Amazon announced a $500 million investment in projects in Virginia and Washington to power its data centers.
Amazon Web Services will develop a small modular nuclear reactor near the energy company's existing North Anna nuclear power plant through a deal with Virginia utility Dominion Energy. The small reactor will be built using technology from Maryland-based X-energy.
The announcement comes less than a month after Amazon posted a job posting seeking nuclear engineers to help with the same type of technology.
Amazon joins a long list of companies transitioning to SMR for large-scale computing and data needs, putting aside concerns of environmentalists by leveraging this new “clean energy.” I was driven to.
Those companies include Microsoft, which signed a 20-year, 835-megawatt contract with Constellation Energy. restart the reactor On Pennsylvania's infamous Three Mile Island.
Data company Equinix signed its own 500-megawatt contract with Oklo in April. Okuro too agreed to build In May, a small modular reactor for data company Prometheus Hyperscale delivered 100 megawatts.
Computer technology company Oracle also announced In early September, the company announced it would build a 1-gigawatt data center campus with three small modular nuclear reactors.
Recently Google also announced We will purchase an SMR for our data center and aim to have a nuclear reactor operational by 2030.
“We must bring clean, safe and reliable electrons to the grid.”
At the same time, Amazon announced a deal with Washington-based Energy Northwest. The company will own and operate the new reactor, which will power Amazon's operations while adding energy to its own power grid.
Energy Northwest has the option to build 12 or more nuclear modules, and Amazon has priority purchasing power from the first four.
“Amazon and X-energy are poised to define the future of advanced nuclear energy in the commercial marketplace,” said J. Clay Sell, CEO of X-energy. CNBC. “To fully realize the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, we must bring clean, safe, and reliable electrons to the grid using proven technology that can scale and grow with demand. ”
Amazon's plan includes a massive investment of $35 billion in data centers across Virginia by 2040. Approximately half of all data centers in the United States are located in Virginia, and an area called Data Center Alley has been established in Loudoun County.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) recently said SMR “will play a critical role in positioning Virginia as a leading hub for nuclear innovation.”
“Amazon Web Services' commitment to this technology and our partnership with Dominion is an important step forward in meeting Virginia's growing future electricity needs,” Youngkin added.
Overall, Amazon is developing a large network of data center campuses and regional power grids. In March, the company spent $650 million to acquire Talen Energy's campus adjacent to the Susquehanna Steam Power Plant nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
There, Amazon plans to develop 15 data centers as part of a 1,600-acre zoning plan.
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