US Department of Energy approves $1.9 billion loan to restart a dead nuclear power plant in Iowa for Google
NextEra Energy secured a loan of up to $1.9 billion from the US Department of Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center nuclear plant in Linn County, Iowa.
The plant has a capacity of 615 megawatts. Google will purchase the electricity to power data centers handling AI workloads.
According to NextEra, the restart will also strengthen local grid reliability and create "thousands of direct and indirect jobs." The agreement between the energy company and Google was announced last year, and the current loan closes out the funding side of the project. Generation is set to restart by 2029.
The plant had an unusual final chapter. A powerful storm hit the state on August 10, 2020, with gusts up to 140 mph, knocking down the facility cooling towers. The plant was already set for decommissioning, so power generation simply stopped after the storm.
Demand for electricity from data centers has effectively brought the plant back from the dead. The DOE plans to restart three mothballed nuclear plants to supply power to both the general grid and AI computing capacity. The new loan marks the first concrete step in that direction.
Google and other data center operators have spent recent years hunting for any available generation source amid the explosive growth of AI workloads. In 2018, Google reported fulfilling its pledge to offset all of its energy usage with green and renewable sources. Recently, though, the company partnered with a natural gas power plant to supply one of its data centers in Texas.
Competitors are following a similar path. Data centers run by other companies draw power from grids heavy on fossil fuels, and some have even set up their own natural gas generators.
Against that backdrop, Google nuclear deal stands out, offering relatively clean generation in terms of emissions, though it doesn't solve the question of radioactive waste disposal. The $1.9 billion price tag looks modest by nuclear industry standards, and the project still has a long road of approvals and restoration work ahead before 2029.
