Google has announced big news in the energy space over the past week, all of which include Harris Biden’s vision of a bright future powered entirely by windmills, solar cells, and perhaps a combination of unicorn fur and pixie dust. inconsistent with the goal.

Last week, the Washington Post Published a major article Nebraska’s Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) will keep two coal-fired power plants open for years longer than previously planned to meet the power demands of new data centers that Google and Meta are building in the area. It detailed the fact that it would be forced to keep it running. Originally scheduled to close at the end of 2023, it is now scheduled to remain open until 2026, and local residents and activists have expressed skepticism that it will remain closed beyond that.

“There was a promise and they broke it,” the Post quoted local resident Cheryl Weston as saying. “The responsibility for this lies with technology companies. Coal-fired power plants are still running because they need this much energy to grow.” (Related: David Blackmon: President Kamala Harris’ dire energy costs)

Yes, that’s right. Weston’s skepticism appears to be well-founded, given that supposed deadlines and commitments related to this government-mandated energy transition have been consistently extended or broken.

Most everyone knows by now that the proliferation of data centers is placing huge new demands on the U.S. regional power grid. New demands from Big Tech are adding to power systems already strained by crypto mining, EV charging, and massive demands from a growing general population and an expanding economy.

This increase in demand threatens to overwhelm utilities’ ability to build new generation capacity fast enough. This is especially true for companies operating in regions where such new generation capacity is limited to “green”, i.e. intermittent wind and solar power.

In a Washington Post article, OPPD says the expected slow development of new wind and solar power requires coal-fired power plants to remain open. But this avoids the reality that these data centers and other power-hungry facilities require reliable power generation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The limitations of intermittent, weather-dependent wind and solar power have led companies like Google and Meta to seek more reliable and consistent power generation, even when combined with current backup battery technology. Masu.

This reality is not limited to the Omaha area. Monday, Wall Street Journal Google reported and parent company Alphabet are also backing the new company to develop a new generation of modular nuclear reactors as a way to secure future power supplies. In a deal with nuclear startup Kairos Power, Google commits to buying power from seven Kairos reactors as they come online over the next few years.

“The end goal here is 24/7 carbon-free energy,” said Michael Terrell, senior director of energy and climate at Google/Alphabet. “We feel that achieving our 24-hour clean energy goals will require complementary technologies to wind, solar and lithium-ion storage.”

These developments involving Google and Meta come on the heels of other recent articles detailing efforts by tech giants to secure future power needs. Constellation Energy in early October announced Microsoft plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania to meet the power needs of a nearby data center it is developing. Constellation announced Similar transaction in July It will provide power to data centers owned by Amazon from other nuclear facilities operated by the company.

Regulators and grid managers have become increasingly concerned about the potential to deplete regional grids of the capacity needed to maintain power supplies in other regions, and in some regions it has become a challenge for large tech companies to Securing power supply may become an essential condition. Bloomberg recently reported on comments from Texas Public Utilities Commission Chairman Thomas Gleason. Warning to data center developers If you want to connect to the grid in a timely manner, you need to plan to cover at least part of your electricity needs.

What this means is that the demand for reliable 24/7 electricity provided by nuclear, natural gas, and even coal will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. A bright energy transition is just waiting for reality.

David Blackmon is a Texas-based energy writer and consultant. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, specializing in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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