The company announced a new agreement with project developer Elementl Power to prepare three different sites for next-generation nuclear power plants. Google and other tech giants are putting their faith — and capital— in new nuclear technologies they hope can provide enough electricity for AI data centers.
The company announced the grant last week, which is supposed to support an effort to train 100,000 electrical workers and 30,000 apprentices across the US. A shortage of electricians has hampered efforts to add new, clean energy to power grids. And Google and other tech giants need more electricity for energy-hungry AI data centers.
In April, Google shared plans to use AI to speed up the process of connecting new power sources to the grid.
The Trump administration reportedly plans to shutter the program that certifies products for energy efficiency and slaps the recognizable blue Energy Star label on refrigerators, washers, dryers, LED bulbs, and more. CNN and E&E News report that Energy Star is on the chopping block as part of a “reorganization” planned at the Environmental Protection Agency that would end key initiatives on climate change.
It paves the way for the startup to partner with OpenAI on energy deals in the future, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Oklo is developing a next-generation nuclear reactor meant to be smaller, cheaper, and easier to deploy than a traditional nuclear power plant. Altman and other tech leaders are bullish about advanced nuclear reactors one day powering energy-hungry AI data centers, with Google and Amazon recently inked agreements with other companies developing small modular reactors.
That’s more than triple the total clean energy investments canceled over the past 30 months, according to a report from nonpartisan think tank E2. Economic uncertainty and proposals to rollback tax credits for renewables under the Trump administration are already taking a toll.
Despite those headwinds, however, companies still managed to announce $1.6 billion in investments in new solar, EV, and power grid facilities this March.
[technologyreview.com]
The company announced $99 million in new funding, part of its goal of transitioning its supply chain to entirely carbon pollution-free energy by 2030. This marks the second phase of the China Clean Energy Fund that Apple launched in 2018, AppleInsider reports.
[appleinsider.com]
Donald Trump continues to push his trade war with Canada, saying in a Truth Social post that he’s adding an extra 25 percent tax on steel and aluminum imports — doubling what he announced on Monday. These additional tariffs are in retaliation for a surcharge on electricity coming into the US that Ontario implemented (which itself was retaliation for previous Trump tariffs).
Ontario added a 25 percent surcharge on electricity flowing from the Canadian province to the US in response to the Trump administration’s tariff threats toward Canada. The province generates electricity for 1.5 million customers across Minnesota, New York, and Michigan.
”If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a press conference, the Associated Press reports.
Much of the country lost electricity today in a blackout affecting millions of people. It’s disrupted business and traffic with lights out and intermittent mobile service, ABC reports. Officials are still investigating the cause, according to the national disaster response service, Senapred.
7
Verge Score
A giant battery-powered dual-zone refrigerator / freezer on wheels.
DeepSeek claims to use far less energy than its competitors, but there are still big questions about what that means for the environment.
Here’s the unelected government official speaking about his part-time hobby, Tesla:
“I recommend anyone who can afford it, get Tesla’s solar roof and Powerwall. Your family’s life might depend on it.”
Electrical grids are old, overtaxed, and increasingly unstable in the face of climate change. That’s why the energy independence business is booming inside Tesla (up a record 113 percent year-over-year) and from alternatives like Anker, Bluetti, EcoFlow, and Jackery which just announced its new solar roofs that mimic curved red clay tiles.
The Senate confirmed his nomination today. Zeldin has been tasked by Donald Trump to “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” That seems to include removing roadblocks to building energy-hungry AI data centers in the US.
[politico.com]
It’s 89 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. Rest assured, the clock merely “visualizes humanity’s metaphorical proximity to global catastrophe,” according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that sets the time each year and updated it today.
They moved the clock forward this year, citing risks posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, “misuse of biological science,” and the potential use of artificial intelligence in warfare and to spread disinformation.
Necropsies tie whale deaths off the east coast to ship strikes, not offshore wind, as Trump claimed during his inauguration eve rally. The US has very few offshore wind turbines anyway.
“We’re not going to do the wind thing,” Trump said. He has pledged to end federal leasing for wind energy development.
“Emissions of greenhouse gasses trap heat,” Lee Zeldin, said during today’s Senate confirmation hearing when pressed about climate science. Whether he’ll take action is another issue.
Zeldin accepted over $269,000 from the oil and gas industry while running for Congress, and has said he’ll work to “unleash US energy dominance” and “make America the AI capital of the world” while leading the Environmental Protection Agency.
