Key Points
- Google secures hydroelectric power deal to meet growing AI and cloud computing demands
- The deal is the largest of its kind for hydroelectricity
- Google will receive carbon-free electricity from Brookfield’s Holtwood and Safe Harbor plants in Pennsylvania
- The company aims to upgrade or develop existing facilities to add more power to the grid
- Google’s efforts will initially focus on the PJM, the largest grid in the US
- The company is committed to responsibly growing its digital infrastructure
- AI rival Meta plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on gigwatt-sized data centers
- The new campuses will be among the largest on earth
- Data centers consume significant amounts of water, potentially leading to shortages
A white Google logo sign stands in a landscaped garden area. The sign features Google’s distinctive multicolored letters (blue, red, yellow, blue, green, red) on a white background. The sign is surrounded by lush green vegetation, including grass and decorative plants, with trees visible in the background. The image has a shallow depth of field, with the foreground vegetation slightly blurred.
Google’s Renewable Energy Deal
Google has closed a deal to secure hydroelectric power, as it looks to meet the data demands of its growing AI and cloud computing platforms by harnessing low-cost clean energy. The deal, which is the largest of its kind for hydroelectricity, will provide Google with carbon-free electricity from Brookfield’s Holtwood and Safe Harbor plants in Pennsylvania.
The Hydro Framework Agreement (HFA) allows Google to upgrade or develop the existing facilities as it sees fit in an ongoing commitment to adding more power to the grid. At the outset, Google’s efforts will largely be focused on the PJM, the largest grid in the US with 65 million customers, which is currently struggling to keep up with the data demands of big tech’s seemingly insatiably power-hungry AI projects.
Google said in a statement that it was dedicated to “responsibly growing the digital infrastructure that powers daily life for people, communities and businesses.” The company’s latest energy deal comes in the same week that AI rival Meta said it will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a number of gigwatt-sized data centers, as part of its quest to create better-than-human-level “superintelligence” in all of its AI domains.
The new campuses will be among the largest on earth, with the first to arrive being the Ohio-based Prometheus at some point next year. A typical data center consumes around 500,000 gallons of water each day, but the emerging AI-focused complexes being built by tech giants could reportedly push this figure into the millions, as recently reported by The New York Times.
Source: engadget.com