City of Meadowlakes
The possible deal be - tween Microsoft and Con - stellation Energy is one step toward reducing CO2 emissions. Microsoft is searching for power for their AI am - bitions. Unit 1 Reactor, which was shut down five years ago, would be reac - tivated by 2028 depending on Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. In addition, Microsoft would purchase carbon-free electrical energy to power its data centers to support artificial intelligence. The agreement would terminate in 20 years unless renewed by the parties.
Clean energy advo - cates and businesses alike are looking towards nu - clear energy as a reliable baseload source of near zero-carbon power. A big pro is that nucle - ar is able to stay on at all times of the day and night, unlike wind and solar. Nuclear power generation itself emits no CO2. However, workers drive to and from work; deliveries to the plant and support operations use motor vehicles; and con - struction operations use gasoline or diesel pow - ered equipment that gen - erate CO2 that would not be emitted if the reactor remain closed. That is nothing new. Anytime businesses expand, or new businesses emerge, energy (and thus CO2 emissions) increase. The term "carbon in - tensity," used by energy insiders, is not a familiar term to many of us. Car - bon intensity is a measure of carbon dioxide and oth - er greenhouse gases per unit of activity, like gener - ating a product. For a power plant "car - bon intensity" refers to how many grams of car - bon dioxide are released to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity. For a nation, for in - stance, it would refer to how much carbon dioxide would be produced in a country per unit of eco - nomic activity. One example of in - dustry trying to use tech - nology to reduce carbon intensity is Exxon Mobil's (XOM) Baytown, Texas hydrogen and ammonia production from natural gas to capture the carbon. The plant would pro - duce 1.0 billion cubic feet of hydrogen per day to be used in furnaces that currently burn natu - ral gas. This month the National Oil Company of Abu Dhabi (ADNOC) announced that they were buying a minority inter - est in the project. The project is well underway. The French engineering contractor, Technip, was awarded a contract for de - sign in January of 2023. The company's plans are to achieve a 2030% reduction in cor - porate-wide greenhouse gas intensity; a 40-50% reduction in greenhouse gas intensity for upstream operations (finding and drilling for oil and gas); a 70%-80% reduction in corporate wide methane intensity; and a 60-70% reduction in corporate wide flaring intensity.
