AI firms are getting creative as they scramble for energy

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The major players in AI want energy far faster than utilities can provide it — and that’s prompting them to explore some alternative approaches to powering data centers, ranging from the conventional to the questionable.

A lot of U.S. data centers — 59 planned facilities, by one count — are looking to skip slow-moving utility processes altogether and build their own power sources on-site. Pretty much every big tech firm is pursuing this strategy to some extent.

But the large-scale, conventional gas turbines these firms would prefer to install are hard to come by amid a massive supply chain crunch.

Data center developers have gotten creative as a result. Developer Crusoe signed a $1.25 billion contract with the startup Boom Supersonic for 29 jet-engine turbines to run data centers around the country. Wärtsilä, known for building turbines for cruise ships and other big boats, recently struck a deal to power a forthcoming data center in Texas. Oracle is going to buy 2.8 gigawatts of fuel cells from Bloom Energy.

Some companies have gotten extremely creative — and perhaps a bit untethered from reality.

Let’s look first to the sea. The startup Panthalassa recently raised $140 million to build giant buoy-like devices that contain data centers, generating power as they bob in the waves. Another company, named DeepGreen Western Passage, is looking to build an underwater AI data center powered by wave energy near Eastport, Maine. Sure, it’s proven near impossible to reliably generate electricity from waves, but maybe throwing in a data center, uh, solves that problem?

Then there’s the final frontier. Meta and Overview Energy plan to capture solar energy in outer space and beam it down to Earth via infrared lasers to power some data centers. And why stop there when you can just put the whole dang data center in space, like Elon Musk plans to do?

These more out-there solutions to meeting data centers’ energy demands face a tough road to becoming reality. Think of them less as things that will actually happen and more as an indication of tech firms’ desperation to find a bit of extra power.

By contrast, the more conventional workarounds have real-world ramifications right now. These ​“behind-the-meter” gas plants are spewing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and some experts argue they will drive up energy bills for consumers. They also create local air pollution — the most egregious case being that of Musk’s xAI near Memphis. The firm has deployed dozens of unpermitted gas turbines sitting on flatbed trailers to power a nearby data center complex.

Ultimately, it’s these here-and-now projects, not the fanciful ones, that will shape what is becoming an increasingly heated debate over the data center buildout.

More big energy stories

Data center debates

Speaking of data centers, lawmakers across the country — and the political spectrum — are racing to regulate the sector and its vast power needs.

Here are some of the latest updates: More localities, including Seattle and Flint, Michigan, have passed development moratoriums while they work out rules. Texas’ Republican governor issued sweeping recommendations that the state require new facilities to cover grid interconnection and upgrade costs, and help bring new power online. Legislators in Ohio, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere are pushing for similar mandates.

Governors are walking a political tightrope amid this heightening controversy, as they balance putting guardrails around the industry with promoting economic development in their states.

The sun is out for solar

Who’s having a better week: Knicks fans or solar fans? Let’s call it a wash.

The clean energy source has a new trophy to add to its shelf. In May, for the first time over the course of a month, the U.S. got more electricity from solar panels than from coal plants. That’s something to celebrate as the Trump administration props up the dying coal industry with infusions of federal cash and must-run orders for decrepit plants.

Meanwhile, game-changing solar projects keep chugging along. In Georgia, Qcells just began pumping out solar cells at its new factory, which is the largest of its kind in the U.S. Plus, one of the nation’s biggest solar and battery projects — a facility planned for Arkansas — took a step forward Thursday, with the developer announcing it had secured $3.5 billion in financing.

Oh, and solar broke an hourly generation record in New York on June 3 around noon, supplying nearly a third of the state’s power demand. Onward!

Clean energy news to know this week

DOE defeat: In a legal settlement, the DOE agrees to reinstate 11 Biden-era clean energy awards that it canceled last fall in ​“blue states.” (Latitude Media)

Power flex: A PAC that is targeting opponents of clean energy says it helped tank Rep. Ralph Norman’s gubernatorial campaign in South Carolina, marking its second victory against anti–clean energy Republicans in as many months. (E&E News)

Vroom, vroom: Rivian will launch a lower-priced version of its R2 SUV next summer, with an entry-level model starting at around $45,000. (CNBC)

Collaboration is cool: Heat pump bulk-purchasing initiatives are popping up around the U.S., allowing households to get big discounts on the electric HVAC tech. (Canary Media)

Go big or go home: Ormat Technologies says it has designed what will be the biggest geothermal power plant in the industry, with its 100-MW capacity doubling that of the firm’s largest operating plant. (Reuters, news release)

A pioneering battery: The Tumbleweed project in California becomes the first major battery installation in the U.S. that can discharge power for up to eight hours at a time, twice as long as most of its peers. (Canary Media)

Is that allowed? The U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that the DOE may have broken the law by allocating four times more money to geothermal projects than Congress appropriated while slashing funding for other renewables. (Latitude Media)

Not so fast: Rhode Island legislators rebuke the Democratic governor’s efforts to roll back clean energy targets and efficiency funding, passing a budget that largely maintains the status quo. (Canary Media)

Hot solar summer: The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that utility-scale solar generation will surge by 19% this summer, compared with last summer, and coal power will slip by 2%. (Utility Dive)