Minnesota also has tremendous wind energy available. Nuclear is not a good idea because it costs too much and takes too long…
Amazon may only scale up to 480 MW. Read the following articles.
Talen Energy announced its sale of a 960-megawatt data center campus to cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon, for $650 million.
The data center, Cumulus Data Assets, sits on a 1,200-acre campus in Pennsylvania and is directly powered by the adjacent Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, which generates 2.5 gigawatts of power.
“We believe this is a transformative transaction with long term benefits,” said Mark “Mac” McFarland, Talen president and chief executive officer of Talen, on a Monday call with investors and media. As power demand continues to rise worldwide, “data centers are at the heart of that growth,” he added.
“Several years ago, Amazon set an ambitious goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2040—ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. As part of that goal, we’re on a path to power our operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original 2030 target,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “To supplement our wind and solar energy projects, which depend on weather conditions to generate energy, we’re also exploring new innovations and technologies and investing in other sources of clean, carbon-free energy. This agreement with Talen Energy for carbon-free energy is one project in that effort.”
About Talen: The Houston, Texas–based company is the majority owner and operator of the Susquehanna plant. Susquehanna is the sixth largest nuclear power plant in the United States and produces 63 million kilowatt hours per day. Its two General Electric boiling water reactors have been on line since 1983 and are licensed to operate through 2042 and 2044, respectively.
In 2022, Talen filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2022 as part of a financial restructuring. The company exited bankruptcy in 2023, and officials have said that this recent transaction with AWS is a boost to its cash flow. After paying off debts, interest and other costs, Talen expects net proceeds of $361 million from the deal with Amazon.
What’s next: According to Talen Energy’s investor presentation, it will supply fixed-price nuclear power to AWS’s new data center as it is built. AWS has minimum contractual power commitments that ramp up in 120-megawatt increments over several years. The cloud service giant has a one-time option to cap commitments at 480 megawatts and two 10-year extension options tied to nuclear license renewals.
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Or does it mean they have an option to stop at 480?
“AWS has minimum contractual power commitments that ramp up in 120-megawatt increments over several years. The cloud service giant has a one-time option to cap commitments at 480 megawatts and two 10-year extension options tied to nuclear license renewals.”
That energy changes/transitions are lengthy processes, even with boatloads of money. More reality checks – and more honesty about costs and difficulties – would be very useful.
Christyan Malek, JPMorgan’s head of global energy strategy warns of the need for a ‘reality check’ on ambitions for a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewables, saying ‘it may take “generations” to hit net-zero targets.’…
‘Peter Martin, Wood Mackenzie’s chief economist, said “the increased cost of capital has profound implications for the energy and natural resource industries”, and that higher rates disproportionately affect renewables and nuclear power because of their high capital intensity and low returns.’
DB2
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So write about global warming and mass extinction. Write about fossil fuel subsidies and our corrupt political climate.
You have a good point.
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JPM is a biased financier of fossil fuel project. We should not listen to self serving JPM because all they want is to make money not to help the environment. They are in the pockets of the O&G industry. They want to scare the public - they do not want to tell the truth.
The only bottleneck is battery technology. It will happen overnight if that gets resolved with a new technology.
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Well, JPM is biased toward making money (as they should be). They need to be reality-based in order to make good financial decisions. Basing decisions on the assumption of a rapid transition is not a prudent course of action.
More problems than that to get to net-zero. Remember the articles Wendy linked about grid problems? And then there’s the unproven at scale technology of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere.
Britain must invest £30bn in a network of massive air cleansing systems designed to strip CO2 from the atmosphere if it is to reach net zero, a government-funded report has warned.
Without such a scheme the UK will never reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050, according to the report by Energy Systems Catapult, a government-funded body that promotes innovation.
“Beyond 2040 we see few options to abate remaining emissions so use of direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) will be required,” it said. Direct air capture would collect 38-48 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2050. This technology appears to be essential to meeting net zero in all our scenarios and yet remains unproven at scale.”
DB2
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No - JPM is interested in putting a scare into the financial markets to stop the rush to renewables. Why? Because JPM is in the pockets of the O&G industry. JPM is blowing smoke to please the O&G industry who are afraid of renewables.
Yeah, and they bought off these guys in Scotland.
Ministers have missed eight of the last 12 annual targets and have been told that reaching the 75% milestone by the end of the decade is unachievable…
Last year ministers failed to publish a plan it promised - required under the act - detailing how they were going to meet the targets. Then in March of this year the CCC said for the first time that the 2030 target was unreachable.
DB2
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From last year:
Offshore Wind Halt Urged By Native Americans Seeking Sway
The National Congress of American Indians on Thursday called for a moratorium on offshore wind development along US coasts, insisting the Biden administration do a better job protecting tribal interests.
The decision by the largest lobbying group for tribes in the US follows a plea Tuesday by 30 New Jersey mayors to halt offshore wind activity so government officials can investigate recent whale deaths.
DB2
Just HOW BIG are those politicians? Confusing them for whales…
You must be talking about something else. Scotland has not given up on net-zero by 2045. They have missed some interim milestones. But they are not listening to JPM propaganda.
With crop plantings, we can get to net zero if we have the battery technology.
Could you explain your thoughts here?
DB2
Somethings will produce CO2. Plants and crops will sequester more CO2 than they are currently.
The groups are suing Dominion and the Biden Administration claiming they have not done the legally required research to determine the project won’t harm the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Only 350 North Atlantic right whales remain with only 70 females capable of weaning a calf.
DB2
The admin is being sued on all fronts by fossil fuel guys.
Par for the course. All admins are sued.
They are not literally suing Biden. They are suing the US government.
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That’s because at the core of African food insecurity are the continent’s notoriously low crop yields…
And one of the main reasons for low yield compared to other regions is that African countries, on average, use far less fertilizer to boost their agricultural production than the rest of the world…barely one-fifth of the European Union…
In June 2022, the European Commission blocked an initiative to provide financial support for the construction of new fertilizer production plants in Sub-Saharan Africa that depend on fertilizer imports, mainly from Russia. According to the commission, the initiative would run counter to the European Union’s climate and energy commitments. Later in the year, the European Commission offered 4.5 billion euros in grants to Africa for food aid — helpful charity that does nothing to enable Africa to grow its own food — and investments in next-generation fertilizers.
DB2
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Re: $9.5 trillion isn’t enough.
What is the replacement value of the global oil industry? I would guess the value of refineries, pipelines, ships for oil or products, distribution sites all together would be millions times more.
Oil replacement maintenance investment may well be larger than total annual investment on renewables.
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Global annual gas & oil capex is about $800 billion a year. Investments in renewables are about $1.3 trillion, so a bit more but the same order of magnitude. However, one supports 80% of the world’s energy needs and the other only 4% (20x difference).
DB2
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