Google Enters $20 Billion RE Partnership To Run US Data Centers
Source：taiyangnews
Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate on board to co-locate renewable energy projects
Intersect Power has started work on the 1st of its co-located clean energy project for the partnership with Google. (Photo Credit: Intersect Power)
Key Takeaways
- Google, Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate have joined hands for a $20 billion clean energy partnership
- They plan to co-locate data centers and clean energy assets with storage in the US
- This is aimed to ensure a high percentage of continuous clean energy supply and less load on the grid
Global technology giant Alphabet Inc’s Google has entered a strategic partnership with Intersect Power and TPG Rise Climate targeting an investment of $20 billion in renewable energy and storage infrastructure by the end of this decade. This will deliver ‘gigawatts of new data center capacity’ for Google across the US.
The idea is to co-locate data centers with a ‘high capacity factor, low-cost, clean electricity and added battery storage’ to reduce the need for transmission over longer distances and ensure high percentages of continuous electricity supply.
“To realize AI’s potential, the growth in electricity demand must be met with new, clean power sources. 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,” said Global Head of Data Center Energy at Google, Amanda Peterson Corio.
Intersect will build the clean energy assets. Once built, Google will then build its data center alongside and enter offtake agreements with the data center campuses as an anchor tenant in co-located industrial parks. This will bring new generation capacity to the grid to meet its own load.
The US renewable energy company says it has already started financing the partnership’s 1st co-located clean energy project. It is scheduled to come online in 2026 and be fully complete by 2027.
Intersect has also secured over $800 million in a funding round led by TPG Rise Climate and Google. Climate Adaptive Infrastructure and Greenbelt Capital Partners also participated in this round.
Google is among the top 3 US corporate solar energy procurers, having installed around 2.59 GW according to the Solar Means Business 2024 report of the Solar Energy Industries Association.