Data centre power and cooling: orbital TPUs, grid money and a backlash that will not cool down

That deal is about cars. But the logic behind it, owning the energy and swapping layer rather than the box, is the same one driving the data centre industry this week. Power and cooling are the constraint. Everything else is downstream.

On the orbital side, Google is now days away from launch. Ars Technica reported on 24 September that the satellite, called MVP, is scheduled to fly on 1 October as part of the Transporter-18 rideshare aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. It is roughly the size of a refrigerator and carries four of Google's custom TPU accelerators. Solar panels supply about one kilowatt, according to The New York Times, as cited by Ars Technica and Tom's Hardware. Tom's Hardware put the launch window at "next week" in its 26 September piece and placed the launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. One kilowatt is not much.

Google's own senior vice president of research, James Manyika, was blunt with the Times. "We don't expect, to be perfectly frank, that we'll have anything usefully operational in the next few years," he said. He compared the effort to Google's driverless car programme, which he said was tested "like 15 years before anything showed up."

Cooling is the interesting part, because it is the same problem the terrestrial industry is throwing billions at. In space there is no air, so fans are useless. Ars Technica describes Google's approach: a layer of malleable thermal interface material connecting the chips to aluminium and copper heat pipes, which conduct heat into a radiator that projects it into space. Radiation is the second problem, since it can flip bits and corrupt calculations. Tom's Hardware reports that Google's answer for now is to restart the chips periodically. Even so, the four TPUs can only run for about 15 minutes before they have to shut down so the radiators can catch up.

The satellite is expected to handle AI requests for up to a year and stay in orbit for up to six years before re-entry, according to Tom's Hardware. Google has said the next step is a pair of satellites, with a long-term vision of networked fleets of more than 80. Ars Technica notes the original plan was two custom satellites in 2027, but Google accelerated by integrating its chips into a satellite that Planet Labs had already built. The 2027 launches are still on the agenda.

Back on the ground, the money is flowing in the opposite direction: into wires. The Register reported on 25 September that the US Department of Energy announced $5.25 billion for grid improvements, made up of $1.9 billion in federal funds and $3.35 billion in cost-share funding. The programme spans 31 projects in 26 states. It is expected to unlock at least 23 gigawatts of additional capacity by reconductoring or rebuilding more than 1,500 miles of transmission lines and deploying grid-enhancing technologies across 21,000 miles. "These investments will get more out of the infrastructure we already have, move more electricity across the grid, and help deliver affordable, reliable, and secure power that will fuel American prosperity for decades to come," US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement, per The Register.

The same piece carries a warning from Moody's, which said earlier in September that the pace of data centre construction exceeds the speed at which the US grid can add capacity. Moody's estimates US data centre electricity consumption will reach 426 TWh by 2030, nearly double the 2025 figure. That is the gap the DOE money is meant to narrow, and The Register is explicit that it may not be enough.

Supply chains are already shifting under the strain. TechCrunch reported on 25 September that Crusoe has abandoned a $1.25 billion plan to buy 29 of Boom Supersonic's 42-megawatt Superpower turbines, which were to be the first deliveries of a new stationary power business. Boom CEO Blake Scholl announced the split in a post on X. Crusoe spokesperson Andrew Schmitt told TechCrunch the company's energy plans "haven't changed" and that it still plans to use turbines, "just not Boom's." Scholl wrote that Boom will deliver about 250MW of Superpowers next year to other sites and is targeting 1GW in 2028.

Not everyone accepts the framing that the backlash is organic. The Guardian reported on 26 September that Australian politicians and executives are calling community resentment of AI data centres an inauthentic import from the US. Victoria's then-minister for economic growth, Steve Dimopoulos, said US campaigns "shape public opinion in Australia" and declared: "We are not the United States. Our planning, energy and water systems are much more carefully monitored, managed and regulated." Belinda Dennett of Data Centres Australia said the US has 5,400 data centres with 53.7 GW of capacity, against 252 in Australia with 1.4 GW.

The Guardian's own reporting undercuts that framing. Australia, with a population of 28 million, has just under one data centre per 100,000 people, against 1.5 per 100,000 in the US. Several projects of 1 GW or more are in planning, including a 2.4 GW centre outside Melbourne and a 2 GW gas-powered centre in the Northern Territory. Rob Nicholls of the University of Sydney told the Guardian the US-sourced argument is rational: "It's going to increase the cost of electricity and it's going to increase the cost of water and I don't get a benefit from it."

In India, the fight is about who pays. The Guardian reported on 26 September that Google's $15bn AI data centre project in Andhra Pradesh was publicly announced as 1GW, but state environmental clearances allow more than double that, 2.51GW. Over a year, the Guardian says, that amounts to upwards of 30% of the current energy consumption of Andhra Pradesh, a state of more than 55 million people. Clearances were issued in nine days with no public consultation, and three petitions have been filed to India's National Green Tribunal. Google told the Guardian it describes the project as a "gigawatt scale AI hub" comparable to others.

In the UK, the secrecy complaint is procedural. The Next Web reported on 27 September on Guardian reporting that Torridge district council in north Devon held private talks with developer Xlinks from March 2025 and sent a letter of support in April 2025, before any environmental study or public consultation. Xlinks plans a 1.5GW AI data campus and a 1.8GW battery storage site on about 344 hectares near Great Torrington, at a stated cost of up to £13.8bn. One document showed the site could use about 2.9bn litres of water a year in severe heat and drought; Xlinks told the Guardian that figure came from an old design. A national petition has passed 36,000 signatures, and the government rejected a pause on 17 September.

Wired reported on 27 September that at a Climate Week panel on AI and data centres, Extinction Rebellion NYC protesters interrupted tech executives repeatedly. Crusoe cofounder Cully Cavness said he was still thinking about the interruption minutes later. Wired's Molly Taft notes that polls show climate ranks near the bottom of data centre-related concerns for many voters, behind water, energy use and bills, and local air and noise pollution.

The labour market complicates the backlash story. CNBC reported on 26 September that data centre construction is pulling trades into demand. ZipRecruiter labour economist Nicole Bachaud said postings for welders and pipefitters are up 164% year over year, and that the mean minimum salary for data centre jobs rose 125.1% year over year to nearly $208,000. Jobs for the Future CEO Maria Flynn said an apprentice technician can take home $40,000 to $60,000, with experienced electricians above $100,000. CNBC also flags that many construction roles are temporary, and that state moves in New York and Texas to slow development could hit that demand.

Put together, the week's news points at one bottleneck. Google is testing whether a radiator can dump a few hundred watts into the void. The US is spending $5.25 billion to squeeze 23GW out of existing wires. Crusoe is hunting for turbines that are not Boom's. Devon campaigners are asking how the largest infrastructure proposal in the country can be conducted "almost exclusively in secret," in the words of Emily Clark of the Devon Datacentre and BESS action group, quoted by The Next Web. And in Andhra Pradesh, a village head named BRB Naidu told the Guardian he is torn about whether the campus brings prosperity or ruin.

Google's Manyika gives the orbital version 15 years. The terrestrial version does not have that long.