Calls For A Moratorium On New Data Centers Get Louder

Current Climate brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability every Monday. Sign up to get it in your inbox.UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesThe rapid growth and impact of massive data centers, especially for AI and cryptocurrency companies, this year has had big economic benefits, especially for construction and design firms and their workers. U.S. spending to build them hit a record $44 billion this year through October, more than double the tally in the same period in 2024.But there’s increasing blowback to that rapid expansion, with more individual communities opting against new data center projects because of their gargantuan need for electricity and water, which is driving utility rates for residential customers higher. That blowback is getting more coordinated as a coalition of more than 230 environmental, tribal and community groups is calling for a national moratorium on such construction, which they call “one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation.”“This expansion is rapidly increasing demand for energy, driving more fossil fuel pollution, straining water resources and raising electricity prices across the country,” the group, coordinated by Food & Water Watch, said in a letter to Congress. “All this compounds the significant and concerning impacts AI is having on society, including lost jobs, social instability and economic concentration.”The group estimates that within five years, U.S. data centers will use as much electricity as 30 million homes and as much water as is consumed by 18.5 million households. Because data centers are mainly powered by energy from fossil fuels, this also increases climate pollution. They also blame current data centers for triggering a 21% increase in electricity rates since 2021 and see them driving those prices even higher in the years to come. The coalition members, “collectively representing millions of people in all 50 states, call on you to support a national moratorium on the approval and construction of new data centers,” they said. The effort is understandable and may spur even more public awareness of the challenge data centers pose. But given the Trump administration’s support for AI and tech company interests, its lack of concern about climate and environmental issues, and control of Congress, even a louder call will probably fall on deaf ears.

The Big ReadGetty ImagesWaymo Targets 1 Million Electric Robotaxi Rides A WeekWaymo, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving tech unit, expects to more than quadruple its ride service over the next year, aiming to handle at least a million paid robotaxi rides as it enters new cities in the U.S. and begins operating in the U.K. and Japan. It’s the first time that the company, which started in 2009 as the Google Self-Driving Car project, has set a hard target for its business.Currently, the Mountain View, California-based company books more than 1 million rides a month in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Bay Area communities, Austin, Atlanta and, as of last month, Miami. That’s “a number that we’re on a path to hit every week by the end of 2026,” Waymo said in a blog post. “As we look to 2026, we’re laying the early groundwork for ride-hailing operations in over 20 additional cities in 2026, including international cities like Tokyo and London.”Waymo doesn’t share financial data, but various estimates suggest it makes at least $20 per ride, which adds up to more than $20 million a month. At 1 million rides per week, its annualized revenue would hit about $1 billion, a milestone for the early-stage robotaxi market. To handle that volume of rides the company’s fleet will likely expand to at least 10,000 vehicles over the next year from more than 2,500 now, likely including electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 hatchbacks and Zeekr RT microvans in addition to its current Jaguar I-Pace SUVs.Read more hereHot TopicJamel Toppin for ForbesFervo Energy CEO Tim Latimer on the company’s $462 million fund raise and plans to scale up enhanced geothermal power What is the new funding going to make possible for Fervo?Well, the backdrop on this is … geothermal hasn't really been prominent for a while, nor has the whole concept of power generation in general. It's not always been a sexy topic. But we feel like we're cool all of a sudden because the electricity grid is growing. It's a key enabler for not just AI, but also onshoring of manufacturing and electric vehicle adoption. All these things come down to: Can we actually expand the grid fast enough? So we're enjoying being at the cool kids' table for once, of people wanting to focus on electricity generation. We're really excited about the role we’ve carved out for ourselves, which is that customers who want what we think the world really needs, round-the-clock, carbon-free electricity that can be built and delivered quickly, are finding a great solution in what Fervo has to offer with our enhanced geothermal systems. As we entered this year, what we saw was more and more customer demand. We executed more and more projects. Thankfully for us, all the metrics that we're looking at for our first large project build-out, Project Cape Station, phase one, in terms of drilling times and production results and keeping to our construction schedules, are all looking really good. We kind of looked at this along with our investors and said, “This is a great time to think about accelerating that growth. And as a result, we should look to do another fresh capital raise so we could grow even faster to meet our customer demands.” That's really where this Series E came together. What we found is a market that really recognizes the value of what we're doing. I no longer have to spend time in my investment pitches telling people that the world needs more electricity. It’s something that everybody realizes now. One of your first goals is to have 500 megawatts of power-generation capacity by 2028. That’s right. How big can Fervo’s form of geothermal get? And how big is the map of where you can site future projects? “I believe the number the [U.S. Geological Survey] came up with is that under today's technology, we've already unlocked 135 gigawatts worth of viable capacity that could be developed for geothermal in the basin and range region in the western United States, where Fervo is currently active. And then as technology continues to improve, that number could be as big as 1,400 gigawatts of development. The whole country's only a little over 1,000 gigawatts. So we could definitely produce the country's worth of geothermal just from what's in the basin and range area already. That's pretty exciting, I think, from a technology standpoint. … It’s huge, huge resource potential. We’re doing our projects in Utah and Nevada right now because that's where the best geothermal resource is. It's kind of like when you start with solar, you start with the sunniest places. And when you start with wind, you start with the windiest places. But we’re dropping the cost per foot so quickly that what used to be considered too deep for geothermal may not be too deep anymore. We've lowered our cost per foot of drilling by over 70% since we drilled our first well three years ago to today. The more we lower that cost per foot, the more we can access other resources. All the stuff that is in development right now and everything that we're going to break ground on in the next year or two is still going to be in the basin and range – Idaho, Nevada, Utah – geologic region. Looking 10 years ahead, if all goes well, what does Fervo look like in terms of how much power your combined projects are producing? I don't know, about 10 years from now.

The North Star for Fervo is that we think geothermal is this incredibly unique, overlooked resource and that it could be as big a part of the electric grid as any resource today. The goal is we want to be 20% to 30% of the whole electric system, up from 0.4% today. And why that's kind of the North Star is that it doesn't matter what your goals are for the energy system, whether it's driving down carbon emissions or increasing affordability or increasing national security and reliability. There's this new resource that nobody's counting on today, that’s only just become part of the conversation. … If we could show that we can add a new resource that's 20% to 30% of the grid and it's around the clock and it's carbon-free and it's affordable, I mean, that unlocks a really prosperous future for the world. That's what we're really excited about.

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