Amazon tapped into an rising pattern this week, one which’s seeing massive tech corporations purchase energy from present nuclear energy crops.
The tech firm will energy a piece of its AWS cloud and AI servers utilizing 1.92 gigawatts of electrical energy from Talen Power’s Susquehanna nuclear energy plant in Pennsylvania. Amazon is the most recent hyperscaler to go direct to massive nuclear operators, following on the heels of Microsoft and Meta.
Amazon’s deal was introduced Wednesday, however it’s not solely new, as an alternative modifying an present association with Talen. The previous model had Amazon constructing a knowledge heart subsequent to the Susquehanna energy plant, siphoning electrical energy immediately from the power with out first sending it to the grid.
That deal was killed by regulators over considerations that clients would unfairly shoulder the burden of operating the grid. As we speak, Susquehanna offers energy to the grid, that means each kilowatt-hour contains transmission charges that help the grid’s upkeep and improvement. Amazon’s behind-the-meter association would have sidestepped these charges.
This week’s revisions shift Amazon’s energy buy settlement in entrance of the meter, that means the AWS knowledge heart will likely be billed like different related clients who’re grid-connected. The transmission strains will likely be reconfigured in spring of 2026, Talen mentioned, and the deal covers power bought by means of 2042.
However wait, there’s extra: The 2 firms additionally mentioned they may look to construct small modular reactors “inside Talen’s Pennsylvania footprint” and increase era at present nuclear energy crops.
Increasing present energy crops is often a better means so as to add new nuclear. They may embrace switching to extra extremely enriched gasoline to produces extra warmth, tweaking the settings to squeeze out extra energy, or renovating the generators for an even bigger bump.
Microsoft kicked off the pattern final 12 months when it introduced that it will work with Constellation Power to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island, a $1.6 billion mission that may generate 835 megawatts. Meta hopped aboard earlier this month, additionally with Constellation, to purchase the “clear power attributes” of a 1.1 gigawatt nuclear energy plant in Illinois.
Amazon and Talen’s pledge to construct new small modular reactors is an extended shot, although there, too, Amazon is in good firm with its friends. A number of startups pursuing the idea with the hopes of slicing development prices by mass producing components. Amazon has invested in an SMR startup, X-energy, which is planning so as to add 300 megawatts of nuclear producing capability within the Pacific Northwest and Virginia.
New era at present reactors and new SMRs are supposed “so as to add net-new power to the PJM grid,” Talen mentioned, referring to the area’s grid operator. That final bit is probably going a bid to move off any criticism from regulators about leaving ratepayers holding the bag.
{content material}
Supply: {feed_title}
