Employees from Google’s and Meta’s headquarters each paid a visit to Korea recently. Unbeknownst to the news media, they quietly met with Korean renewable energy start-ups to discuss potential investments in supplying clean energy to AI data centers the firms are considering building in Korea. Big name companies always make sure they remain committed to environmentally friendly efforts to reduce carbon emissions when making investments. These efforts are publicly disclosed under the label of environmental, social and governance practices and are subject to evaluation. Google and Meta are no different, and when they plan to build data centers that consume large amounts of electricity, running them on clean energy is always on their list of criteria. After meeting with the Korean start-ups, the companies decided to halt their investments in Korea due to the country’s limited capacity to supply clean energy. They wanted a steady supply of clean energy for their data centers, which run 24 hours a day. Providing that supply with solar or wind energy, which is generated intermittently
Demand and costs must also be considered for megaprojects