Big Tech revives nuclear (and coal, too) – This Week in Cleantech

Big Tech revives nuclear (and coal, too) – This Week in Cleantech

This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week’s episode features Washington Post reporter Evan Halper, who covered how a coal power plant’s life was extended when Meta and Google data centers came to town.

This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Michael Graham of the Columbia-Willamette Clean Cities & Communities Coalition. Michael leads the EMPOWER project, which helps workplaces install EV chargers at their offices for free, and is a Workplace EV Charging Coach. Congratulations, Michael!

1. Google Backs New Nuclear Plants to Power AI — The Wall Street Journal

Google has agreed to buy the power generated by seven small nuclear-power reactors, equivalent to 500 MW or enough to power a midsize city. The deal sets up the construction of some of the U.S.’s first small modular nuclear reactors, potentially a faster and less costly alternative to large plants. 

This year, big tech companies have shown increasing interest in nuclear power to meet the rising electricity demands of their expanding data centers. But unlike Microsoft’s recent investment to recommission the Three Mile Island power plant, this is an investment in small modular reactors.

2. Is LNG worse for the climate than coal? — The Financial Times

Cornell professor Robert Howarth has a paper that influenced the Biden Administration’s pause on LNG exports. Professor Howarth found that LNG’s carbon footprint is 33% larger than coal’s over a 20-year time period due to methane leaks. Although burning coal releases more carbon pollution than burning natural gas, gas can leak into the atmosphere as methane when it’s converted to liquid and transported. 

Many have accused Howarth’s paper of being flawed, arguing that the Biden Administration shouldn’t have taken it into consideration when making the decision to pause future LNG exports.

3. IEA report signals “age of electricity” — Axios

The International Energy Agency’s new “World Energy Outlook” finds that over the last 10 years, electricity use has grown at twice the pace of overall energy demand, mostly because the world is shifting toward EVs and electrification. But between 2023 and 2035, they predict electricity demand will grow at six times the pace of overall energy demand. 

However, clean energy hasn’t kept pace with power demand growth, causing global carbon pollution from electricity to jump 20% from 2010 to 2023. To effectively reduce carbon pollution, we need to accelerate the addition of clean energy sources to not only satisfy all that new demand but also replace existing fossil fuel generation.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

4. Watch this robot expertly take apart electronics so they can be used again — Fast Company

Startup Molg makes robotic “microfactories” to take electronics apart so the components can be reused without contributing to the 60-million-ton e-waste problem. The robots are designed to fit into existing e-waste facilities and can take apart a typical server in about five minutes. These robots can give components a longer life and keep them at the highest value possible. 

The startup recently got $5.5 million in funding, and they’re working with manufacturers like Dell and HP to make electronics that can easily be taken apart by their robots in about 60 seconds. 

5. A utility promised to stop burning coal. Then Google and Meta came to town. — The Washington Post

Residents of a low-income North Omaha community celebrated the planned closure of a coal plant in 2023, because it caused high asthma rates and poor air quality. But the closure was postponed due to increased electricity demand from data centers. Coal is now planned to burn in North Omaha through 2026.

Tech companies claim to be net-zero by purchasing renewable energy projects that are far away from their data centers. But this does little to address the reality that their data centers are driving the need to keep local coal plants running, continuing to pollute the very communities where they operate.

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