Remember when we thought Google was benign?
So much for “Net Zero” commitment.
The search engine and online advertising and AI behemoth with the adorable name is moving ahead to power at least one new AI data center with a 933 MW natural gas plant. This represents a step away from the company’s one time announcement that it would achieve 24/7 carbon free energy,. Of course, there is a difference between announcements and reality. Over the years, Google has managed to seem less evil than many of its tech monster brethren, but that is more or less an illusion. The company has the wherewithal to deploy renewal energy for this and other energy sucking projects, but has chosen not to. The power plant in Texas is the third known gas facility that Google has become involved in over the past few months.
According to the Guardian news platform, the Texas power plant would emit 4.5m tons of carbon dioxide per year, more than that of San Francisco
The new natural gas / methane plant is under construction by Crusoe Energy at Google’s Goodnight Campus in Texas.
Gaslighting at its best: Why not just call it Methane?
Natural gas sounds pretty organic man, but it’s 95% methane, along with smaller molecules of ethane, propane and butane. Natural gas is promoted as not as bad as coal as an energy source, but it is composed primarily of CH4. The increase of methane in the atmosphere over the past ten years has been stunning, with surprising consequences in the Arctic. Methane is about 80 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
Read the full story in the Guardian.