Amazon tapped into an rising development this week, one which’s seeing large tech corporations purchase energy from present nuclear energy vegetation.
The tech firm will energy a bit of its AWS cloud and AI servers utilizing 1.92 gigawatts of electrical energy from Talen Vitality’s Susquehanna nuclear energy plant in Pennsylvania. Amazon is the newest hyperscaler to go direct to large nuclear operators, following on the heels of Microsoft and Meta.
Amazon’s deal was introduced Wednesday, but it surely’s not solely new, as an alternative modifying an present association with Talen. The previous model had Amazon constructing an information middle subsequent to the Susquehanna energy plant, siphoning electrical energy instantly from the power with out first sending it to the grid.
That deal was killed by regulators over considerations that prospects would unfairly shoulder the burden of operating the grid. In the present day, Susquehanna gives energy to the grid, that means each kilowatt-hour contains transmission charges that assist 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 middle shall be billed like different comparable prospects who’re grid-connected. The transmission strains shall be reconfigured in spring of 2026, Talen stated, and the deal covers power bought by 2042.
However wait, there’s extra: The 2 corporations additionally stated they may look to construct small modular reactors “inside Talen’s Pennsylvania footprint” and develop era at present nuclear energy vegetation.
Increasing present energy vegetation is often a neater method so as to add new nuclear. They may embrace switching to extra extremely enriched gas 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 development final 12 months when it introduced that it might work with Constellation Vitality 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 chopping building prices by mass producing elements. 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 stated, 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.