Today: Tech giant to acquire wind and solar company for $4.75 billion; Americans are buying more secondhand tech; Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery plans to offer an eco-friendly alternative to burial and cremation.

Welcome back: Google plans to spend $4.75 billion to help solve a problem stymieing the AI race: finding enough electricity to run an ever-larger fleet of data centers.

The Wall Street Journal's Katherine Blunt writes that the company’s pending deal to buy Intersect, a wind and solar developer, would make it the only tech giant to own a power company. That could give it a significant advantage over rivals as power officials favor tech companies prepared to bring their own electricity sources online and the Trump administration presses them to avoid passing on power costs to consumers.

The deal is the latest in a series of bets Google has made to develop a soup-to-nuts strategy for accessing vast amounts of power. Among its competitors, Google was first to strike deals to develop advanced nuclear and geothermal plants designed to operate constantly. It was first to experiment with how it can reduce data-center power use during times of strain on the grid. And with the acquisition of Intersect, Alphabet will be the first to incorporate within its business the means to build its own electricity sources for Google data centers.

• America’s AI boom is pushing the nation’s largest power-grid operator to the brink of a supply crisis. (WSJ)

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Secondhand tech is finally catching on in the U.S. The world’s biggest online marketplace of used electronic devices says President Trump’s tariffs are the reason why, Aimee Look reports for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business.

Since it was founded in 2014, Back Market—which connects third-party refurbishers with customers—has been cashing in on Europe’s keen adoption of secondhand technology. It has thrived under the continent’s stringent, decadeslong regulation of telecommunications firms and its sustainability conscious consumers. 

However, the U.S. has long proven to be a tough market to conquer. Ironclad trade-in contracts from telecommunications companies in the U.S. mean many potential customers purchase phones with contracts that keep them locked in for years.

But over the past year, Trump’s tariffs have given a boost to Back Market’s U.S. sales, and the startup has broken even for the first time.

• Europe’s largest online secondhand retailer has been trying to pierce the U.S. for years. Now its CEO thinks it finally can. (WSJ)

There is a looming crisis in America’s death industry. Green-Wood Cemetery might have found an eco-friendly lifeline. The storied 478-acre Brooklyn burial ground, like many across the U.S., is running out of room for new occupants. Cemetery officials believe they can profitably augment the property by turning loved ones into gardening soil.

The Journal's Tom Fairless writes that the process, called natural organic reduction, uses the body’s own bacteria to transform human tissue. The dead are placed in a sealed vessel bedded with clover, hay and straw and equipped to regulate airflow, temperature and moisture. Then nature takes its course. Microbes break down everything but bones, which are ground into the final compost mix.

The cemetery plans to start with around 18 composting vessels from Berlin-based startup, Meine Erde—translation, My Earth. The plan is to use the nutrient-rich material to nurture trees, meadows and the bottom line. “It’s a way to integrate revenue generation with ecological regeneration,” said Joseph Charap, vice president of horticulture at Green-Wood.

• Funeral startups offer an eco-friendly final resting place as people start to condisder the carbon footprint of a funeral. (WSJ)

• A Michigan pension fund lost $53 million on a renewable energy investment and $86 million on a Hawaiian coffee farm. (WSJ)
   
• Voyager Ventures raised a $275 million fund, highlighting national security and energy independence rather than climate tech. (WSJ)
   
• BP needs to demonstrate that higher spending on oil-and-gas production will deliver value for shareholders, an investor group said. (WSJ)
   
• Orsted sold its European onshore business after a U.S. judge ruled the wind company could resume a project off the East Coast. (WSJ)
   
• The European Commission is investigating China’s Goldwind for alleged foreign subsidies distorting the EU internal market. (WSJ)
   
• The EU needs to address vulnerabilities in its supply chain for raw materials needed for renewables projects, a report says. (WSJ)
   
• Dozens of people have died and thousands of customers are still without power nearly a week after a winter storm hit much of the U.S. (WSJ)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.