Google will pay people to use less electricity so its data centers can use more

Google has an answer to some of the electricity supply problems that data center construction is causing : It has signed an agreement with energy supplier Voltus to build what it’s calling a 1-gigawatt virtual power plant, expanding on an earlier 100 megawatt deal the two signed earlier this year. This power plant is virtual in the sense that it doesn’t generate any electricity itself, but aggregates so-called flexible grid capacity into one central resource that can be deployed at times of peak