Google is one step nearer to reaching its nuclear ambitions now that it’s working with public energy utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to buy electrical energy from a next-generation reactor. It’s the primary energy buy settlement for know-how this superior {that a} US utility has made, in line with the businesses.
The plan is for TVA to purchase electrical energy from a reactor being developed by engineering firm Kairos Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. As soon as the reactor is up and working, anticipated in 2030, it ought to begin supplying electrical energy to the native grid that serves Google knowledge facilities in Tennessee and Alabama.
In the event that they handle to tug this all off, it may assist jumpstart an entire new period for nuclear vitality
In the event that they handle to tug this all off, it may assist jumpstart an entire new period for nuclear vitality within the US. The nation’s present fleet of nuclear reactors makes use of decades-old know-how that has struggled to compete with low-cost electrical energy from gas-fired energy crops and photo voltaic and wind farms. Kairos Energy is constructing one of many first reactors that proponents hope can usher in a resurgence of nuclear vitality, and meet rising electrical energy demand from Large Tech and AI.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee — the place Kairos is constructing Hermes 2 — was as soon as the headquarters for the Manhattan Mission. Now, as an alternative of housing amenities enriching uranium for the primary atomic bombs, Oak Ridge has turn out to be a hub for nuclear vitality tasks and analysis.
Finally, Google goals to assist Kairos deploy 500 megawatts of latest nuclear capability within the US by 2035. For context, America’s 94 working nuclear reactors had a mixed capability of 97,000MW in 2024 and accounted for slightly below 20 % of the US electrical energy combine. Hermes 2 is meant to achieve a capability of 50MW.
Corporations that generate carbon pollution-free electrical energy, like nuclear vitality and renewables, can earn cash by promoting the electrical energy they supply to the ability grid and by promoting so-called clear vitality attributes which might be like separate certificates representing the environmental advantages of avoiding fossil gas emissions. Google will obtain clear vitality attributes from the Hermes 2 plant via TVA.
Tech corporations with local weather objectives typically purchase clear vitality attributes to attempt to cancel out the air pollution attributable to their electrical energy use. By matching its electrical energy use with these certificates, an organization would possibly declare that it runs on clear vitality even when it’s plugged into an influence grid that also runs on soiled vitality. Additional revenue from clear vitality attributes is meant to assist builders add extra carbon pollution-free energy to the grid (though analysis has proven that the environmental advantages are sometimes overestimated). Google’s carbon emissions rose once more final yr because it ramps up its AI choices.
