SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Google announced Tuesday it signed a deal with renewable developer Intersect Power and investment fund TPG Rise Climate to spin up enough carbon-free power to drive several gigawatt-scale data centers.
It is now working with partners to build gigawatts of renewable power, battery storage, and grid upgrades to power its data centers. Altogether, the investment in renewable energy will run about 20 billion U.S. dollars, and Intersect is already financing the first project, the company said.
The deal also includes an 800 million dollar equity investment in Intersect Power, with TPG leading the round and CAI, Google, and Greenbelt Capital Partners participating.
As tech companies like Google rush to bolster their artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, experts expect new AI data centers might be underpowered by 2027. That has forced tech companies to invest in new sources of energy.
Google and Intersect will take a phased approach, with the first phase operational by 2026 and fully completed by 2027, highlighting the speed at which renewable power can be deployed.
There are 11,860 active requests in the United States from power producers wanting to connect with the grid, according to Interconnection.fyi. A total of 2.05 terawatts of capacity are waiting, nearly double what's currently installed and connected. The majority of those are for solar and battery projects.
