Data Center Take on World Nuclear Day: Amazon is Banking on Future Reactors
Monday is World Nuclear Energy Day, but it hardly stands alone on the calendar: The giant data center energy customers are thinking of the possibilities of nuclear every day and will be for years to come.
To mark World Nuclear Energy Day, online retail and cloud-tech giant Amazon released an overview of its strategy on the “Seven ways Amazon is thinking big about nuclear energy.” Carbon-free nuclear fission energy is a key pathway to net zero emissions goals by 2040, the company says.
Among the seven ways that Amazon is aiming for nuclear energy goals is to help advanced small modular reactors (SMR), ensure existing reactors stay online and invest in new nuclear technology, among other goals.
See seven key points and full Amazon report here
Utility-scale and advanced nuclear power generation is “a critical energy source that can be brought online at scale and has a decades-long record as a reliable source of safe, carbon-free energy around the world,” reads the Amazon release. “We’re helping develop new technology, investing in existing nuclear reactors, and supporting research on topics like nuclear fusion.”
Amazon, which is also the parent company for cloud-based data provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), has recently invested in SMR and advanced fuels startup -energy. It joins other tech giants such as Microsoft, Oracle and Google which are pursuing next-gen nuclear generation which can meet the twin goals of carbon reduction and power resiliency.
“Future nuclear technologies like SMRs won’t advance if they don’t receive funding support,” reads the Amazon release, noting the X-energy deal. “This investment will help advance more than five GWs of new nuclear energy projects over the next 15 years.”
The utility-scale power generation sector is facing a demand crisis soon because of the rise in artificial intelligence and cloud-based data center capacity expected over the coming decade. Earlier this past year, forecasters such as Goldman Sachs predicted up to 50 GW in new data center construction capacity by 2032, more than current power generation resources can meet.
How Tech Leaders are Navigating Carbon Reduction Goals
The data center giants such as AWS and Microsoft are hardly abandoning the power utilities, despite new venture capital spent on independent SMR startups. Microsoft has signed a long-term nuclear PPA with Constellation Energy that could invest in restarting Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania.
AWS has faced a setback in its deal to expand a power connection between one of its newly acquired data center sites and the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Federal energy regulator FERC has balked at approving some elements of the deal between AWS and Talen Energy due to concerns about ratepayer impact from transmission grid expansion to serve the connection.
The setback apparently is not stopping the momentum aiming for nuclear energy connections. In its new report, Amazon noted it is also working with utilities in Washington state and Virginia to match carbon-free nuclear power with new and growing data centers.
“No company can advance nuclear energy solutions alone,” the Amazon nuclear report says. “It also takes partnerships with utilities, energy companies and policymakers.”
Midwest and southwest utility holding company American Electric Power recently proposed a load commitment deal with Google, AWS and Microsoft for Indiana-based data centers. The proposed agreement, which included the consent of ratepayer advocates, ensures that data center customers will commit to financially supporting the enhanced power generation needed to meet future demand.
SMR nuclear technologies promise less expensive projects with quicker and safer timelines than conventional nuclear plants such as Vogtle in Georgia, but none of the smaller efforts have actually started construction in the U.S. yet. An earlier power deal involving startup NuScale Power and a Utah power cooperative fell flat when the subscriptions from other coops and customers did not match investment expectations.
During the inaugural Data Center Frontier Trends Summit this summer in data center heavy northern Virginia, industry experts admitted that the methods of meeting future demand are not completely clear yet, but the end goal of supplying that demand is non-negotiable.
“My crystal ball tells me we’ve got to find those answers,” Vance Peterson, global solutions architect at Schneider Electric, said during the “Data Center Energy Tri-lemma” session at the Trends Summit.
“We can’t build fast enough,” Chris McLean, principal at Critical Facilities Group, said during the same session. “There’s not enough electricity on earth to satisfy the demand.”
Amazon, like most of its fellow tech giants which have risen to prominence in the past 30 years, is placing its money and focus on next-gen nuclear energy. To put a spin on the famous line from the film Field of Dreams, “if you come, they will build it.”
The data centers are coming. The next-gen nuclear energy build must follow, tech companies are saying.
