with an equal amount of energy generated from wind and solar sources, along with battery storage that can provide energy for two to four hours. Both the data center and the renewable energy facilities will be connected to the same point on the electrical grid. Google has committed to covering any costs related to upgrading the grid to support this connection.
The goal of this arrangement is to ensure that both the data centers and the renewable energy facilities can connect to the grid quickly. Currently, there are over 11,860 requests from power producers in the U.S. waiting to connect to the grid, totaling about 2.05 terawatts of energy capacity—almost double what is currently installed. Most of these requests are for solar and battery projects.
Google and Intersect Power plan to take a step-by-step approach, with the first phase of their project expected to be operational by 2026 and fully completed by 2027. This timeline demonstrates how quickly renewable energy can be implemented.
This fast pace may put pressure on nuclear power companies, which typically have longer project timelines. For instance, Microsoft is working on restarting a reactor at Three Mile Island, which is set to be operational by 2028. Google has a deal with a small modular reactor company called Kairos, aiming for its first power plant to be ready by 2030, while Amazon has a contract with another small modular reactor company, X-Energy, targeting the early 2030s.
However, all these timelines depend on whether the projects proceed as planned and finish on schedule, which has been a challenge for the nuclear power industry in the past.
