Data centers are using homes as a new source of energy

Virtual power plants offer data centers a faster path to source power and, for participating households, potentially lower energy bills. Working together, Tesla, Sunrun and Renew Home will free up 16 gigawatts of energy on the grid nationwide through more efficient management of home energy use. Sunrun said its partners will use the fees collected from data centers to accelerate smart device deployment, which will also expand virtual power plants capacity. As a flurry of power-hungry data centers come online, instead of adding more generation facilities, a coalition of home energy companies plans to manage energy demand and existing supply…