Modern AI data centers consume enormous amounts of power, and it looks like they will get even more power-hungry in the coming years as companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI strive towards artificial general intelligence (AGI). Oracle has already outlined plans to use nuclear power plants for its 1-gigawatt datacenters. It looks like Microsoft plans to do the same as it just inked a deal to restart a nuclear power plant to feed its data centers, reports Bloomberg.
They have to be competitive with solar panels & grid-scale energy storage costs combined. You can’t leave off 90% of the cost and call it a win.
Unless you are fine pairing solar panels with natural gas as we currently do; but that defeats much of the purpose of going carbon-free.