Alphabet (GOOGL)-owned Google Cloud is heating up the development of geothermal energy by combining its AI tools with oilfield services firm Schlumberger (SLB).
AI Powers Energy Hunt
Google Cloud said it was teaming up with SLB and Project Innerspace – an organization driving the growth of geothermal energy – to accelerate its adoption. Geothermal energy is simply heat stored within the Earth which can be converted into heat or electricity.
The new partnership will combine geothermal data from Project Innerspace’s GeoMap with SLB’s consulting know-how to pinpoint and develop promising geothermal resources around the world. GeoMap has been developed by Project Innerspace with the support of a global team of more than 100 researchers and scientists, and is hosted on Google Earth Engine. The tool also leverages Google Cloud’s scalable infrastructure, BigQuery and Vertex AI.
Geothermal Can Meet Global Demand
Geothermal is by nature a sustainable energy and, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency has the potential to meet global electricity demands 140 times over. That is second only to solar in the field of clean energy technologies.
The new collaboration builds on Google’s existing commitment to develop advanced geothermal technologies. Indeed, last year Google announced a new model to commercialize this technology in partnership with electric utilities.
Its sustainable energy drive included joining forces with NV Energy, an electric utility subsidiary of Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.B), to power data centres in Nevada with geothermal electricity.
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