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Technology

Google’s Plan to Power Data Centers with Geothermal

On the tech giant’s geothermal deal, Musk’s pay package, and the climate costs of war

Google’s Plan to Power Data Centers with Geothermal
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Extreme flooding has displaced hundreds of people in Chile • Schools and tourist sites are closed across Greece due to dangerously high temperatures • A heat wave is settling over the Midwest and could last through next weekend.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Tesla shareholders vote on Musk’s pay package

We’ll know today whether Tesla CEO Elon Musk gets to keep his $56 billion pay package. The compensation deal was originally approved in 2018, but a Delaware court voided it earlier this year, saying it was “deeply flawed” and that shareholders weren’t made fully aware of its details. So the board is letting shareholders have their say once more. Remote voting closed at midnight last night. This morning Musk “leaked” the early vote results, claiming the resolution – along with a ballot measure to move the company from Delaware to Texas – was passing by a wide margin.

2. Google to buy geothermal energy from Nevada utility to power data centers

Google is teaming up with Nevada utility NV Energy Inc., and startup Fervo Energy, to power its data centers in the state with enhanced geothermal energy. The deal still needs to be approved by state regulators, but if it goes through, Fervo would develop a geothermal power plant to supply 115 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to NV Energy, which the utility would sell to Google. It represents “a new way that companies with very large emerging electricity loads and climate goals may get their power in regulated power markets,” Reutersexplained. Fervo is already supplying Google with about 3.5 MW of power as part of a pilot program. Its enhanced geothermal process involves drilling down beneath the Earth’s surface to harness the constant heat that radiates there.

3. Fires ravage world’s largest tropical wetland

Brazil’s tropical wetlands are on fire. The Pantanal, in central-western Brazil, spans an area twice the size of Portugal, making it the world’s largest tropical wetland. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a refuge for wildlife including the world’s largest species of jaguar, approximately 10 million caiman crocodiles, giant anteaters, and many monkeys. But all those creatures are in danger. Thanks to climate change and the El Niño weather pattern, ongoing drought in the region has led to early-season wildfires of epic proportions. In the first five months of the year there have been more than 1,300 fires, a huge increase over the 127 fires reported in the same period last year. The “real” wildfire season doesn’t start until next month and won’t peak until August or September.

4. New report quantifies climate impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused $32 billion in climate damages and has a greenhouse gas footprint equivalent to releasing at least 175 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a new report published by Ukraine's environment ministry and several climate NGOs. This is more than the annual emissions of The Netherlands, and would be like putting 90 million new combustion engine vehicles on the road. The calculation includes “reconstruction” emissions that will be generated from rebuilding infrastructure, which requires carbon-intensive materials like steel and cement.

Initiative on GHG accounting of war

5. Ford is reportedly building a ‘secretive low-cost EV team’

Ford has reportedly been snapping up workers from its rivals to beef up its own EV talent. The company is building a “secretive low-cost EV team,” according toTechCrunch. The 300-person team includes around 50 former Rivian workers, 20 former Tesla employees, as well as people from Lucid Motors and Apple’s ill-fated EV project. Internally, Ford’s EV team is known as “Ford Advanced EV.” Doug Field, Ford’s chief EV, digital and design officer, told TechCrunch that “this team is leading the development of breakthrough EV products and technologies.”

THE KICKER

“Conservation shouldn’t just happen in ‘pristine’ and ‘untouched’ landscapes, but in areas where wildlife have used and adapted to the human-induced changes in habitats.” –Emilie Hardouin, a conservation geneticist at Bournemouth University in the U.K., advocates for better conservation efforts in cities.

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Politics

AM Briefing: The Megabill Goes to the House

On the budget debate, MethaneSAT’s untimely demise, and Nvidia

House Republicans Are Already Divided on the Megabill
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: The northwestern U.S. faces “above average significant wildfire potential” for July • A month’s worth of rain fell over just 12 hours in China’s Hubei province, forcing evacuations • The top floor of the Eiffel Tower is closed today due to extreme heat.

THE TOP FIVE

1. House takes up GOP’s megabill

The Senate finally passed its version of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tuesday morning, sending the tax package back to the House in hopes of delivering it to Trump by the July 4 holiday. The excise tax on renewables that had been stuffed into the bill over the weekend was removed after Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska struck a deal with the Senate leadership designed to secure her vote. In her piece examining exactly what’s in the bill, Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo explains that even without the excise tax, the bill would “gum up the works for clean energy projects across the spectrum due to new phase-out schedules for tax credits and fast-approaching deadlines to meet complex foreign sourcing rules.” Debate on the legislation begins on the House floor today. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he doesn’t like the legislation, and a handful of other Republicans have already signaled they won’t vote for it.

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Podcast

Shift Key Summer School: What Is a Watt?

Jesse teaches Rob the basics of energy, power, and what it all has to do with the grid.

Power lines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

What is the difference between energy and power? How does the power grid work? And what’s the difference between a megawatt and a megawatt-hour?

On this week’s episode, we answer those questions and many, many more. This is the start of a new series: Shift Key Summer School. It’s a series of introductory “lecture conversations” meant to cover the basics of energy and the power grid for listeners of every experience level and background. In less than an hour, we try to get you up to speed on how to think about energy, power, horsepower, volts, amps, and what uses (approximately) 1 watt-hour, 1 kilowatt-hour, 1 megawatt-hour, and 1 gigawatt-hour.

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Electric Vehicles

The Best Time to Buy an EV Is Probably Right Now

If the Senate reconciliation bill gets enacted as written, you’ve got about 92 days left to seal the deal.

A VW ID. Buzz.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

If you were thinking about buying or leasing an electric vehicle at some point, you should probably get on it like, right now. Because while it is not guaranteed that the House will approve the budget reconciliation bill that cleared the Senate Tuesday, it is highly likely. Assuming the bill as it’s currently written becomes law, EV tax credits will be gone as of October 1.

The Senate bill guts the subsidies for consumer purchases of electric vehicles, a longstanding goal of the Trump administration. Specifically, it would scrap the 30D tax credit by September 30 of this year, a harsher cut-off than the version of the bill that passed the House, which would have axed the credit by the end of 2025 except for automakers that had sold fewer than 200,000 electric vehicles. The credit as it exists now is worth up to $7,500 for cars with an MSRP below $55,000 (and trucks and sports utility vehicles under $80,000), and, under the Inflation Reduction Act, would have lasted through the end of 2032. The Senate bill also axes the $4,000 used EV tax credit at the end of September.

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