Concerns about the environmental impact of AI have prompted big tech firms to explore exotic options for reducing their emissions. Now, Meta plans to try fueling its data centers with geothermal power.
Today’s largest AI models consume vast amounts of electricity. This is significantly increasing energy bills for the tech firms building these models and making it harder for the companies to live up to ambitious pledges they’ve made to cut carbon emissions.
As a result, these companies are on the hunt for new sources of renewable energy to meet demand without increasing their carbon footprint. Solar and wind power are inevitably the go-to choices, but given the already tight competition for access to renewable power, some tech giants are also looking to emerging technologies.
That’s why Meta recently announced a new partnership with Sage Geosystems. The company’s technology generates carbon-free power by pumping water deep into hot underground rock formations. Under the agreement, the startup will provide up to 150 megawatts of geothermal power to help run Meta’s data centers.
“Sage’s technology marks a significant advancement for the clean energy sector, showcasing the ability to harness geothermal energy virtually anywhere,” Meta said in a press release announcing the deal.
“We’re excited to partner with Sage on a first-of-its-kind project exploring the use of new, advanced geothermal energy in parts of the country where it has not been possible before.”
Geothermal power is an attractive option for data center operators because, unlike other renewable sources like solar and wind, it isn’t intermittent. But conventional plants require access to underground reservoirs of hot water, which only occur in a few areas around the globe with high levels of volcanic activity.
So-called enhanced geothermal technology removes this constraint by doing away with the need for a natural water reservoir. Piggybacking off “fracking” technology developed by the oil and gas industry, the approach involves pumping high-pressure water down into hot, dry rocks to create fractures that can be filled with water. The heated water is then extracted, turned into steam, and used to drive a turbine to generate electricity.
This greatly expands the number of locations in which a geothermal plant can be built. The technology is still nascent, but Sage has already field-tested the approach at an abandoned gas well in Texas and told The Verge that it expects to be able to scale up the approach rapidly because it uses “off-the-shelf” technologies from the oil-and-gas industry.
How soon the technology will make a dent in Meta’s energy bill remains uncertain though. An initial 8-megawatt first phase of the project isn’t expected to come online until 2027. It will then be another couple of years until it’s up to the full capacity of 150 megawatts. And crucially, the companies haven’t actually signed an official power purchase agreement yet, The Verge notes.
The partnership will nonetheless give a boost to a fledgling industry, and Meta isn’t the only big tech player interested. Last year, Google announced that some of its Nevada data centers are being powered by an enhanced geothermal plant built by a startup called Fervo.
Geothermal may face some competition though. Big tech companies are also increasingly looking to nuclear power as a potential source of reliable, carbon-free power. Microsoft, in particular, is interested in developing small modular reactors to help run its data centers.
And there’s still a long road ahead for enhanced geothermal power. A recent report from the Department of Energy estimated that it would take roughly $20 to $25 billion worth of investment to prove the technology and create a self-sustaining industry. That’s doable by 2030, according to the report, but will require continued cost reductions and several large-scale demonstrations to build confidence.
Given the tech industry’s ever increasing energy demands combined with a commitment to lower emissions, these companies could be the most promising route to making that a reality.
Image Credit: Sage Geosystems
* This article was originally published at Singularity Hub
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