Amazon tapped into an rising development this week, one which’s seeing massive tech companies purchase energy from present nuclear energy crops.
The tech firm will energy a bit of its AWS cloud and AI servers utilizing 1.92 gigawatts of electrical energy from Talen Energy’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 a substitute modifying an present association with Talen. The previous model had Amazon constructing an information middle 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 working the grid. Today, Susquehanna supplies energy to the grid, which 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, which means the AWS information middle might be billed like different related clients who’re grid-connected. The transmission strains might be reconfigured in spring of 2026, Talen stated, and the deal covers power bought via 2042.
But wait, there’s extra: The two firms additionally stated they’ll look to construct small modular reactors “inside Talen’s Pennsylvania footprint” and increase technology at present nuclear energy crops.
Expanding present energy crops is usually a neater method so as to add new nuclear. They would possibly embrace switching to extra extremely enriched gas to provide extra warmth, tweaking the settings to squeeze out extra energy, or renovating the generators for a much bigger bump.
Microsoft kicked off the development final 12 months when it introduced that it might work with Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island, a $1.6 billion challenge 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. Several startups are pursuing the idea with the hopes of reducing development 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 technology at present reactors and new SMRs are meant “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 go off any criticism from regulators about leaving ratepayers holding the bag.
