{"id":345398,"date":"2024-10-04T14:10:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T12:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345398"},"modified":"2024-10-04T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T12:10:18","slug":"first-hint-of-energy-squeeze-and-big-tech-drops-the-wind-and-solar-purity-and-launches-into-nuclear-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=345398","title":{"rendered":"First hint of energy squeeze and Big Tech drops the wind and solar purity, and launches into nuclear power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

All those sustainable dreams, gone pfft<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Google<\/em>, Oracle<\/em>, Microsoft<\/em> were all raving fans of renewable energy, but all of them have given up trying to reach \u201cnet zero\u201d with wind and solar power. In the rush to feed the baby AI gargoyle, instead of lining the streets with wind turbines and battery packs, they\u2019re all suddenly buying, building and talking about nuclear power. For some reason, when running $100 billion dollar data centres, no one seems to want to use random electricity and turn them on and off when the wind stops. Probably because without electricity AI is a dumb rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sense, AI is<\/em> a form of energy. The guy with the biggest gigawatts has a head start, and the guy with unreliable generators isn\u2019t in the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all turned on a dime. It was only in May that Microsoft<\/em> was making the \u201cbiggest ever renewable energy agreement\u201d<\/a> in order to power AI and be carbon neutral. Ten minutes later and it\u2019s resurrecting the old Three Mile Islan<\/a>d nuclear plant. Lucky Americans don\u2019t blow up their old power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oracle<\/em> is building the world\u2019s largest datacentre<\/a> and wants to power it with three small modular reactors. Amazon Web Services has bought a data centre next to a nuclear plan<\/a>t, and is running job ads for a nuclear engineer.  Recently, Alphabet  CEO Sundar Pichai, spoke about small modular reactors. The chief of Open AI also happens to chair the boards of two nuclear start-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AI Boom Is Raising Hopes of a Nuclear Comeback<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The AI boom has left technology companies scrambling for low-carbon sources of energy to power their data centers. The International Energy Agency estimates that<\/a> electricity demand from AI, data centers, and crypto could more than double by 2026. Even its lowball estimates say that the added demand will be equivalent to all the electricity used in Sweden or\u2014in the high-usage case\u2014Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia uses ten times as much electricity as Microsoft, but is still fantasizing about reaching 82% renewable by 2030 with no nuclear power \u201cbecause it will cost too much and take too long\u201d.  Microsoft uses 24 TWh<\/a> of energy a year and employs 220,000 people<\/a>, and knows it needs a nuclear plant to be competitive (and reach, albeit frivolous weather changing ideals). Australia uses 274 TWh of electricity<\/a>, and employs 14 million people<\/a> but is going to aim for frivolous climate witchery anyway, and do it the double-hard way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who needs to be competitive, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierre Gosselin discusses how Germany risks being left behind because it has switched off all its nuclear plants<\/a>. At least it has some power lines to France. Australia has no nukes, not much hydro, no mountains to spare, is the driest inhabited continent on Earth, and it has no powerlines to anywhere. We are the crash test dummy. Soon most big companies will have more reliable power than we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google, Oracle, Microsoft were all raving fans of renewable energy, but all of them have given up trying to reach \u201cnet zero\u201d with wind and solar power. In the rush to feed the baby AI gargoyle, instead of lining the streets with wind turbines and battery packs, they\u2019re all suddenly buying, building and talking about nuclear power. For some reason, when running $100 billion dollar data centres, no one seems to want to use random electricity and turn them on and off when the wind stops. Probably because without electricity AI is a dumb rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":345403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829777,691818206,691818181],"class_list":["post-345398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-tech","tag-nuclear-power","tag-renewable-energy","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/0Nuclear-Power-Plant-at-night-ratio-2.jpg?fit=1999%2C1138&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1rQW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":425242,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=425242","url_meta":{"origin":345398,"position":0},"title":"Meta\u2019s Nuclear Bet Is an Endorsement of Trump\u2019s Energy Vision","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/08\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump\u2019s call for \u201cAmerican energy dominance\u201d once drew eyerolling from Silicon Valley. Now, in a twist no one saw coming, Meta and other big-tech AI giants are beginning to embrace Trump\u2019s energy vision.","rel":"","context":"In \"AI (artificial intelligence)\"","block_context":{"text":"AI (artificial intelligence)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=ai-artificial-intelligence-2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AQNxNZDkcO2VSJsaXxLvM2mni3ATqcSezuo4T1AS9W2BAhWB29wemhiQJcSF74Q_Srnz0hMh8OFV__tuCZq4yPWe6eJGn3BAMI7RKM4XqKgYmHtVGwCDwpCzgFmC5Vc.jpeg?fit=1200%2C670&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AQNxNZDkcO2VSJsaXxLvM2mni3ATqcSezuo4T1AS9W2BAhWB29wemhiQJcSF74Q_Srnz0hMh8OFV__tuCZq4yPWe6eJGn3BAMI7RKM4XqKgYmHtVGwCDwpCzgFmC5Vc.jpeg?fit=1200%2C670&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AQNxNZDkcO2VSJsaXxLvM2mni3ATqcSezuo4T1AS9W2BAhWB29wemhiQJcSF74Q_Srnz0hMh8OFV__tuCZq4yPWe6eJGn3BAMI7RKM4XqKgYmHtVGwCDwpCzgFmC5Vc.jpeg?fit=1200%2C670&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AQNxNZDkcO2VSJsaXxLvM2mni3ATqcSezuo4T1AS9W2BAhWB29wemhiQJcSF74Q_Srnz0hMh8OFV__tuCZq4yPWe6eJGn3BAMI7RKM4XqKgYmHtVGwCDwpCzgFmC5Vc.jpeg?fit=1200%2C670&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AQNxNZDkcO2VSJsaXxLvM2mni3ATqcSezuo4T1AS9W2BAhWB29wemhiQJcSF74Q_Srnz0hMh8OFV__tuCZq4yPWe6eJGn3BAMI7RKM4XqKgYmHtVGwCDwpCzgFmC5Vc.jpeg?fit=1200%2C670&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":424814,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=424814","url_meta":{"origin":345398,"position":1},"title":"Nuclear is the most reliable path to affordable electricity","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/05\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Political leaders are increasingly prioritizing affordability (without the need for subsidies) as a cornerstone of electricity policy. They are now recognizing that high costs burden households, stifle economic growth, and fuel public discontent in wealthier nations that are providing taxpayer subsidies to support unreliable electricity from wind and solar.","rel":"","context":"In \"electricity policy\"","block_context":{"text":"electricity policy","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electricity-policy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0NuScale-SMR.jpg?fit=1032%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0NuScale-SMR.jpg?fit=1032%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0NuScale-SMR.jpg?fit=1032%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0NuScale-SMR.jpg?fit=1032%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":449043,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=449043","url_meta":{"origin":345398,"position":2},"title":"\u00a0New Study: Solar Photovoltaic, Wind Power Fail To Meet Annual Energy Demands 62% Of The Time","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/07\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cUnlike dispatchable fossil-fuel or nuclear generation, solar and wind power output varies unpredictably with weather conditions, leading to mismatches between supply and demand.\u201d \u2014 Sargentis et al., 2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Blackouts\"","block_context":{"text":"Blackouts","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=blackouts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot-New-Study-Solar-Photovoltaic-Wind-Power-Fail-To-Meet-Annual-Energy-Demands-62-Of-The-Time.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot-New-Study-Solar-Photovoltaic-Wind-Power-Fail-To-Meet-Annual-Energy-Demands-62-Of-The-Time.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot-New-Study-Solar-Photovoltaic-Wind-Power-Fail-To-Meet-Annual-Energy-Demands-62-Of-The-Time.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot-New-Study-Solar-Photovoltaic-Wind-Power-Fail-To-Meet-Annual-Energy-Demands-62-Of-The-Time.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0-Copilot-New-Study-Solar-Photovoltaic-Wind-Power-Fail-To-Meet-Annual-Energy-Demands-62-Of-The-Time.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":253423,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253423","url_meta":{"origin":345398,"position":3},"title":"European Energy Suffering, Now Hydro and Nuclear","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year, Europe was on the brink of an energy breakdown\u00a0as Russian gas flows dried up and most of Europe doubled down on renewable energy.","rel":"","context":"In \"hydropower\"","block_context":{"text":"hydropower","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=hydropower"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0eat-or-heat-image-1400x700-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":259456,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=259456","url_meta":{"origin":345398,"position":4},"title":"Wind & Solar \u2018Industries\u2019 Furious as French Demand More Nuclear Power\u00a0Generation","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/28\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The rent-seekers profiting from the wind and solar scam hate nuclear power with a visceral passion. 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Dilute and diffuse, intermittent and unreliable the wind and solar generators\u2019 demand for land is insatiable. 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