Is nuclear power the future of green energy for Big Tech?

Vaseline2 weeks ago

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Is nuclear power the future of green energy for Big Tech?

Following news of plans to restart Three Mile Island to power Microsoft’s AI data centers and revive Michigan’s Holtec Palisades nuclear power plant, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed in an interview with Nikkei Asia in Tokyo on Thursday, the tech giant is exploring the use of nuclear power as a potential “green” source to power its data centers.

“For the first time in our history, we have this core piece of technology that relates to everything we do today,” Pichai said of generative AI. He said: “I think the opportunity to do well here is something we’re leaning towards.”

Three years ago, Google launched plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. However, the proliferation of AI data centers has led to an increase in the energy consumption of big tech, which in turn, its emissions of greenhouse gases in 2023 increased 48% more than in 2019 on a carbon dioxide equivalent basis.

Behind the scenes, Google is likely scrambling to secure green energy and reduce emissions as 2030 quickly approaches.

“It was a very ambitious target,” Pichai said of the net zero emissions goals, “and we will continue to work very ambitiously towards it. Obviously, the trajectory of investment in artificial intelligence has added to the scale of the required task.”

He continued: “We are now looking at additional investments such as solar power and evaluating technologies such as small modular nuclear reactors etc.”

Nikkei noted that Pichai was unclear about where Google might start to source its nuclear power. Much of that power could come from revitalizing older nuclear power plants. That’s exactly what Microsoft did when it signed a power deal with Dormant Three Mile Island on the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Remember that just last week, we wrote that Oklo’s Sam Altman-backed Nuclear SMR company has announced that it has finalized an agreement with the Department of Energy to advance the next phase of SMR at Idaho National Lab. And a few days ago, the Biden administration closed a $1.52 billion loan with Holtec Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan to revive it.

Michael Alkin, chief investment officer at Sachem Cove Partners, told Bloomberg shortly after the Microsoft-Three Mile Island deal: “It’s a wake-up call for those who haven’t been paying attention,” adding that demand is already outstripping supply of uranium and the Three Mile Island reboot “takes that to a little different level.”

Also, the financing markets are becoming increasingly receptive to nuclear deals as governments and technology majors understand that the only way to achieve ambitious net zero goals is not with solar and wind power, but with nuclear power. In late December 2020, we pointed out to readers that this would happen in a memo titled “Buy Uranium: Is This the Start of the Next ESG Craze?”