Google bought all of a major solar farm's output to offset its dirty data center emissions

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Google bought all of the major solar farms output to offset its dirty data center emissions. More on that coming up, but first, Google has just rolled out Gemini for Chrome in the UK. The integration doesn't sit well with everybody, and Gemini isn't the most popular AI assistant out there. But you will start seeing an Ask Gemini button with a sparkle icon soon if you're in the United Kingdom and use Google's browser. Gemini's Chrome integration used to be exclusively available to AI Pro or AI Ultra subscribers, but Google made it more widely available in the US on desktop in late 2025
The company then rolled out the future to Latin America and the Middle East, and then to Canada, India, and New Zealand until it made its way to over 50 countries around the world.
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Google has struck a deal to purchase a major solar project's entire electrical output to offset its fossil fuel emissions. The Financial Times reports, The search giant will take 100% of the initial output from Steel River Energy Center in Arkansas once it comes online in 2029, amounting to 1.6 gigawatts of solar power and 2 gigawatts of battery storage, enough to power 315,000 ohms. Google will pay a fixed cost for the electricity from the solar plant, but won't use it directly. Instead, it will draw from the grid powered by a mix of coal, nuclear, renewables, and natural gas, along with its own on-site power, typically gas turbines and engines. Energy from the Steel River Energy Center Solar Project will form part of that grid mix. Once completed, the project will supply 2.45 gigawatts of solar power and 2.9 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage. The first two phases, out of three, received $3.5 billion in financing and prioritized US manufactured steel and solar panels. Google's electricity use rose 37% last year, which pushed up its grid-based emissions by the same amount. Other tech giants like Meta and Amazon also saw massive leaps in energy consumption due to data centers powering AI.
Much of that has been powered fossil fuel sources that have further pushed up CO2 emissions in a rapidly warming planet. The recent heat waves across Europe would have been virtually impossible without climate change, scientists said last month. Tech giants have looked at clean energy projects to offset that fossil fuel power, a controversial practice that some experts say isn't effective. Meta recently purchased the entire electricity output 200 megawatts of another solar plant in Texas. While Amazon recently agreed to buy out the troubled 1.2 gigawatt frontstone solar and battery project in Oregon.
Thanks for listening to the show. Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Today's show featured journalism by Engadget contributor Steve Dent and was produced by Spoken Lair. I'm Imran Shaikh, and as always, we'll talk more tomorrow.
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