Google, Microsoft and Nucor partner to aggregate demand for clean electricity

Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Nucor (NUE) will work together across the electricity ecosystem to develop new business models and aggregate their demand for advanced clean electricity technologies. These models will be designed 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 and others. As a first step, the companies will issue an RFI in several US regions for potential projects in need of offtake, and encourage technology providers, developers, investors, utilities and others interested in responding to get in touch here. By developing new commercial structures and aggregating demand from three of the world’s largest energy buyers, this approach aims to reduce the risks for utilities and developers considering early commercial projects and enable the investments that are needed – ultimately helping to bring these projects online by the early 2030s and reducing technology costs through repeated deployment. The companies will initially focus on proving out the demand aggregation and procurement model through advanced technology pilot projects in the U.S. In addition to supporting innovative technologies that can help decarbonize electricity systems worldwide, this demand aggregation model aims to bring clear benefits to large energy buyers. Pooling demand enables buyers to offtake larger volumes of carbon-free electricity from a portfolio of plants, reducing project-specific development risk, and enables procurement efficiencies and shared learnings.