Big Tech: Renewable Energy Champion or Climate Pariah

Data center growth, REC accounting concerns, and behind-the-meter nuclear contracts. What the heck is going on with big tech companies and carbon emissions these days?

Works Referenced – check em’ out!

Rhodium Group, Taking Stock 2024: US Energy and Emissions Outlook, July 2024, https://rhg.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Taking-Stock-2024_US-Energy-and-Emissions-Outlook.pdf

Princeton REPEAT Lab, Climate Progress 2024: REPEAT Project's Annual U.S. Emissions Pathways Update, August 2024, https://zenodo.org/records/13345138

Goldman Sachs, AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand, May 2024, https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand

Bloomberg, AI Is Already Wreaking Havoc on Global Power Systems, June 2024, https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-ai-data-centers-power-grids/

Financial Times, Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on net zero (August 2024), https://www.ft.com/content/2d6fc319-2165-42fb-8de1-0edf1d765be3

Utility Dive, Talen Energy defends interconnection agreement for Amazon data center at nuclear plant (June 2024), https://www.utilitydive.com/news/talen-amazon-data-center-interconnection-agreement-nuclear-pjm-aep-exelon/720139/

Katie Tarasov, CNBC, Generative AI requires massive amounts of power and water, and the aging U.S. grid can’t handle the load (July 2024), https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/28/how-the-massive-power-draw-of-generative-ai-is-overtaxing-our-grid.html

Timestamps:

• 00:00–Data Center Growth
• 01:55–Data Center Installs Fossil Fuel Plant
• 2:50–Talen AWS Nuclear Deal in Pennsylvania
• 3:30–Positive News! Ok No.
• 3:40–Greenwashing with RECs
• 4:58–Power Offtake Agreements
• 6:20–Do Companies Even Care About Emissions?
• 6:48–In Defense of RECs
• 7:50–Thought Experiment: Marginal Benefit of 1 MWh renewable energy
• 8:50–Solar vs Solar: Individual Project Lifecycle Emissions
• 9:30–RECs seem wrong! But probably still useful
• 10:00–Google’s Solution
• 10:21–Verdict
• 11:15–Long-term power contracts