Artificial intelligence, machine learning and connected devices are quickly becoming ingrained in our daily lives, proliferating everything from our smartphones to our household appliances.
While we wonder at the conveniences these technologies provide, the data centers that house the infrastructure behind the modern marvels are facing two significant problems – to keep pace with demand, developers need to build more data centers, and they need more electricity to power them.
A new Google-led partnership could ease some of the pressure. The technology company is joining with clean energy company Intersect Power and global impact investing platform and private equity investor TPG Rise Climate to co-locate high-capacity, low-cost, clean renewable energy power and storage solutions with new data center loads.
“To realize AI’s potential, the growth in electricity demand must be met with new, clean power sources,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google. “The scale of AI presents an opportunity to completely rethink data center development — by co-locating them where possible with the grid-connected carbon-free energy that keeps them up and running.”
The companies say this novel approach to data center siting and power will create gigawatts of new data center capacity by the end of the decade. Power utilities are struggling to keep up, so data center developers are working to innovate their way around the grid constraints.
“This partnership is an evolution of the way hyperscalers and power providers have previously worked together,” said Sheldon Kimber, CEO and founder of Intersect Power. “We can and are developing innovative solutions to expand data center capacity while reducing the strain on the grid.”
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