Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently said the company is considering the possibility of using nuclear power. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
As big tech companies such as Amazon and Microsoft consider nuclear energy to meet the rapidly increasing power demands of their data centers, Google executives recently announced that the company is also considering using nuclear energy to meet its carbon-free energy goals. He indicated that he was evaluating the feasibility.
Will Google follow in the footsteps of Amazon and Microsoft?
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and the company’s global data center energy director Amanda Peterson-Colio recently spoke to the media about the possibility of nuclear energy. “We are currently considering additional investments such as solar power generation and are evaluating technologies such as small modular nuclear reactors,” Pichai told Nikkei Asia.
Corio said in an interview with Bloomberg that the company is already in talks with U.S. utilities and generators about new technologies, including nuclear power. She also mentioned the possibility of introducing nuclear power in other countries, such as Japan.
However, details such as schedule, location, and scale were not disclosed. Google aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030 and transition to 24/7 carbon-free energy.
Read more: From RE100 to CFE 24/7: Addressing corporate challenges in achieving carbon-free energy in Asia
The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly increasing data center energy consumption, posing a major challenge to tech giants’ emissions reduction goals. This situation has increased interest in low-carbon nuclear energy solutions.
Microsoft recently signed a power purchase agreement to restart Pennsylvania’s controversial Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and Amazon purchased a nuclear-powered data center complex in the state.
Data centers consume large amounts of electricity, leading many tech giants to consider nuclear energy as part of their strategies to meet emissions reduction goals. (Image source: Pixabay)
Nuclear energy meets 24-hour power needs
Nuclear power plants provide stable baseload electricity and can meet the basic demands of the power grid 24/7. This reliability makes nuclear energy a viable solution for the continued operation of data centers. Experts believe this could trigger a wave of global nuclear investment as influential companies enter the nuclear energy sector.
Ed Crooks, senior vice president at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, wrote in a late September article that there are only a limited number of options to simultaneously meet the needs for continuous power supply and carbon reduction, and nuclear power is one of them. He said there is. Although the cost of nuclear energy is higher and deployment times longer than wind and solar, now is an opportunity for wealthy technology companies to invest in mitigating future risks associated with low supply of low-carbon electricity. .
Wood Mackenzie predicts that global nuclear power capacity will reach 669GW by 2050, more than doubling from the current 323GW. However, Mr Crooks warned that building nuclear facilities, including SMRs, still carries the risk of high costs and delays. In addition, nuclear projects require regulatory approval and must overcome public opposition related to nuclear waste disposal.
Source: Bloomberg, Nikkei Asia, The Verge, Wood Mackenzie
