Image Credit: Lee Lawson | Unsplash
The Center Square [By Kim Jarrett] –
The Tennessee Valley Authority is purchasing power from an Oak Ridge nuclear plant that will provide energy to Google data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.
The arrangement announced Monday between TVA, Google and Kairos Power Hermes 2 Plant adds 50 megawatts to the utility’s power grid, the organizations said in a release.
Kairos and Google signed a deal in 2024 for 500 megawatts of nuclear energy by 2035 to support Google’s load growth, officials said.
“To power the future, we need to grow the availability of smart, firm energy sources,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of Data Center Energy. “This collaboration with TVA, Kairos Power, and the Oak Ridge community will accelerate the deployment of innovative nuclear technologies and help support the needs of our growing digital economy while also bringing firm carbon-free energy to the electricity system.”
The collaboration is the first of its kind, said TVA President and CEO Don Moul.
“Energy security is national security, and electricity is the strategic commodity that is the building block for AI and our nation’s economic prosperity,” Moul said. “The world is looking for American leadership, and this first-of-a-kind agreement is the start of an innovative way of doing business. By developing a technology, a supply chain, and a delivery model that can build an industry to unleash American energy, we can attract and support companies like Google and help America win the AI race.”
Kairos will increase Hermes 2 output by 22 megawatts generated by a single reactor, the release said. The operations will begin in 2030.
“This collaboration is an important enabler to making advanced nuclear energy commercially competitive,” said Kairos Power CEO and co-founder Mike Laufer. “The reenvisioned Hermes 2 gets us closer to the commercial fleet sooner and could only be made possible by close collaboration with TVA and Google, and a supportive local community.”
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said advanced nuclear reactors are essential to U.S. AI dominance and energy leadership.
“The Department of Energy has assisted Kairos Power with overcoming technical, operational, and regulatory challenges as a participant in the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, and DOE will continue to help accelerate the next American nuclear renaissance,” Wright said.
3 Responses
Google data centers consume significant amounts of water and electricity, with reports indicating they used over 30 billion liters of water for cooling in 2024 alone. This high demand for resources is driven by the need to cool the servers that support their extensive operations, especially as the use of artificial intelligence grows.
I do not believe this will be good for the people of Tennessee, it will use a tremendous amount of our resources, we will most likely see rolling blackouts and water shortages, all for AI and the rich to get richer.
AMEN!!
Yup, lucifer’s Google. The only thing they ever did good is their map.