Tech Companies Owe You An Answer
Relocating to Oklahoma might be their competitive advantage.
What is this sorcery you’re speaking of, Robert?! Every one of Oklahoma’s 77 counties voted red in the past few elections! Oklahoma is not compatible with technology! I hope I predicated a little of your thought process there. Let’s dive in.
Electricity Fuels by State
You might be surprised to learn that Oklahoma ranks #1 in the country for electricity consumption from Renewables. Renewables are defined herein as wind + solar, excluding hydroelectric and biomass.
44% of Oklahoma’s electricity came from Wind alone in 2019, yes greater than California and Texas.
We’ll give a nice shout out to Texas though and confirm that Texas ranks number one in the country for the most installed wind capacity of any state (and the worst football team known to man), which is different from how electricity is actually consumed.
Equally surprising, American tech would be the third-largest consumer of electricity in the world if it were a country. This implies that they are responsible for the fuels that fuel their empires (looking at you Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon).
Google & Amazon Web Services
Let’s take a second to appreciate what electricity looks like in the states where Google & AWS have decided to locate their data centers (sorted from the highest average electricity price to lowest and prices in cents):
#12 California (AWS; $9.54 per kWh)
- 23.49% renewables
- 1% coal,
*it is worthwhile to note that CA imports tonnes of coal-generation from Nevada, and are facing electricity stability issues.
#11 Nevada (GOOGLE; $7.27 per kWh):
- 13.54% renewables
- 7.61% of coal
#10 Ohio (AWS; $6.76 per kWh)
- 1.73% renewables
- 39.91% coal
#9 Alabama (GOOGLE; $6.47 per kWh):
- 0.28% renewables
- 19.31% coal
#8 South Carolina (GOOGLE; $6.32 per kWh):
- 0.80% renewables
- 15.04% coal
#7 Georgia (GOOGLE; $6.19 per kWh):
- 1.69% renewables
- 20.58% natural gas
#6 Tennessee (GOOGLE; $6.17 per kWh):
- 0.46% renewables
- 23.01% coal
#5 Virginia (AWS; $6.08 per kWh)
- 0.90% renewables
- 3.69% coal
#4 North Carolina (GOOGLE; $6.03 per kWh):
- 6.09% renewables
- 23.93% coal
#3 Oregon (AWS; $5.98 per kWh)
- 12.84% renewables
- 4.21% coal
#2 Oklahoma (GOOGLE; $5.50 per kWh):
- 34.69% wind
- 09.40% coal
#1 Iowa (130 employees; $4.89 per kWh):
- 42.23% renewables
- 35.26% coal
Source: EIA, Hefner Energy (all sectors)
While Iowa technically beats Oklahoma as the least expensive electrons in the United States, it is largely due to generating nearly four times (4x) as much coal. Meanwhile, all other electrons in states listed are significantly more expensive, while delivering negligible renewable electricity. Oklahoma does not get close to consuming all of its excess wind capacity per annum either.
The only states with a lower cost per kilowatt-hour are Iowa (35% coal), Idaho (57% hydroelectric), West Virginia (91% coal), Kentucky (73% coal), and Washington (64% hydroelectric).
DENMARK: google has planned a data center in Denmark, the country with the absolute highest electricity prices in the world at over 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, while only deriving 4.32% of its total mtoe consumption in a year from renewables (source: BP Statistical review 2020).
The simple fact of the matter is this — Oklahoma (not California or Texas) provides the clean-for-buck electrons in the world!
Like Google and Amazon, tech companies owe their stakeholders an answer. If they are serious about deep decarbonization, how do they not consolidate their electricity-intensive operations to Oklahoma?
Tesla sure took a hard look at Oklahoma recently. You should too.
