Energy for AI data centers: Google develops three nuclear power plants

Google has signed an agreement with Elementl Power, a company that develops nuclear projects, to develop "three advanced nuclear power plants" for sites in the US. Google intends to use the nuclear power plants to meet the increasing energy requirements for artificial intelligence in data centers.

Specifically, this involves three nuclear power plants, each of which will deliver 600 MW of power, according to a joint statement from the two companies. These will be the latest reactors available at the time.

Google intends to provide the necessary capital for the development in the first phase in order to drive the projects forward. The financing is intended to cover site approval, grid connection rights and initial contract work.

Neither company provided any details on the exact locations that are being targeted. However, the power plants are intended to "strengthen the power grids at our locations", says Amanda Peterson Corio, Global Head of Data Center Energy at Google.

Emission-free energy for AI data centers

The plan is for the three nuclear power plants to supply reliable, base-load-capable, clean energy to meet the growing demand for power for Google's AI data centers.

Google and Elementl Power plan to have the first nuclear power plant online by 2030. The company, which was founded in 2022 and is based in the US state of North Carolina, has not yet implemented such a project or built a nuclear reactor.

The energy demand for AI applications is huge. In the USA alone, an additional 50 GW of new energy may be required by 2027. Some large companies such as Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google are therefore looking for ways to meet this energy demand. To avoid taking energy from the public power grid, companies are planning to build their own nuclear power plants to generate emission-free electricity.

(olb)