A New Google-Funded Data Center Will Be Powered by a Massive Gas Plant [View all]

Source: Wired

A new data center being built with investments from Google will be partly powered by a natural gas project that emits the yearly emissions equivalent of putting more than 970,000 additional gas-powered cars on the road.

According to a Texas state air permit application, the Goodnight data center campus in Armstrong County, Texas will be partly powered by private natural gas turbines that will emit more than 4.5 million tons of greenhouse gases each year. This is more than ten times higher the yearly emissions of an average natural gas plant, and more emissions per year than an average coal plant.

Michael Thomas, the founder of Cleanview and author of a new report on Google’s power strategy for its data centers, says that Google’s focus on and continued commitment to renewables is often held up by environmental groups as an example of Big Tech doing things right. But the plans for this campus, he alleges, illustrate how even big tech companies with stated climate goals and a public commitment to renewable energy are exploring fossil fuel investments as the AI race heats up.

While the Goodnight campus is not the biggest fossil fuel project planned in the US to power data centers, nor one that will create the most emissions, the fact that the company is seemingly now exploring private, off-the-grid gas power for their data centers “suggests that something is changing,” he says.

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Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/a-new-google-funded-data-center-will-be-powered-by-a-massive-gas-plant/

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