No matter what any big company's public relations and marketing people shout about the need for "green" energy, what that company actually does is worth noting.
Google had certainly gotten in its statements about climate change and renewables, but when they need reliable, constant, and affordable power for their ever-increasing banks of data centers, they are exercising something I've been talking and writing about for years: Solving today's problems with tomorrow's technology.
That means nuclear power, specifically, some next-generation nuclear power.
Google, Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have agreed to supply 50 megawatts of nuclear power to data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.
The companies say the deal will help meet rising U.S. energy demand and advance the nation’s role in next-generation nuclear power.
Under the agreement, Kairos’s Hermes 2 Plant in Oak Ridge will feed up to 50 megawatts into the TVA grid that serves Google’s facilities.
The deal makes TVA the first utility to purchase power from a GEN IV reactor. It also marks the first deployment of Hermes 2 under Kairos’ broader pact with Google to deliver 500 megawatts by 2035. Kairos plans to boost Hermes 2’s output from 28 to 50 megawatts beginning in 2030.
Google is going in for another next-generation fission technology, as well: Small modular reactors, or SMRs.
In October, Google signed a deal with Kairos to buy nuclear power from ‘multiple’ small modular reactors under development.
The reactors "will be sited in relevant service territories to supply clean energy to Google data centers" beginning in 2030, Kairos Power said at the time.
Google said this week the reactor will supply electricity to its data centers in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama.
Small modular reactors are one of the more interesting advances in fission reactor technology. One SMR could be dedicated to a major data center, to an AI server center, or even to a remote town or village. One or two SMRs could power a major military base. Decentralizing the grid makes a great deal of sense for many reasons, ranging from solar storms to terrorist attacks. And whether we like it or not, keeping the internet online will be a major concern not just to those of us who use it for entertainment and argument, not just to the millions that make their living on it, but to the military and law enforcement forces that rely on the internet to coordinate and conduct operations.
Note that this latest deal doesn't involve fusion power, only good old fission, although Google has been dabbling in fusion power as well.
Read More: Daring or Dumb? Google Makes a Deal for Fusion Power.
Today's Problems, Tomorrow's Technology: Google Funding New Nuclear Power Development
It's great to see our country returning once more to a sensible energy policy, with oil, gas, and coal at the heart. "Renewables" mostly aren't. They are low energy density, they are intermittent, they blight the landscape, and once worn out, the carbon-fiber windmill blades and solar panels can't be easily recycled or otherwise disposed of. Nuclear, of course, is the way of the future. Nuclear power is not only reliable, constant, with higher energy density than any other source, but it's also clean. Worried about carbon emissions? Nuclear power plants don't generate them. Worried about nuclear waste? These next-generation reactors produce very little.
Google seems to have assimilated these facts, even if the Greta "Doom Pixie" Thunbergs of the world haven't.
We solve today's problems with tomorrow's technology. That's what Google is doing. And it's the smart thing to do.
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