Big Tech Corporations Going Nuclear

BP has also scaled back its emissions reduction commitment, reducing its target from a 40 percent cut by 2030 due to the financial benefits of continuing with fossil fuels. Gucci, once committed to carbon neutrality through verified carbon offsets, quietly removed its claim of being ‘entirely carbon neutral’ from its website in May 2023. Amazon has rolled back its goal of cutting emissions from half of its shipments by 2030, while Nestle has shifted its focus away from carbon offsets to concentrate on reducing actual emissions within its operation and supply chain. Easyjet, a proponent of carbon offsetting since 2019, announced in September 2022 that it would abandon its carbon offsetting scheme in favor of directly reducing emissions through investments in more efficient aircraft, sustainable aviation fuel, and operational improvements. ⁽²⁾

Companies have found that meeting net zero goals is both difficult and expensive, and threatens their sustainability.

The Biden-Harris climate program has led to enormous expenditures for electrical generation and extensive new power line capacity that is needed for wind and solar power. ⁽²⁾

It’s all turned on a dime. It was only in May that Microsoft was making the biggest ever renewable energy agreement in order to power AI and be carbon neutral. Ten minutes later and it’s resurrecting the old Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Lucky Americans don’t blow up their old power plants quips Jo Nova. ⁽³⁾

Going To Nuclear

Some attributer their struggles to AI (artificial intelligence). Other companies like Shell, Gucci, and Easyjet are also stepping away from their goals, putting a hole in the thesis that it was only due to AI. Shell, for instance, abandoned its 2035 target date of a 45 percent reduction in net carbon intensity- a key milestone towards Shell’s broader goal of net zero emissions by 2050—citing ‘uncertainty in the pace of change in the energy transition.’ Shell has also abandoned its plan to invest in global carbon-offset projects, like forest preservation. ⁽²⁾

Google, Oracle, Microsoft were all raving fans of renewable energy, but all of them have given up trying to reach net zero with wind and solar power. They’re all suddenly buying, building and talking about nuclear power. For some reason, when running $100 billion dollar data centers, no one seems to want to use random electricity that turns on and off when the wind or sun stops.  ⁽³⁾

Here’s what Blackout News reports:  ”After Oracle and Microsoft, Google plans are  to power its data center with nuclear power.” Apparently, wind and sun just don’t make the grade. CO2 neutrality just won’t be possible without nuclear power.

According to reports, Google is currently forming a team to research alternative  energies without CO2 emissions and plans to use small modular nuclear reactors to power its AI data centers. Today, many of Google’s data centers operate on a basis of about 90 percent CO2 free, But, 100% won’t be possible without nuclear, it appears. ⁽⁴⁾

Oracle is building the world’s largest data center and wants to power it with three small modular reactors. Amazon Web Services has bought a data center next to a nuclear plant, and is running job ads for a nuclear engineer. Recently, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, spoke about small nuclear reactors. The chief of Open AI also happens to chair the boards of two nuclear start-ups. ⁽³⁾

Others are getting onboard with nuclear. To build massive data centers generative AI requires major companies like Amazon and Microsoft to go nuclear.

Just recently, Amazon Web Services (AWS) group announced three different investments, including one targeting a different startup that has its own design for small, modular nuclear reactors—one that has not received regulatory approval. ⁽⁵⁾

Last year, Constellation signed a deal giving Microsoft the rights to receive up to 35% of its power from nuclear sources in addition to its existing solar and wind purchases from Constellation for Microsoft’s Boydton, Va., data center.

In the broader industry, many of the deals under discussion are with existing nuclear power providers for hyperscalars (large-scale data centers) to access energy or to employ small module nuclear reactors (SMRs) with smaller carbon footprints that will be annexed to existing nuclear power plants. Nucor, Oklo, Rolls-Royce Westinghouse Electric, Moltex Energy, Terrestrial Energy, General Electric, Hitachi Nuclear Energy and X-energy are among the roster of companies with SMRs under development to meet the growing needs of AI data centers.

Summary

Big Tech’s move to nuclear energy to power its data centers shows that green energies like wind and sun alone cannot meet the energy needs of our modern digital world. ⁽⁴⁾

The AI boom has left technology companies scrambling for low carbon sources of energy to power their data centers. The International Energy Agency estimates that electricity demand from AI data centers and crypto could more than double by 2026. Even its low-ball estimates say that the added demand will be the equivalent to all the electricity used in Sweden, or in the high-usage case- Germany. ⁽¹⁾

The grid needs the kinds of clean, reliable sources of energy that can support the build out of these technologies said Michael Terrell of Google. “We feel nuclear can play an important role in helping meet our demand, and helping meet our demand cleanly, in a way that’s more around the clock. ⁽⁶⁾

References

1. Jo Nova, “How it ends: 96% of bog corporations are quietly abandoning their climate commitments,” principia-scientific.org, September 9, 2024
2. IER, “Big corporations are abandoning their climate commitments,” instituteforenergyresearch.org, September 23, 2024
3. Jo Nova, “First hint of energy squeeze and Big Tech drops the wind and solar purity, and launches into nuclear power,” joannenova.com.au, October 2, 2024
4. Gosselin, “Germany risks being left behind, big tech confirms CO2 neutrality only possible with nuclear power,” notrickszone.com, October 1, 2024
5. John Timmer, “Amazon joins Google in investing in small modular nuclear power,” arstechnica.com, October 16, 2024
6. Ryan Browne, “Why Big Tech is turning to nuclear to power its energy intensive AI ambitions,” nbcnewyork.com, October 16, 2024