Google Accused of Greenwashing Massive AI Energy Consumption – Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Accused of signing zero carbon nuclear deals with no timeline, scanty details.

Google tries to greenwash massive AI energy consumption with another vague nuclear deal

Chocolate Factory promises early-stage capital to atomic upstart Elementl

Brandon Vigliarolo 
Wed 7 May 2025  // 19:02 UTC

Google has signed a strategic agreement with nuclear project developer Elementl Power to support the early development of three potential fission reactor sites in the US.

But with no selected reactor tech and no construction timeline, the announcement sounds more like a handwaving exercise to distract onlookers from the massive amount of energy that will be expended as Google and other companies race to capitalize on the AI boom.

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But as The Register pointed out recently, Google’s nuclear plans – along with those backed by Meta, Amazon, and others – may be too little too late to address the growing concerns that there isn’t enough power to fuel the growing demand from datacenters and AI. Experts predict an “unprecedented” spike in demand, driven in part by datacenter and AI growth, that could require 3,500 TWh of new energy generation by 2027.

Google’s own plans for AI expansion are gigantic. Google parent company Alphabet saidin its most recent earnings call last month that it intended to invest $75 billion in CapEx in 2025, much of that going to servers and datacenters to support the expansion of Google services and DeepMind AI products. At least a portion of the electricity going into those data centers is generated by burning fossil fuels, which contribute to global warming: Google itself admitted in its 2024 environmental report AI investments were a big factor as Google’s carbon emissions to increase by 13 percent year-over-year, writing “Overall, our total GHG emissions increased by 13% — highlighting the challenge of reducing emissions while compute intensity increases and we grow our technical infrastructure investment to support this AI transition.” Overall, the report said, its emissions grew 48% between 2019 and 2024.

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Read more: https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/google_signs_another_nuclear_deal/

The green movement is finished. The AI revolution has barely begun, yet the momentum behind AI is already unstoppable.

Wait until advanced AI powered consumer devices – robotic household servants which can mind the kids, take care of the gardening, or provide for other needs – start penetrating the consumer market at scale. There is no way the gargantuan energy needs of the AI required to power such consumer tech will be satisfied by handwaving agreements with early stage nuke startups, it will be all hands on deck for new dispatchable energy capacity in whatever form is most readily available.