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Power-hungry data centers stimulate United States talks with Big Tech, Energy chief Granholm says

President Joe Biden's. administration is asking big technology companies to buy. brand-new climatefriendly power generation to cover their surging. demand, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told .

The talks come as a surprising surge in electrical power demand. has actually been driven by the adoption of technologies like generative. artificial intelligence that require power-hungry information centers. This development could make complex Biden's target of. decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to eliminate climate change.

We've been talking with data companies. The large ones have. commitments to net-zero and would like to see clean baseload. power, Granholm said in an interview with .

She stated the administration had discussed the possibility. that companies could band together to utilize small modular. reactors for atomic energy, and might all at once position. orders to decrease expenses.

If the tech business are being available in and are going to pull. tidy power from the grid, they must bring the power with. them, she stated.

And so a great deal of that discussion is occurring today. among tech companies and utilities, tech business and nuclear. business.

She did not name any of the business included.

Information centers could use up to 9% of overall electrical power. generated in the U.S. by the end of the years, more than. doubling their current usage, the Electric Power Research Study. Institute said in a report last week.

NuScale, the only small modular reactor company with a. license to construct from U.S. regulators, needed to cancel its only. project last year at the Energy Department's Idaho National. Lab.

Granholm stated the NuScale did not have enough. contracts to purchase power from the task. That's a lesson: If. you're going to have new nuclear you have to have clear offtake. of the power, Granholm stated.

The White Home last week revealed new procedures to spur. advancement of new U.S. nuclear reactor, a big potential. source of carbon-free electrical power the government states is needed. to combat environment change. But no new U.S. nuclear plants are. currently being built.

The youngest U.S. nuclear power reactors, at the Vogtle. plant in Georgia, were years behind schedule and billions over. spending plan when they got in business operation in 2023 and 2024.

Granholm stated tech business were likewise checking out other. clean energy innovations, consisting of geothermal.

(source: Reuters)