Weekly Energy Vid, 1st Week October 2024: Data Centers Continue to Search for New Power Supplies

Hurricane Helene slams into southeastern U.S., killing dozens and leaving almost 6 million customers in ten states without power.  Some areas so badly hit that full reconstruction of energy infrastructure will be required, with North and South Carolina especially affected.

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management cancels floating offshore wind auction off Oregon’s coast due to lack of bidder interest – only one of the five companies eligible to bid remained interested. 

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai indicates company is working on datacenters exceeding 1 GW in size, and suggests growing datacenter loads will result in massive capital investment in new sources of power, potentially including modular nuclear.

Microsoft testing the use of green hydrogen at Ireland data center. Supplier ESB will deploy 250kW of fuel cells to deliver electricity to the data center power control and administration building at Microsoft’s Dublin campus over an eight-week period. 

Data center startup ECL says it will develop a 1GW hydrogen-powered AI datacenter near Houston, Texas at a cost of $0.08-0.12/kWh. H2 will initially be derived from carbon-intensive steam methane reformation process. By next year 50 percent of supply is anticipated to be blue hydrogen (carbon capture), and by 2026 the goal is to migrate to 80 percent blue and 20 percent green H2 from renewables. 

California Governor Newsom signs SB 1006, a law directing the state to upgrade its transmission system through grid-enhancing technologies including dynamic line rating systems, advanced power flow systems and topology optimization software, and reconductoring.

U.S. Department of Defense breaks ground in eastern Idaho for the country’s first transportable nuclear reactor, expected to yield between one to five megawatts of power for military use in remote locations. A protective concrete structure will be built to house the reactor, expected to be delivered in four shipping containers from a Virginia manufacturer in 2026.