• Exclusive Content
  • Events
  • Endeavor Business Media Energy
    1. Distributed Energy

    14 of World's Largest Energy Users Avow Support for Tripling Nuclear Energy Capacity by 2050

    March 14, 2025
    The deal was announced by the World Nuclear Association in partnership with Urenco at the CERA Week event in Houston this week. Among the signatories include Amazon, Meta, Google, Lloyd's Register and Bureau Veritas.
    Image credit World Nuclear Association/at CERA Week
    67d44774fac1e6d242e4fa1f Cera Week World Nuclear Photo

    Fourteen of the world’s biggest companies and energy users have signed on to a pledge pushing the goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050.

    The deal was announced by the World Nuclear Association in partnership with Urenco at the CERA Week event in Houston this week. The move follows months of renewed support and power purchases deals involving data center companies such as Microsoft and Oracle.

    During the CERA Week energy conference in Houston, the WNA and uranium supplier Urenco held a panel session focused on the role of carbon-free nuclear power to help meet sustainability goals while also elevating electricity capacity to meet the growing demand of artificial intelligence and hyperscale data centers.

    Sama Bilbao y Leon, Director General of WNA, thanked the pledge signatories which included Amazon, Google, Mega and Dow, among others. Much work remains to be done as new nuclear capacity is needed soon, he added.

    "This is not the end; it is just the beginning,” Leon said in a statement. “We know that many other large energy users are considering joining the pledge in the future. That is our hope and our invitation - If you would like to be part of this group, please join us.”

    The full list of “Large Energy Users” signatories supporting the call to triple total nuclear capacity globally included Allseas, Amazon, Bureau Veritas, Carbon3Energy, Clean Energy Buyers Alliance, Core Power, Dow, Fly Green Association, Google, Lloyd’s Register, Meta, Occidental, OSGE and Siemens Energy, which gave a statement of support.

    Nuclear fusion illustration credit Marko Aliaksandr/Shutterstock.com
    dreamstime_nuclear

    Nuclear energy does not emit greenhouse gases from reactors and currently generates 393 GW from nearly 440 reactor units in more than 30 nations, according to the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute advocacy group. The U.S. has 94 operating nuclear units which generate close to 97 GW at capacity, and accounts for 18% to 19% of total electricity resources nationwide.

    The specter of electricity resource inadequacy has been raised due to the exponential growth in current and future data center construction. The anticipated load of U.S. data centers may rise to 80 GW, more than double current demand, by the early 2030s, according to various reports.

    Powering Data Centers with Microgrids and SMR

    New Microgrid Knowledge White Paper from Xendee

    This feared shortfall has driven numerous tech companies to sign nuclear energy support deals with both small modular reactor startups and even companies pursuing nuclear fusion breakthroughs. Neither SMR nor fusion have been commercially developed in the U.S. yet, although numerous companies are winning major investments to scale new technologies.

    Fusion startup Thea Energy has gained cloud-computing support from Amazon Web Services, while laser fusion firm Focused Energy raised $82 million in earlier funding and signed a memorandum of understanding in Germany to convert a decommissioned power plant into a pilot plant for its technology.

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

    Email