Commercial, Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions - December 11, 2024
Google to Co-Locate Data Centers and Clean Energy
Google entered a strategic partnership to synchronize new clean power generation with data center growth in a novel way.
The tech company is collaborating with Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate, a private equity investor in scaling climate solutions globally, to enable U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) development while building data center load next to new additional power generation wherever possible in an effort to reduce both the timeline to operation and the amount of new transmission required.
The partnership calls for Google, Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate to develop industrial parks with gigawatts of data center capacity in the U.S that are 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. Additionally, Google, TPG Rise Climate and other investors are making a capital investment in Intersect Power.
Google is focused on evolving digital infrastructure development by co-locating grid-connected, carbon-free energy and data center investments into closely linked infrastructure projects. This approach is an important complement to efforts to unlock development of new transmission infrastructure and optimize utilization of the existing grid.
When Intersect Power builds new clean energy assets in regions and projects of interest, Google will be able to provide power offtake as an anchor tenant in the co-located industrial park that would support data center development. Once built, this means the Google data center 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.
“The convergence of two megatrends — decarbonization and digitization — is creating unique opportunities for innovative partnerships,” says Jim Coulter, Executive Chairman of TPG and Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate, in a statement. “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 capitalize on this opportunity, we are committed to delivering carbon-free data centers at lower cost and greater scale.”
Google’s data centers are among the most efficient in the world, helping meet growing demand for Google Cloud and powering other digital services like Search, Maps and Workspace.
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