Google digs deep to power AI expansion with 150 MW geothermal deal

Datacenter power consumption has surged amid the AI boom, forcing builders to get creative in order to prevent their capex-heavy bit barns from running out of steam. But at least in some parts of the world, the answer to abundant clean energy may be hiding just a few thousand feet below the surface of the earth.

This week, Ormat Technologies, a company specializing in geothermal energy generation, announced an agreement with Nevada's NV Energy to supply an additional 150 megawatts to the grid to support Google's datacenter expansion in the region.

The Chocolate Factory was among the first US hyperscalers to embrace geothermal energy as a means of offsetting its datacenter carbon footprint going back to at least 2008.

In 2023, Google partner Fervo Energy brought its first "enhanced geothermal plant" online. The facility, also located in Nevada, uses heat generated by the Earth's crust to convert ...