Google is one of the technology companies that are always looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint in unique ways such as using sea cooling, solar and wind energy to power data centers and so on.
Recently, Google is reported to be using geothermal energy to supply clean electricity to a data center in Arizona, Nevada. Google says they are using modern petroleum exploration techniques to optimize the production of this geothermal energy that can provide energy around the clock.
For this project, Google has collaborated with a company called Fervo that has expertise in optimizing the use of geothermal energy and ways to obtain it. For this project, Fervo used a horizontal petroleum drilling technique where they dug 8000 feet deep before changing the position of the drill to a horizontal position to obtain this geothermal heat energy.
Fiber optic cables are then used to analyze the flow and temperature of this underground heat, where Fervo then develops a well that helps in getting this heat energy as efficiently as possible and can be used to power this data center.
Google says that the use of geothermal power to power this data center is not only the lowest cost, but the use of power is the cleanest because it converts this geothermal energy into electricity in the most efficient way.
Even so, a major drawback in the use of geothermal energy is that it needs to be done in a location where this energy is accessible, because this heat energy cannot be transferred over long distances.