Energy Unplugged by Aurora EP.177 Michael Terrell, Sr. Director for Energy and Climate, Google
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Jan 25, 2024 Michael Terrell, Senior Director for Energy and Climate at Google, discusses power consumption of data centers, achieving Google's 24/7 carbon-free energy goal, upcoming policy developments, and potential carbon reduction solutions.
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Buying Cheap Renewables Can Saturate Markets
- Corporate buyers concentrated in cheap regions can saturate markets and produce limited additional decarbonization.
- Targeting emissions reductions where grids are dirtier yields stronger system-wide impact.
Adopt Hourly Tracking For Renewable Certificates
- Push registries and certificate systems to enable hourly tracking and verification.
- Adopt standards like EnergyTag and work with registries to pilot hourly REC approaches.
Close Hourly Gaps With Markets, Demand, Firm Power
- Use three levers: regional market design, flexible demand, and firm clean generation to close hourly gaps.
- Deploy demand flexibility like carbon-intelligent compute and invest in firm technologies like geothermal.