Artificial intelligence and the data centers that drive the technology are booming with no end in sight. That’s putting mounting pressure on tech giants to come up with climate friendly ways to power all that AI computing.
A new Department of Energy report tracking data center power use found that it increased 7% from 2014 to 2018 and then jumped 18% between 2018 and 2023. Looking ahead, the demand is expected to increase between 13% to 27% from 2023 to 2028.
The computer-packed sites pose a specific challenge in that they need reliable power 24/7 and it needs to be clean to fulfill tech company pledges to eliminate their carbon emissions. And yet the DOE predicted that data centers could gobble up to 12% of the total U.S. power supply before the decade is over.
“The huge load growth these tech companies are building for means they need to use every tool in their toolkit,” said Rob Collier, senior vice president of marketplaces for LevelTen Energy, a Seattle company that facilitates clean energy purchases.
So what does that look like? Here are five strategies being employed by Seattle-area data center hyperscalers Microsoft and Amazon.
Going nuclear part one: Fission
Tech companies are turning to nuclear fission, both from existing reactors and next-gen small modular reactors (SMRs).
Microsoft signed a deal in September to restart a nuclear reactor at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island — a facility made infamous by a partial meltdown in 1979.
Amazon has an agreement to buy a data center in Pennsylvania that’s plugged into the nation’s sixth largest nuclear power plant. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, however, rejected plans to increase the amount of electricity that’s feeding the data center. The decision is being appealed.
Amazon also announced a deal with Energy Northwest to fund preliminary work required for building SMRs in central Washington, with the right to purchase electricity from the plant. It’s also exploring SMR construction in Virginia.
Despite the hiccups and hurdles, experts expect the companies to continue pursuit of nuclear fission.
Going nuclear part two: Fusion
Nuclear fusion, or the smashing together of small, light atoms to make energy, is more of a wildcard. Fusion power has nearly limitless potential and fewer safety risks than fission — provided someone can make it commercially viable.
The target is arguably are getting closer, though it’s still years out.
Nonetheless, Microsoft and Helion Energy in 2023 signed a historic agreement in which the Everett, Wash., fusion company plans to build a plant in Washington state and get it running by 2028. In the meantime, concerns about Helion’s likelihood of success have bubbled up.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has invested in Helion, while Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has backed General Fusion in British Columbia. Everett’s Zap Energy raised $130 million this summer to continue its fusion efforts.
More deals could follow. Altman has said that the future of AI is predicated on dramatic advancements in the availability of clean power, saying “we need fusion or we need like radically cheaper solar plus storage or something at massive scale.”
Joining forces for deployment
The tech giants are teaming up with each other and outside organizations to create strength in numbers and help catalyze clean energy developments.
Microsoft has partnered with Google and steelmaker Nucor to find clean energy first-of-a-kind and early projects that they can back financially to get them deployed. That includes advanced nuclear, next-generation geothermal, clean hydrogen, long-duration energy storage and other power options.
Amazon joined the three companies in a separate deal that explores a strategy for cutting the long-term costs of investing in clean energy.
In other collaborations, Acadia Infrastructure Capital and Microsoft teamed up in December to launch plans for developing renewable power projects nationwide, while clean energy company Iberdrola and Amazon previously signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) to build clean energy plants globally.
“PPAs represent a proven pathway for large energy consumers to secure renewable energy that meets their emissions reductions goals. Going forward, PPAs will continue to play a critical role in how technology companies reach these goals,” said Collier, whose company supports these deals.
Exploring other emerging sources
Tech companies have predominantly relied on wind and solar for their renewable energy supplies — Amazon alone has invested in more than 500 wind and solar projects worldwide — but emerging, round-the-clock sources are starting to get more attention.
Google has taken the lead on geothermal power, though Microsoft has plans to build a geothermal plant in Kenya to power one of its data centers and is using geothermal sources to heat and cool its Redmond headquarters.
Amazon flipped the switch last year with a project in California that pairs solar with battery energy storage systems, and has plans for nine additional solar and battery projects. Microsoft has deployed battery systems at sites in Europe.
Hydrogen also has potential as a power solution. Amazon is already using it in limited applications to fuel equipment at fulfillment centers. And in 2022, Microsoft successfully demoed a large-scale generator running on hydrogen fuel cells at one of its data centers.
“We see hydrogen as a key input to support with backup power, grid support, and and microgrids, and we’re looking forward to working with these tech firms to enable hydrogen backup generation to further decarbonize their operations,” said Chris Green, president of the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association (PNWH2).
Boosting efficiencies
Both the data centers and the equipment that hums inside them are getting more energy efficient.
Amazon is developing its own AI processing chips at a facility in Texas that it says are higher performing and more sustainable than other options. Last month, it announced data center “innovations in power, cooling and hardware design” that curb energy use.
Microsoft likewise says it’s working to tweak its chips, data center construction, equipment and operations to reduce climate impacts.
“Over the past decade, our quest to innovate across every part of our cloud infrastructure to deliver more sustainable cloud services has led to many changes across how we design, build and operate our data centers,” said Melanie Nakagawa, chief sustainability officer, in an April blog post.
https://ift.tt/FZ8lQP2 January 10, 2025 at 03:00PM GeekWire
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