Meta secures nuclear power for AI: 1100 jobs and 20 years of contract!

Meta secures nuclear power for AI: 1100 jobs and 20 years of contract!

Three Mile Island, USA - Current developments in the area of ​​energy supply show that companies such as Meta and Microsoft are increasingly relying on nuclear power. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has concluded a long-term contract with Constellation Energy in order to obtain the entire energy production of a nuclear power plant in the US state of Illinois for the next 20 years. This contract ensures the operation of the Clinton Clean Energy Center, which has an output of 1121 megawatts and was originally supposed to be concluded in 2017, even after subsidies expired. The power of the power plant is also increased by 30 megawatts. The deal secures 1100 local jobs and generates annual tax revenue of $ 13.5 million (approx. 11.8 million euros) and is part of METAs strategies because the company invests heavily in artificial intelligence and thus records high electricity consumption in its data centers. Financial details of the contract were not published.

Microsoft also follows a similar way to supply its AI data centers with sustainable energy. The company plans to reactivate a disabled nuclear power plant in the United States, specifically the Three Mile Island Kraftwerk, which is to be used with a planned recovery in 2028. Microsoft has signed a contract that provides for the company to decrease the entire amount of 837 megawatts produced for at least two decades. This requires investments of $ 1.6 billion. This partnership is particularly relevant because Microsoft strives to become CO₂-neutral by 2030, while the emissions have increased by the latest AI trend.

Review of nuclear power in the USA

The USA is the largest producer of nuclear energy worldwide. In 2021, 19 % of the electricity came from nuclear power plants, which is about half of the CO₂-poor electricity generation. The first commercial reactor in the USA was put into operation in Shippingport in 1958. While the nuclear performance capacities got up until 1996, the accident in Three Mile Island in 1979, which is considered the worst nuclear accident in the United States, led to a decline in new projects and increased skepticism in public. There are currently 94 core reactors in the USA, and there is a lively interest in the reactivation of disabled reactors. Illinois, for example, paid $ 700 million subsidies in 2021 to avert impending closures.

Microsoft’s energy boss Bobby Hollis described the combination of AI data centers and nuclear power plants as ideal. This view reflects the growing interest that both technology and energy companies have at nuclear power in order to meet the growing requirements for low-CO₂ energy. While Google plans to buy energy from small reactors from Kairos Power from 2030, Amazon also relies on nuclear power technologies. These developments aim to overcome the stagnation in the nuclear work industry after accidents and the closure of some reactors and to cover the increasing electricity requirements through data centers and electric vehicles.