Google plans to power a data center with fossil fuels with almost no emissions
3 days ago
- #Climate Change
- #Data Centers
- #Carbon Capture
- AI data centers' energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions are raising concerns due to their high power consumption, ranging from a few megawatts to over 100 megawatts.
- Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can mitigate emissions by capturing CO2 from power plants and storing it underground in geological formations like depleted oil reservoirs, basalt rock, or deep saline aquifers.
- Google is supporting a natural gas power plant in Illinois with CCS, aiming to capture 90% of emissions and store them in the Mount Simon sandstone formation, a deep saline aquifer.
- The Mount Simon formation has a large storage capacity (27-109 gigatons) and is capped by thick shale layers to prevent CO2 leakage.
- CCS faces challenges, including past incidents like pipeline ruptures and underground leaks, but remains a key technology for reducing emissions amid rising energy demand from data centers and AI.