Power & Sites · United States

Google Secures More Than 6 GW in Power Deals for AI Data Centers

Credited to TheElec · thelec.net · 1h ago

Google announced a series of power agreements totaling more than 6 gigawatts (GW) as it moves to secure electricity for its artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

Google signed a long-term power agreement totaling 3,590 megawatts (MW) with Constellation Energy. It also reached an agreement with Black Hills to secure 2.7 GW of power resources, including reserves, to supply a data center in Wyoming. About a quarter of the capacity covered by the Constellation agreement, or 890 MW, will be newly added through uprates at existing nuclear plants.

According to Constellation Energy and Black Hills, Google signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Constellation to secure 890 MW of new carbon-free generation capacity by increasing the output of 11 existing nuclear units. The first uprate is scheduled for 2028, and Constellation will invest heavily to support the project.

Separately, Google and Constellation signed a 15-year energy supply agreement covering 2.7 GW of existing generation assets within the PJM Interconnection, the U.S. East Coast power-grid operator. By committing to purchase power and generation capacity over the long term, the agreement provides Constellation with a stable revenue base to keep its existing generation assets supplying the PJM power market.

Along with securing power, the two companies will apply AI directly to power-plant and grid operations. Constellation plans to use Google Cloud and Gemini Enterprise to automate power-generation equipment monitoring, maintenance, dispatch optimization, site selection, power-flow analysis, permitting, and interconnection planning. Google Cloud will also be used to strengthen security for operational technology (OT) networks at nuclear plants that are separated from external networks. The strategy expands AI beyond a technology that increases data-center power consumption into "AI for energy" aimed at improving power generation and operating efficiency.

Black Hills signed an agreement to supply power to a data center that Google plans to build in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The agreement runs through 2048, with total power resources for the data center reaching 2.7 GW including reserves. Power service is scheduled to begin in late 2027, with the project expected to reach peak load in 2030.

Black Hills will provide up to 590 MW of the total power resources through its own generation facilities and purchases from the power market. To do so, the company plans to build 564 MW of new natural-gas generation at its existing Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station. The remaining 26 MW will be supplied through power-market purchases and retail electric service.

The remaining roughly 2.1 GW will consist of generation resources contracted from third parties in Wyoming. Black Hills will integrate and manage the output of those resources through a private microgrid, coordinating grid operations, reliability, and power dispatch. The agreement was structured so that costs associated with serving the Google data center are not shifted to existing retail customers. Google will bear the costs associated with supplying the data center, while Black Hills will earn returns on its generation investment and fees for managing the microgrid.

The agreements show that Google’s strategy for securing power for AI data centers is shifting toward long-term acquisition and structuring of generation infrastructure itself. The company is combining multiple approaches, including investment in nuclear uprates, maintaining existing generation assets, new natural-gas generation, and third-party resource management, effectively linking nuclear power, gas generation, power markets, and microgrids into a single supply chain to meet the massive electricity demand of AI data centers.

Power & SitesUnited States

1,000-year-old Scottish castle could be destroyed to make way for hyperscale data center

Credited to Data Center Dynamics · datacenterdynamics.com2h ago

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Developer says it will incorporate brickwork at 600MW campus

Residents fear the remains of a 1,000-year-old castle in Scotland will be destroyed to make way for a data center.

Hallyards Castle, near the village of Auchtertool in Fife, sits on land that was been earmarked for the 600MW Cato data center.

According to The Herald, heritage body Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has declined to designate the castle as a protected monument because the planning process for the data center is already underway, meaning the walls of the castle could be removed.

HES said: “In such circumstances, we normally avoid intervening in the planning process or other regulatory processes by adding a new designation.”

Liam Stewart, who applied for listed status for the castle, told The Herald: “The community is deeply disappointed by Historic Environment Scotland’s decision.

“We are constantly being told by the Scottish Government that these hyperscale data centers should only go ahead with the consent of communities.

“Well, I would like to tell the Scottish Government that this community does not consent.”

The castle was apparently inhabited during the reign of King Malcolm Canmore some 1,000 years ago.

ILI Group submitted plans for the Cato data center in June. The 25-hectare development would see around £5 billion ($6.71bn) invested and would be delivered in phases over several years. Site plans suggest up to seven buildings and an on-site substation.

The company announced plans to develop data centers in Scotland late last year, naming them after the Stoic philosophers. At full build-out, ILI said the Stoics would total 1.5GW. The company is also targeting East Ayrshire (Rufus, 540MW) and North Lanarkshire (Aurelius, 400MW).

To what extent the castle ruins will be incorporated into the development remains to be seen. An ILI Group spokesperson said the company would follow recommendations from Fife Council heritage officers.

The spokesperson said: “We recognize the importance of Hallyards to local people and our intention is to ensure its history and heritage are carefully recorded and reflected as part of the proposals for the site.

“Before any construction, the site would be fully excavated and recorded by qualified archaeologists, with the findings published. The remaining stonework would then be carefully dismantled, with material reused elsewhere on the site in a publicly accessible setting, alongside interpretation of its history, meaning that Hallyards would be properly understood and presented for the first time in generations.

“This approach reflects advice from Fife Council’s heritage officers that the stonework should be meaningfully incorporated into the site. We would welcome the opportunity to continue working with the council and HES as the proposals progress.

“The full environmental impact assessment will set out these proposals in further detail.”

Communities in Scotland have voiced concerns about new data centers in recent months, with a wave of hyperscale facilities proposed across the country. Last month, the Scottish Parliament voted for a de facto, temporary moratorium on new developments until clear rules for data center building projects have been developed.

Original · Data Center Dynamics

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Power & Sites · United States

Hyperscalers won't stop spending until shareholders make them

Credited to Semafor · semafor.com · 2h ago

Photograph · Semafor

The bull market of the early 2010s was called the most hated rally in history. This one may be a close second.

Back then, investors underestimated the power and determination of the Federal Reserve to prop up a flagging economy. Flatlining corporate earnings, European debt bombs, and runaway government spending disappeared into a sea of free money.

Today’s problem is hyperscalers spending themselves into oblivion, spreading inflation well beyond Silicon Valley and obscuring problems nearly everywhere else. The S&P 500 hit another record yesterday, even as oil stays trapped in the Gulf and Europe tilts toward another debt crisis. The rally is driven by just a handful of AI companies. Some of them have the earnings to back it up — Goldman Sachs expects Nvidia and Micron alone to account for a third of the S&P 500’s earnings growth in the current quarter — but the return on their investments is far from certain, and far from now.

Alan Greenspan’s declaration that the Fed can’t deflate a bubble without wrecking the economy is far from economic canon, but it’s holding up in the AI era. Mark Zuckerberg and Satya Nadella aren’t slaphappy consumers who can be sobered up by higher rates. They are self-styled great men of history in an existential race and won’t stop spending until their shareholders make them. Their shareholders are very happy. You see the problem.