Google’s power-hungry data centers crave nuclear energy — SkimNews
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- Google signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation covering upgrades at six nuclear plant sites in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, representing $4.3 billion in new Constellation investment.
- The upgrades across 11 reactors are projected to add 890 megawatts of nuclear capacity over the next five years — equivalent to roughly one large reactor or three small modular reactors.
- All six sites connect to the PJM Interconnection grid, the largest US power grid spanning 13 states and DC, which serves the nation's largest data center cluster in Northern Virginia.
- Constellation also signed a separate 15-year, 2,700 MW energy supply deal with Google covering its existing plants across fuel types — nuclear made up 70% of Constellation's capacity last year, with renewables at 8% and gas/oil at 22%.
- PJM's independent market monitor filed a FERC complaint last year warning the grid could not reliably serve planned data center connections without risking blackouts.
- PJM postponed its capacity auction last week after FERC directed it to revise the proposal to prevent data centers from raising bills for other customers; New Jersey electricity prices have climbed 54% over five years.
- Google's carbon emissions rose 18% last year as electricity demand jumped 37%, even as data center-driven gas buildouts push tech companies further from their sustainability goals.
Why it matters: Google is locking in nuclear-baseload power for over 15 years to fuel data-center growth on a grid where electricity rates have already climbed 54% in New Jersey over five years. The dual structure of the deals — one nuclear-specific, one across all fuel types — shows Google hedging rather than betting purely on clean energy, even as its own emissions rose 18% last year.
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