Hope everybody had a great holiday season. We missed some big news in the AI/power industries including developer acquisitions, data center announcements, more $ towards nuclear, and more setbacks for wind. Let’s catch up on some of the top stories
Google bought Intersect, for $4.75b. Intersect is a solar + storage developer projecting to reach almost 11 GW of capacity by 2028. By bringing Intersect in-house, Google hopes to focus on building co-located “energy parks” with power generation and battery storage alongside data centers, easing traditional grid interconnection bottlenecks that can take years to resolve. Story
Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has purchased a third building in the Memphis, Tennessee area to expand its Colossus supercomputer complex, aiming to increase computing capacity to nearly 2 GW of power draw and house over 1 million GPUs. The expanded facilities will be near a natural gas power installation that the company is also developing to supply energy to the cluster. Story.
Oracle and Microsoft win Approval for 1.4GW Michigan data center, with power to be supplied by DTE Energy. Utilities are still cashing in on the AI boom, even as some big tech companies opt to install power generation behind the meter. Story.
The U.S. Department of the Interior pauses 7.1 GW of offshore wind projects under construction, citing national security concerns. Developers and State officials are criticizing the move as one that may cause energy insecurity for communities that were relying on these projects. Story.
The House passes the SPEED Act, a permitting reform bill to help projects get through the permitting process and start construction faster. Offshore wind takes another blow as an amendment was included to exclude those projects from the bill. Story.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that three nuclear fuel makers will receive $900m each to enhance domestic uranium enrichment capabilities and reduce reliance on Russian suppliers. The initiative targets expanded production of both low-enriched and high-assay low-enriched uranium for power and advanced reactors. Story.