Unprecedented electricity demand The impact of artificial intelligence and the growth of the cloud has led Google to take a further step in its energy strategy: turning to a modular nuclear reactor small size for ensure continuous and low-carbon supply apart from its infrastructure.
The company has confirmed that the project Hermes 2 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee will provide 50 megawatts (MW) starting in 2030, as part of a collaboration with Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This move is part of a larger deployment with which Google aims to add up to 500 MW using 6 or 7 SMRs over the next decade.
What has been announced and how the agreement will work
The core of the announcement is a power purchase agreement (PPA) between Kairos Power and the utility TVA. Under this scheme, TVA will acquire the electricity generated by Hermes 2 and Google will purchase the electricity through the utility. 24/7 clean energy attributes to power its data centers in the region.
Electricity will be integrated into the grid the Tennessee Valley Authority, destined for Google facilities in the southeastern US, including Montgomery, Tennessee, and Jackson, Alabama counties, which favors a local and stable supply.
Hermes 2 will initially deliver 50 MW, a fraction of the projected demand for the data center campus. According to the communicated plans, Google and its partners will deploy between six and seven reactors to reach around 500 MW around 2035, thus covering a substantial part of the area's electricity needs.
Project deadlines, figures and scope
The first reactor of the program is scheduled for 2030, with subsequent deployments until around 2035. Furthermore, this step represents a significant milestone for a utility company in the United States in the commercialization of advanced nuclear technologies.
The context helps to understand the urgency: there are more than 11.000 data centers in the world and already consume around 4% of global electricityIn the United States, demand could triple between 2023 and 2030, which would require about additional 47 GW of new generation capacity, according to market estimates.
The target capacity of the agreement, around 500 MW, is close to the consumption of about 350.000 typical homes and reduces carbon footprint of cloud services and AI workloads, which require energy constant and predictable for the whole day.
Other tech companies are also exploring options free of direct emissions for its data centers, with agreements with existing or planned nuclear energy, in addition to new technologies, always with the aim of ensuring firm supply in parallel with renewables.