Distributed energy project design and operations firm Xendee Corp. will partner with the nuclear engineering research wing of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to analyze and develop carbon-free power solutions for the fast-growing data center sector.
These future solutions could include both small modular reactor nuclear integrated with on-site and near-site renewables. Xendee’s software platform would work with researchers from UIUC’s Department of Nuclear, Plasma Radiological Engineering (NPRE).
The sudden expansion of artificial intelligence technology, coupled with growth in cloud-based computing capacity, is taxing the ability of the current utility power grid to keep up with anticipated future demand. Goldman Sachs previously has estimated that some 47 GW of new data center capacity will be built and connected over the coming decade, while utility AEP recently noted 15 GW of data center load commitments are confirmed just within its service territory.
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By that point, data center energy use could be 8% of total U.S. electricity demand, up from 3% currently, according to a Goldman Sachs Equity Research report this year. The military sector and industrial firms also are considering microreactor solutions for mission critical sites.
Many in the data center industry see carbon-free and small, advanced nuclear technologies as the answer to that challenge. Xendee and UIUC’s groups will collaborate on understanding the impacts of integration with solar, battery storage, fuel cells, cooling technologies and combustion engines for gen-sets.
“Xendee’s collaboration with UIUC brings access to historical operating data for real power and cooling from the facility that hosted the leadership class Blue Waters supercomputer located at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) on UIUC’s campus, enabling us to run real-world optimization analyses,” said Michael Stadler, CTO and Co-Founder of Xendee, in a statement. “And following the Blue Waters supercomputer, the NCSA created the Delta supercomputer which is now being built out with an AI focus, giving us an excellent case to work with over time.”
UIUC’s nuclear research has included work with Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. focused on applying for approval to install a microreactor on campus. The facility’s origins date back to the 1950s and work with Argonne National Laboratory.
The movement toward the future of nuclear-powered microgrids, although not likely until the 2030s, is spurring momentum in research and development.
“In the right situations, the economics of a nuclear-powered data center microgrid are very promising, particularly when optimized through component sizing, deployment planning, and coupled with renewables and energy storage,” said Timothy Grunloh, NPRE Principal Research Scientist at UIUC. “And our partnership with Xendee enables us to dig into the details of optimality based on varied, and sometimes conflicting, objectives of economics, reliability, and decarbonization.”
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From its work with UIUC, Xendee will create a framework to optimize data center configurations for power in a microgrid context, as well as parameters for power and heat management systems. It will analyze the various data center types—from enterprise to hyperscale to colocation and etc.—for unique and adaptive characteristics.
In the second phase the Xendee framework will be used to introduce power from advanced nuclear scenarios to contribute carbon-free electricity for data centers. Physically, no small nuclear reactors have yet been constructed but federal regulators are considering designs, and the DOE has earmarked $900 million in funding to develop new SMR nuclear energy projects.
