I would like people to press harder on what "renewable-powered compute" means, because there are three very different claims wearing the same phrase. One: the operator bought certificates equal to their annual consumption. That is an accounting purchase and the machines may well be running on a coal-heavy grid at 2am. Two: the datacentre has generation on site or a direct contract with a specific plant. Better, and still annual netting most of the time. Three: consumption is matched to carbon-free generation hour by hour, in the same grid region. That is the only version where the claim describes the electrons your job actually used, and it is dramatically harder and more expensive than the other two. All three get marketed identically. If a provider will not say which one they mean, it is the first.
