The extent to which hyperscalers are committed to running on clean energy has generated debate in recent weeks after it emerged that Microsoft Corp may be walking away from its 2030 hourly matching target. Such a step would carry significant emissions ramifications.
(May 20): A senior executive at Alphabet Inc’s Google said the company isn’t abandoning plans to run its business on 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030, even as the buildout of data centres for AI raises questions about the feasibility of such a goal.
Ben King, Google’s country managing director for Singapore and Malaysia, said the so-called hourly matching goal — whereby electricity consumption is backed by clean energy every hour of every day, in all regions in which the company operates — “remains” in place, in response to questions at a conference in Singapore on Tuesday.
