Here’s what you should know today:

• COOLING, TECH, AND POWER: A new way of storing solar energy, Microsoft’s massive clean energy deal, Dominion is connecting VA

• CHECK THIS OUT: AWS components get new life

• BIG DEALS: Apple rocking new AI chips, Meta’s 20th coming to AL, and Microsoft adding $3.3 billion to Wisconsin

- Cooling, tech, and power -

Exowatt’s thermal batteries hope to change solar

Their new product, the Exowatt P3 system, diverges from traditional solar panels by storing energy in a thermal battery rather than converting solar energy directly into electricity. The system can store energy for up to 24 hours and is compact enough to fit inside a standard 40-foot shipping container.

The thermal battery, a key component of the P3, stores energy as heat, which can be converted into electricity on demand. 
Exowatt claims this storage method is cost-effective as it minimizes reliance on expensive battery technologies and does not require rare-earth elements.

According to DCF, each modular container contains three components:

• A heat collector to capture solar energy.

• The thermal battery, which stores the collected heat for its energy potential.

• The Exowatt heat engine used to convert the heat in storage into dispatchable power.

Cheapest Solar out there?

Exowatt explicitly looks to address the significant energy demands of coming AI data centers.

They claim a potential cost of electricity generation as low as $0.01 per kWh, positioning it as a highly economical renewable energy option

Here’s from Jack Abraham, Co-Founder of Exowatt:

“Our mission is to provide extremely low-cost energy that advances the capabilities of global AI infrastructure while protecting our planet.”

Exowatt has already attracted significant interest from the data center industry, with a 500 MW backlog of power requests from U.S. data centers scheduled for deployment in 2024.

They also raised $20 million from a number of high-profile investors last week to develop this technology.

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Microsoft inks massive renewables deal

Microsoft has entered into a groundbreaking agreement with Brookfield Asset Management through Brookfield Renewable to purchase over 10.5 GW of clean energy.

This initiative is nearly eight times larger than any previous single corporate power purchase agreement in history, according to Brookfield Renewables CEO, Connor Teskey.

He added that the deal demonstrates Brookfield’s capability to provide large-scale clean power solutions to corporate partners.

More details + the future

Spanning 2026 to 2030, the deal involves the delivery of wind, solar, and innovative carbon-free energy technologies from Brookfield to Microsoft in both the United States and Europe.

With the potential for expansion in size and geographic scope, this agreement adds to Microsoft's prior procurement of approximately 1 GW from Brookfield.

By the end of 2022, Microsoft had secured over 13.5 GW of clean energy across 16 countries, reinforcing its status as a leader in corporate sustainability.

This deal supports the desperate need for large data center operators to meet stringent (often self-imposed) clean energy requirements.

Brookfield, too, is making a major bet on clean energy: the firm owns about 33 GW, and its project development pipeline totals about 155.4 GW, according to the company.

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More in Cooling, Tech, and Power

1. Exxon + Intel team up to develop data center cooling technology. The two giants say the partnership intends to “design, test, research, and co-develop energy-efficient cooling fluid solutions.” A new business unit for Exxon, they announced their move into data center cooling fluids last year with a portfolio of synthetic and non-synthetic fluids for keeping hardware temperatures down.

2. Dominion to connect another 15 data centers in ‘24. The company reported that since 2019, it has linked 94 data centers in Northern Virginia, providing over 4GW of capacity. This effort included connecting 15 data centers in 2023 with a total of 933MW, and plans are in place to connect an additional 15 in 2024.

Check this out

Take a look at the facility where AWS’s old data center equipment gets a second life.

- Deals and Developments -

Apple to rock new AI data center chips

In a move seemingly 2 years later than its competition, Apple is reportedly developing its own artificial intelligence chips for use in data center servers.

Thunderstruck

Internally this is known as ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Centers).

The initiative has been several years in the making and involves collaboration with TSMC for the design and manufacturing of these chips.

It remains uncertain whether Apple will make a public announcement regarding these chips, despite successful production.

In related developments, Apple recently appointed Sumit Gupta, a former executive from Google, IBM, and Nvidia, as the director of products for Apple Cloud. Gupta's previous roles have imbued him with experience in data center infrastructure, including specialized AI hardware.

Moreover, Apple has continued to advance its chip technology in consumer devices as well.

The company launched the new iPad Pro featuring a 3nm system on a chip (SoC), the M4, which is designed to significantly enhance AI-related tasks. The M4 chip is said to be 50% faster than its predecessor, the M2, and offers improved computational capacity, achieving 38 Tops of Integer (8-bit) accuracy, which represents a 5% increase over the M3 chip.

More Big Deals

• Google’s investing another $1 billion in its Virginia data centers. The tech giant has spent north of $4.2 billion developing data centers in the state. While this billion bucks will expand existing facilities, in March a Google-linked company got approval on an 184-acre campus in Prince William County.

• Meta’s 20th US data center will go up in Montgomery Alabama. The 750,000 sqft, $800 million facility will be custom-designed and built by over 1000 building professionals. Montgomery was chosen for its access to infrastructure and strong talent pool, per the announcement.

• $3.3 billion in Microsoft AI infrastructure is coming to South Wisconsin. The initiative includes building advanced cloud and AI infrastructure, establishing the nation's first manufacturing-focused AI co-innovation lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and launching a comprehensive AI training program to skill over 100,000 residents.

The end. Thank you for reading!

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- TaylorNew P