Google has hired the former director of commercial structuring, nuclear, and carbon-free energy at Microsoft.
Patrick Taylor has been named the new commercial lead for the advanced energy technology team at the search and cloud giant.
Taylor spent the last four-and-a-half years at Microsoft, following roles at electric suppliers Liberty Power and TransAlta.
"I'm joining a team of absolute rockstars and fellow energy nerds who are solving tough challenges that enable new carbon-free energy technologies," Taylor said on LinkedIn.
"Deciding to leave Microsoft was one of the hardest decisions I’ve made in my career. I am truly grateful to the leadership, and the entire energy team at Microsoft for all the exciting opportunities to collaborate on innovative, and transformative projects."
In April 2024, Microsoft revealed that it has more than 20GW of renewable energy under contract. It has a number of nuclear projects in the works, most notably a plan to restart Constellation's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant for an 835MW AI data center PPA.
It also plans to procure some 9.5GW of solar panels from Qcells for PPAs through 2032 - adding about 1.5GW every year.
Job listings for Google's advanced energy team describe projects in "next generation geothermal, advanced nuclear, long duration energy storage, or grid technologies."
Google has geothermal contracts with Fervo and Baseload, and small modular reactor deals with Kairos and Elementl.
