No surprise Google is determined for extra energy: the corporate’s knowledge facilities greater than doubled their electrical energy use in simply 4 years.
The attention-popping stat comes from Google’s most up-to-date sustainability report, which it launched late final week. In 2024, Google knowledge facilities used 30.8 million megawatt-hours of electrical energy. That’s up from 14.4 million megawatt-hours in 2020, the earliest yr Google broke out knowledge heart consumption.
Google has pledged to make use of solely carbon-free sources of electrical energy to energy its operations, a process made tougher by its breakneck tempo of knowledge heart development.
And the corporate’s electrical energy woes are virtually fully an information heart downside. In 2024, knowledge facilities accounted for 95.8% of the complete firm’s electron funds.
The corporate’s ratio of data-center-to-everything-else has been remarkably constant over the past 4 years. Although 2020 is the earliest yr Google has made knowledge heart electrical energy consumption figures out there, it’s doable to make use of that ratio to extrapolate again in time. Some fast math reveals that Google’s knowledge facilities possible used simply over 4 million megawatt-hours of electrical energy in 2014. That’s development of seven-fold in only a decade.
The tech firm has already picked a lot of the low-hanging fruit by bettering the effectivity of its knowledge facilities. These efforts have paid off, and the corporate is ceaselessly lauded for being at the vanguard. However as the corporate’s energy utilization effectiveness (PUE) has approached the theoretical ultimate of 1.0, progress has slowed. Final yr, Google’s company-wide PUE dropped to 1.09, a 0.01 enchancment over 2023 however solely 0.02 higher than a decade in the past.
It’s clear that Google wants extra electrical energy, and to maintain to its carbon-free pledge, the corporate has been investing closely in a spread of power sources, together with geothermal, each flavors of nuclear energy, and renewables.
Geothermal reveals promise for knowledge heart operations. By tapping into the Earth’s warmth, enhanced geothermal energy vegetation can constantly generate electrical energy whatever the climate. And lots of startups, together with Google-backed Fervo Vitality, are making it doable to drill worthwhile wells in additional locations.
On the nuclear fusion facet, Google final week introduced it might put money into Commonwealth Fusion Methods and purchase 200 megawatts of electrical energy from its forthcoming Arc energy plant, scheduled to return on-line within the early 2030s. Within the nuclear fission world, Google has pledged to purchase 500 megawatts of electrical energy from Kairos Energy, a small modular reactor startup.
The nuclear offers have but to ship energy — and so they received’t for 5 years or extra. Within the meantime, the corporate has been on a renewable power shopping for spree. In Could, the corporate purchased 600 megawatts of photo voltaic capability in South Carolina, and in January, it introduced a deal for 700 megawatts of photo voltaic in Oklahoma. Google mentioned in 2024 it was working with Intersect Energy and TPG Rise Local weather to construct a number of gigawatts price of carbon-free energy vegetation, a $20 billion funding.
The outlay isn’t shocking on condition that photo voltaic and (to a lesser extent) wind are the one two sources of energy which might be available earlier than the tip of the last decade.
New nuclear energy vegetation take years to allow and construct, and even essentially the most optimistic timelines don’t see them connecting to the grid or an information heart earlier than the tip of the last decade. Pure gasoline, which the U.S. has loads of, is hamstrung by five-plus-year waitlists for brand spanking new generators. That leaves renewables paired with battery storage.
Google has contracted with sufficient renewables to match its complete consumption, although these sources don’t at all times ship electrons when and the place the corporate wants them.
“After we introduced to the world that we had been obtain that 100% annual matching objective, we had been very clear that wasn’t the tip state,” Michael Terrell, Google’s head of superior power, advised reporters final week. “The top sport was 24/7 carbon free power across the clock in all places we function always.”
Google has some work to do.
Worldwide, the corporate has about 66% of its knowledge heart consumption, matched to the hour, powered by carbon-free electrical energy. However that common papers over some regional challenges. Whereas its Latin American knowledge facilities hit 92% final yr, its Center East and Africa amenities are solely at 5%.
These hurdles are a part of why Google is investing in secure, carbon-free sources like fission and fusion, Terrell mentioned. “To ensure that us to ultimately attain this objective, we’re going to need to have these applied sciences,” he mentioned.
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