AI浪潮推动清洁能源转型，核电成科技巨头“新宠”。Google plans to purchase electrical utilities from nuclear reactor operators for 6-7 small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) with a total capacity of 500 megawatts to meet the increasing demand for electrical utilities, which means Google will become the first company to commission the construction of a new nuclear power plant to power its datacenter.
Author: Li Xiaoyin.
The weather is good today The weather is good today.
The AI wave is driving the transformation of clean energy, with nuclear power becoming the new favorite of technology giants.
Local time on Monday, Google announced that it has signed an agreement with Kairos Power to purchase electricity from the latter's planned construction of 6-7 small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), with a total capacity of 500 megawatts, to meet the growing demand for electrical utilities. This means Google will be the first company to commission a new nuclear power plant to supply power to its datacenters.
The transaction details show that the two parties have signed a power purchase agreement. Kairos plans to deliver the reactors between 2030 and 2035, and the construction site has not yet been determined.
According to media estimates, the expected generating capacity of 500 megawatts can meet the electricity needs of a medium-sized city or an AI data center campus.
After the news came out, nuclear energy stocks rose. The share price of Oklo, a US nuclear energy startup invested in by Sam Altman, surged by 10% at one point and continued to rise after hours.
Google's Energy and Climate Senior Director Michael Terrell said the agreement is "a milestone in Google's 15-year clean energy journey":
"Nuclear power will play an important role in meeting Google's energy needs and can achieve this goal in a cleaner and more stable way."
When asked whether these reactors will be connected to the grid or directly to the datacenter, Terrell said Google is considering all options.
Industry analysts say this reflects an industry trend: benefiting from higher efficiency and lower costs, the nuclear power industry may abandon large nuclear power plants and instead embrace small reactors.
Starting in 2010, Google-led technology companies have signed power purchase agreements with renewable energy developers to reduce technology costs.
As AI technology drives a surge in electrical utilities demand for data centers, nuclear power is becoming the "new favorite" of tech giants.
In September, Oracle's chairman Larry Ellison announced during the earnings conference call that the company is designing a datacenter that is expected to require over 1 gigawatt of power, to be powered by three small nuclear reactors.
Last month, Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear reactor operator in the USA, called the Three Mile Agreement, to restart the Three Mile nuclear power plant and sell all the generated electrical utilities to Microsoft.
Google and its parent company Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai also 'hinted' in a recent interview with Nikkei Asia that Google is exploring the use of nuclear energy, a potentially 'green' energy source, to power its datacenters.
