America’s data centers used a whopping 176 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023, representing 4.4% of the nation’s total power consumption. Those numbers are only going up as AI tools gain popularity, pushing computing loads higher. By 2028, data centers could gobble as much as 580 TWh of power, or 12% of the U.S.’s total electricity consumption that year, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has projected.
The surge seriously complicates goals set by hyperscalers, like Google and Microsoft, to slash planet-warming pollution.
Utilities from Virginia to Nevada are planning to build large numbers of gas-fired power plants and to extend the life of aging coal plants to satiate the tech industry’s rising demand — moves that could spike both utility customers’ bills and carbon emissions. Data centers themselves typically rely on diesel-burning backup generators to ensure our increasingly digitized world runs without interruption.
Canary Media recently discussed these tensions with Lucia Tian, Google’s head of advanced energy technologies, and Sean James, Microsoft’s senior director of energy and data-center research. The conversation took place during last week’s SOSV Climate Tech Summit.
Tian helps lead Google’s efforts to commercialize cutting-edge “clean, firm” technologies that could supply around-the-clock power to data centers. Google was among the earliest backers of Fervo Energy, a startup that’s operating and building next-generation geothermal plants in Nevada and Utah. The search giant has also signed a unique deal with Kairos Power to potentially develop a fleet of small modular nuclear reactors.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has inked a long-term power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy to support the company’s $1.6 billion plan to reopen its shuttered Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania. James said that, inside its own fenceline, Microsoft is developing cleaner alternatives to diesel generators, such as hydrogen fuel cells and advanced batteries. The tech giant is also improving the design of server racks and other hardware to improve energy efficiency and reduce the need for new power capacity.
The two panelists also shared their hopes that long-duration energy storage will eventually be able to commercialize and scale, bottling up enough power from wind and solar farms to provide days’ worth of backup for data centers. Today’s lithium-ion batteries typically only last a few hours, though startups are making progress on medium-term systems that can provide eight to 24 hours’ worth of power.
Companies like Form Energy are trying to push the envelope even further. Canary Media’s Julian Spector spoke with Form’s CEO Mateo Jaramillo about the firm’s 100-hour, iron-air battery technology at last week’s SOSV Climate Tech Summit. You can watch the conversation here.
