Google to Buy Clean Power From Buffett’s Nevada Utility

(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Google has partnered with a Nevada utility and a geothermal energy startup to run data centers on electricity derived from the earth’s own heat.

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Startup Fervo Energy will develop a geothermal power plant supplying 115 megawatts of electricity to NV Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, according to a statement from Google. NV Energy will then sell the electricity to Google, under an agreement that still needs to be approved by state regulators.

Unlike solar and wind facilities, geothermal plants can operate around the clock, using water heated by underground rocks to generate electricity with no carbon emissions. Fervo uses horizontal drilling within geothermal reservoirs to increase output.

Data centers are consuming an increasing amount of electricity, posing a problem for tech companies that have set goals to reduce their planet-warming carbon emissions. The electricity that Google agreed to buy from NV Energy and Fervo could power about 86,000 homes.

Hyperscalers — as the biggest data center owners like Google, Microsoft and Amazon are known — have all set climate goals and are facing internal and external pressure to deliver on them. Those lofty targets include decarbonizing their operations, including data centers. Google, for example, has a goal to run entirely on carbon-free energy around the clock by 2030, according to its website.

(Story updates with tech company climate goals in last paragraph.)

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