Tech giant Microsoft has reportedly “bought” a nuclear power plant that will be used to power its energy-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Microsoft secured a deal with energy company Constellation Energy to launch the Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC) in Baltimore Pennsylvania.
While Constellation will still technically own and run the power plant, Microsoft will be the sole customer of the energy produced by the rebooted Three Mile Island Unit 1.
In an announcement about the deal, the little-known energy company said:
Constellation announced today the signing of a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft that will pave the way for the launch of the Crane Clean Energy Centre (CCEC) and restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1, which operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades before being shut down for economic reasons exactly five years ago today.
Under the agreement, Microsoft will purchase energy from the renewed plant as part of its goal to help match the power its data centers in PJM use with carbon-free energy.
Notably, the company operates a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island, the site of one of the world’s biggest nuclear accidents.
The reactor was due to be decommissioned in the next few years and the plant shut down completely.
However, it has now been given a new lease of life with this deal.
If Constellation gains approval from its local authorities to go ahead with the project, it will truly be a turning point for the future of nuclear energy.
Additionally, the purchaser of the entire output of this reactor for the next 20 years is Microsoft.
The technology giant will build a new plant to develop AI nearby, and it will need the output of a nuclear reactor to guarantee the energy requirements of the project.
There is an anticipated huge surge in energy demand from this sector, all of which has to be in the form of electricity.
As such, the demand is prompting AI companies to make deals with energy companies to secure energy security as it becomes less certain.
AI is set to surpass even the huge energy consumption requirements of digital cryptocurrency transactions and storage.
However, it takes a very long time to build a new nuclear power plant.
Instead, the spotlight is now turning to small modular reactors (SMRs) for a faster turnaround.
These can be built and commissioned a great deal more quickly than conventional reactors.
Many companies are eyeing the opportunity presented by this new technology.
Amongst others, luxury carmaker Rolls Royce is making similar moves.
The company is already placing emphasis on “clean and affordable” and tying the technology to the “green revolution” to win government backing.
Other tech giants are also eyeing the use of nuclear power.
Facebook’s parent company Meta is also looking at building AI data centers next to nuclear power plants.
Responding to the deal with Constellation Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun said:
AI datacentres will be built next to energy production sites that can produce gigawatt-scale, low-cost, low-emission electricity continuously.
Basically, next to nuclear power plants.
The advantage is that there is no need for expensive and wasteful long-distance distribution infrastructure.
Note: yes, solar and wind are nice and all, but they require lots of land and massive-scale energy storage systems for when there is too little sun and/or wind. Neither simple nor cheap.
AI datacenters will be built next to energy production sites that can produce gigawatt-scale, low-cost, low-emission electricity continuously.
Basically, next to nuclear power plants.
The advantage is that there is no need for expensive and wasteful long-distance distribution… https://t.co/bVxNmYZiQh— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) September 22, 2024
Whether governments will back the resurgence in demand for nuclear energy remains to be seen, however.
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