Google announced this week that it is working with NextEra Energy to revitalize a nuclear power plant in Iowa that closed in 2020.
For the past year, NextEra has been looking for a partner to restart the reactor. As a result, we found a partner in Google. Google continues to steadily add zero-carbon energy sources to power its growing data center fleet.
Neither company disclosed financial terms of the deal.
The Duane Arnold Energy Center was closed after a summer derecho damaged part of the secondary containment system that prevents the release of radioactive gases.
The power plant was originally designed to generate 601 megawatts of electricity, and if the restart goes as planned, the refurbished reactor will be able to generate an additional 14 megawatts.
NextEra hopes to restart the facility in 2029, and Google has agreed to buy a majority of the power over 25 years. The remainder will be sold to Central Iowa Electric Cooperative on similar terms. The organization currently owns a 20% stake in the Duane Arnold Generating Plant, but NextEra said it has agreements in place to acquire both the co-op and other minority owners.
Nuclear power is making a comeback as power demand awakens after more than a decade of dormancy and tech companies and data center developers seek new sources of power.
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The Iowa reactor is not the first to be brought back from the dead. Microsoft announced last year that it would work with Constellation Energy to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, which shut down in 2019. Constellation said it expects the effort to cost $1.6 billion. If all goes according to plan, the 835-megawatt reactor should be operational in 2028.
Restarting nuclear reactors is seen as a shortcut to bringing new nuclear power capacity to the grid, potentially cutting years off the time it takes to build new power plants. But these are still multiyear projects, competing with new natural gas power plants that also take years to develop.
Meanwhile, companies like Google are also turning to solar power and batteries that can be deployed in months rather than years, dramatically reducing the time it takes to power new data centers.
