Google says the proposed partnership has been sent to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada for approval. The company has set a goal of powering its data centers and buildings with 100% carbon-free energy by 2030. In an environmental report released last year, Google said it has achieved 64% carbon-free energy at its data centers, and 56% at its offices.

The supply agreement for 115 MW of geothermal energy would increase the amount of enhanced geothermal capacity Google uses for operations by 25 times, according to the company.

Late last year, Google announced an advanced geothermal project, through a partnership with Houston-based Fervo Energy, had begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada grid to power its data centers there.

Google and Fervo Energy started working together in 2021 to develop next-generation geothermal power. Now that the site near Winnemucca, Nevada is operating commercially, its three wells are sending about 3.5 megawatts to the grid.

In March, Google, Microsoft, and Nucor Corporation announced they would work together across the electricity ecosystem to develop new business models and aggregate their demand for advanced clean electricity technologies.

These models are intended to accelerate the development of “first-of-a-kind” and early commercial projects, including advanced nuclear, next-generation geothermal, clean hydrogen, long-duration energy storage (LDES), and more.

At least 38 GW of peak demand growth is expected through 2028, driven by the development of data centers and industrial and manufacturing facilities, according to a recent report from Grid Strategies.

The report, The Era of Flat Power Demand is Over, cited forecasts from grid planners, who have doubled the five-year load growth forecast over the past year. The nationwide forecast of electricity demand jumped from 2.6% to 4.7% growth over the next five years, according to FERC filings – and these forecasts are likely an underestimate, Grid Strategies said. Recent updates have tacked on several GW to that forecast, and next year’s will likely show an even steeper growth rate.

The International Energy Agency has long projected geothermal could be a serious solution to climate change. In a 2011 roadmap document, IEA suggested geothermal could reach some 3.5% of global electricity generation annually by 2050, avoiding almost 800 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

This article contains reporting from the Associated Press.

The IRP, which factors in projected load growth in Nevada, was filed with the state’s Public Utilities Commission. The proposal includes three large solar and battery power purchase agreements, totaling more than 1,000 MW of solar energy and more than 1,000 MW of battery storage.

Dry Lake East solar is proposed to have a 200 MW capacity and is expected to be in service by the end of 2026. The project will also include a 200 MW battery with a 4-hour duration (800 MWh). The proposed project would be 20 miles northeast of Las Vegas in Clark County.

Boulder Solar III would have 128 MW capacity and is expected to be in service in June 2027. The project, located in Boulder City, would also include a 128 MW battery with a 4-hour duration (511.4 MWh).

NV Energy is also requesting to add approximately 400 MW of natural-gas peaking units to be co-located at the North Valmy Generating Station. The additional units are proposed to be ready for summer 2028 and would be used in times of peak demand.

The utility said the new gas units would be able to utilize hydrogen in the future.

NV Energy said its IRP balances projected new load growth without overextending existing resources. The load growth is based continued economic growth, including strong residential growth, increased adoption of electric vehicles, data centers and other large projects.

NV Energy released the details through an amendment to the company’s 2021 Integrated Resource Plan. The utility will file the amendment with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) for consideration at the end of the month.

The coal-fired North Valmy Generating Station is located in northern Nevada near Battle Mountain. NV Energy claims refueling the plant with natural gas will reduce CO2 emissions by almost 50%.

Additionally, the amendment includes the purchase, installation and operation of a 400 MW solar plant along with a 400 MW, four-hour battery storage system in Northern Nevada.

NV Energy says procuring these resources will offset the loss of other renewable energy projects that are now not being developed.

The utility’s original plan was to replace North Valmy’s coal generation with two projects, Hot Pot and Iron Point, that were supposed to add a combined 600 MW of solar and 480 MW of storage (chemistries and duration of the storage assets were not shared). However, the projects were pulled from development over procurement issues to replace North Valmy’s coal capacity.

The state of Nevada is aiming for a renewable portfolio requirement of 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

The turbine would have a peak summer rating of 444 MW including wet compression and would enter service in July 2024.

The utility would spend another $20 million on transmission upgrades to connect the plant to its regional grid.

The utility said that even though it was adding fossil fueled generation, it was not deviating from its clean energy goals and the state’s overall sustainability goals.

The utility told regulators that firm dispatchable resources like the peaking plant would contribute more to capacity in 2050 than to energy production, resulting in what it said would be a positive impact on resource adequacy with “minimal carbon dioxide emissions.”

NV Energy said the combustion turbine would be capable of operating on 15% hydrogen and that the original equipment manufacturing was “planning a path toward allowing these units to operate on 100 percent hydrogen.”

The turbines’ air permit application would limit their use to 700 hours annually.

‘New normal’

The utility said that resource adequacy risks in Nevada and across the West have been “evolving” since 2020. It pointed to significant heat events as well as shifts in weather and rapid changes in resource mix. 

It said that wildfires in 2021 resulted in the loss of 5,500 MW of transmission capacity from the Pacific AC and DC interties. NV Energy told its regulators that concerns regardingclimate-related events would continue as “the new normal.”

Tech giant Google opposed the capacity addition. It said in part that NV Energy should more thoroughly vet the planning use of hydrogen at the Silverhawk location. Google said that if hydrogen is produced using existing grid resources, then overall emissions could grow. It said that such an outcome would “underscore the need for strong standards and system planning practices around hydrogen’s production and use.”

Commission staff said that during an August 2020 heat wave, NV Energy experienced “unprecedented” firm market curtailments with as much as 1,243 MW curtailed. That amount was around 15% of the NV Energy Balancing Area Authority peak load and on par with the utility’s entire planning reserve margin.

During that heat event, NV Energy had to rely entirely on the Northwest Power Pool for all of its reserve margin for four hours. As a result, the Power Pool revised its rules to limit NV Energy’s reserve sharing to just one hour.

Those events led staff to argue that more internal generating capacity would be useful because firm market power purchases “are no longer always guaranteed.”