RENEWABLE ENERGY
THE STORY OF CYPRESS CREEK
Power demand and public trust So, why is Google investing such a large sum of money in this project? The precedent for the firm’ s involvement in the Steel River Energy Center is its own appetite for electricity, which has skyrocketed in recent years thanks largely to its expansion of data centres, many of which are being built to support the rollout of AI.
In fact, Google’ s annual energy consumption is so high that it uses more power than half of the world’ s countries, individually, not collectively.
This kind of reputation has left hyperscale technology companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft criticism for straining local grids and pushing up electricity bills for ordinary households.
Cypress Creek Energy was founded in 2014, starting life in Santa Monica, California with a single 26MW solar project in North Carolina.
More than a decade on, the developer has grown into one of the country’ s largest solar and storage developers, with projects commercialised in 22 states and corporate offices spanning California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Washington, D. C.
The company has developed more than 12GW of solar capacity to date. It also operates one of only a handful of NERC-compliant control centres run by a solar-only company. From this site in North Carolina, Cypress Creek monitors its solar farms around the clock. The firm changed hands at the top in March 2026, when Kevin Smith replaced Sarah Slusser as CEO after seven years leading the business.
Steel River is undoubtedly the company’ s most ambitious undertaking yet.“ We need energy that can be deployed quickly, helps keep electricity affordable and is there when it’ s needed,” Kevin explains.“ That’ s exactly what Steel River can deliver.”
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