This startup wants to make clean energy the default for data centers

The U.S. is adding a record 86 gigawatts of wind, solar, and battery storage capacity this year. Despite this, data centers often utilize polluting gas plants due to the complexity of assembling clean energy from various projects. Firma Power is developing software to solve this coordination issue. Meanwhile, AI data centers face significant public criticism regarding their high consumption of water and electricity, noise pollution, urban sprawl, and the potential for widespread job displacement by technology.