Constellation Energy, the largest U.S. nuclear provider, agreed Tuesday to invest $4.3 billion to increase output at 11 nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and then sell this additional power to Google over a 20-year period.
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About half of Constellation’s investment, or $2 billion, will be spent at the Byron, Braidwood, LaSalle and Quad Cities plants In Illinois, according to Paul Adams, a Constellation spokesman.
Tuesday’s agreement comes as Google and other artificial intelligence companies are building data centers at record rates, and as rising electricity rates driven by this construction boom are helping spark a growing political backlash.
On Sept. 24, consultants for the Illinois Power Agency and other state regulators said the installed capacity of the state’s electricity grid will need to double by 2045 to 120 gigawatts, mainly to support data center growth.
Tuesday’s agreement will boost output at the 11 Constellation nuclear plants by 890 megawatts, or about the size of a typical nuclear reactor in the U.S.
The agreement “represents Google’s commitment to bring new capacity to (the U.S. electrical grid) to support its growth without passing on costs to residential customers,” according to a news release from the two companies.
Specifically, the additional energy will be distributed through PJM Interconnection, a regional electricity grid that serves 13 states including northern Illinois, plus the District of Columbia.
“Our agreement with Constellation to fund nuclear reactor uprates will strengthen the PJM grid, which serves 67 million people, all while protecting energy affordability and supporting local union jobs,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of energy and power at Google, in the statement.
Google and Constellation have also agreed on a strategic framework to evaluate opportunities to develop new clean generation and related services across the United States to support Google’s growth.
In a separate agreement, Constellation has also agreed to supply Google with 2,700 megawatts of power over a 15-year period through the PJM system.
Last year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a 20-year stipend for a Constellation Energy nuclear plant in Clinton, a rural community 25 miles south of Bloomington. He’s helping to plan a second and perhaps even a third reactor for the site and may help foot the bill.
John Lippert is a freelancer.