Google Jumps into Power M&A Closing on $4.75B Intersect Power Transaction
Search engine and AI-technology giant Google is deepening its resolve to achieve power resiliency for future data centers with its acquisition of independent energy developer Intersect Power.
Private equity firm and former Intersect owner Greenbelt Capital Partners sold the power firm to Google parent Alphabet for about $4.75 billion. The transaction also allows the sellers to spin off IPX Power into a standalone energy producer working on both utility and distributed energy projects.
"The successful closing with Google underscores the strength and strategic value of the Intersect franchise and the dynamic leadership of its CEO, Sheldon Kimber,” said Glenn Jacobson, Managing Partner of Greenbelt Capital Partners, in a statement. “As a standalone company, IPX can focus on scaling its operating fleet and development pipeline as a well-capitalized independent power producer with a premier portfolio of solar and storage assets."
IPX holds a portfolio of clean energy assets, including 4.4 GW of solar and 8.8 GWh of battery storage, either in operation or under construction across California and Texas. The company will continue to develop, own, and operate utility-scale clean energy projects serving utilities, community choice aggregators, corporate buyers, and other energy customers.
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Like many tech firms striving to meet sustainability commitments, Google has signed long-term renewable power purchase agreements with utility-scale renewable project developers in the past. Those renewable PPAs usually did not directly energize the tech firm’s operation, but the investment helped finance construction and commissioning to decarbonize the grid mix.
The rise of artificial intelligence and cloud-based computing load, however, is pushing major tech firms to create their own energy deals. Those goals include on-site or co-located power, whether it’s microgrids or gas-fired power plants, to deliver prime energy capacity for the AI factories and data centers while circumnavigating the slow utility interconnection queues.
Under the new partnership, Intersect Power will build new clean energy assets, including wind and solar, while it elevates Google as the first major tech firm to own its own power company. Private equity BlackRock and EQT recently acquired power generator AES Corp.
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Together, the deal will include co-located and approximately $20 billion in future data center capacity investment, according to reports. Intersect Power will remain a separate entity under longtime CEO Sheldon Kimber.
Google parent Alphabet already owned a stake in Intersect Power, but three months ago announced it would acquire the company outright. The partners are collaborating on co-located data center and power site under construction in Haskell County, Texas.
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About the Author
Rod Walton, Microgrid Knowledge Managing Editor
Managing Editor
For Microgrid Knowledge editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
I’ve spent the last 18 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. I was an energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World before moving to business-to-business media at PennWell Publishing, which later became Clarion Events, where I covered the electric power industry. I joined Endeavor Business Media in November 2021 to help launch EnergyTech, one of the company’s newest media brands. I joined Microgrid Knowledge in July 2023.
I earned my Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. My career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World, all in Oklahoma . I have been married to Laura for the past 36-plus years and we have four children and one adorable granddaughter. We want the energy transition to make their lives better in the future.
Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech are focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.