In yet one more main set of offers spearheaded by a tech big in assist of nuclear energy improvement, Amazon will again the deployment of 5 GW of latest X-energy small modular reactor (SMR) initiatives by 2039, beginning with an preliminary four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 plant with regional utility Power Northwest in central Washington.
Individually, Amazon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dominion Power to discover the deployment of a 300-MW SMR challenge close to Dominion’s current North Anna nuclear energy station in Virginia. The challenge will search to assist the utility meet future energy demand, which is ready to soar by 85% over the following 15 years.
Amazon on Wednesday stated its efforts to champion nuclear are integral to its dedication to handle rising vitality calls for whereas working towards its Local weather Pledge to realize net-zero carbon throughout its operations by 2040. “As we proceed on our path to net-zero carbon, we lately introduced that we matched all the electrical energy consumed by our world operations with 100% renewable vitality—seven years forward of our 2030 purpose,” Amazon famous. “Because the vitality wants of our enterprise and clients proceed to develop, we’re persevering with to put money into renewables whereas additionally discovering further sources of carbon-free vitality that may each assist energy our operations and produce new sources of vitality to the grid.”
The brand new agreements observe Amazon affiliate Amazon Net Providers’ deal final yr to co-locate a 960-MW knowledge heart campus powered by Talen Power’s 2,500-MW Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
Different tech giants have secured related offers, citing carbon commitments and a projected surge in energy demand. As POWER reported in September, Microsoft and Constellation Power dedicated $1.6 billion to restart the Unit 1 reactor of the shuttered Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania by 2028. The ability, generally known as the Crane Clear Power Heart, may provide Microsoft’s synthetic intelligence (AI)-driven knowledge facilities for no less than 20 years. Earlier this week, Google signed a Grasp Plant Growth Agreement to facilitate the event of a 500-MW fleet of Kairos Energy molten salt nuclear reactors by 2035 to energy Google’s knowledge facilities.
X-Power Good points Main Backer in Amazon
Amazon’s collaboration with X-energy to deploy 5 GW of latest nuclear initiatives by 2039 “represents the most important industrial deployment goal of SMRs up to now,” the businesses famous in a joint assertion.
The hassle is geared to assist meet rising vitality calls for in “key places,” the businesses stated. Amazon and X-energy stated they plan to deploy their formidable goal by direct challenge investments and long-term energy buy agreements (PPAs) “to assist energy Amazon operations.”
X-energy on Wednesday famous it secured a $500 million funding from Amazon’s Local weather Pledge Fund, Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin, associates of Ares Administration Company, NGP, and the College of Michigan by a Sequence C-1 financing. The financing spherical, which is geared toward supporting its progress and improvement, follows a $235 million Sequence C financing spherical in December 2023 that garnered X-energy new backers, which up to now embody Ares Administration Corp, Ontario Energy Era, Curtiss-Wright Corp., DL E&C, and Doosan Enerbility.
Beneath a key enterprise as a part of their collaboration, Amazon and X-energy plan to “set up and standardize a deployment and financing mannequin to develop initiatives in partnership with infrastructure and utility companions.” The companions’ first challenge will deal with the preliminary buildout of the four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 challenge with public energy utility Power Northwest, with an choice for Power Northwest to extend the plant’s items by eight items for a mixed capability of 960 MW. The initiatives are slated to satisfy an pressing want beginning within the early 2030s for carbon-free and sustainable vitality era that can be scalable and versatile within the Pacific Northwest.
“Amazon is instantly committing a direct funding within the Power Northwest challenge to fund early improvement work that X-energy will carry out,” the businesses stated in a joint assertion.
Power Northwest, a consortium of state public utilities, in central Washington, in an announcement on Wednesday stated Amazon’s funding will cowl an “preliminary feasibility part” of the challenge deliberate to be sited close to Power Northwest’s Columbia Producing Station nuclear vitality facility in Richland, Washington. The reactors can be constructed, owned and operated by Power Northwest,” Amazon individually famous. Nonetheless, underneath the settlement, Amazon could have the precise to buy electrical energy from the primary challenge, Power Northwest stated.
“We’ve been working for years to develop this challenge on the urging of our members and have discovered that taking this primary, daring step is troublesome for utilities, particularly people who present electrical energy to ratepayers at the price of manufacturing,” famous Greg Cullen, vice chairman for Power Providers & Growth at Power Northwest. “We applaud Amazon for being prepared to make use of their monetary energy, want for energy and know-how to prepared the ground to a dependable, carbon-free energy future for the area,” he stated.
Amazon’s funding will pivotally additionally fund the completion of X-energy’s design and licensing of the 80-MWe Xe-100, a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) SMR, in addition to the first part of its TRISO-X gasoline fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the place X-energy will manufacture its proprietary tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle gasoline, TRISO-X. As well as, it is going to assist future X-energy Xe-100 reactor initiatives.
Thus far, the flagship challenge in X-energy’s pipeline is a proposed four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 superior nuclear reactor facility at Union Carbide Corp. Seadrift Operations, a sprawling Dow chemical supplies manufacturing web site in Seadrift, Calhoun County, Texas. The Dow challenge—the primary grid-scale SMR to energy an industrial web site—and X-energy’s TRISO X industrial facility comprise certainly one of two demonstrations (alongside TerraPower’s Natrium Kemmerer 1 project in Wyoming) underneath the U.S. Division of Power’s Superior Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).
As POWER reported, X-energy’s ARDP challenge was initially slated to be developed with Power Northwest in Washington state. The change to Dow as X-energy’s buyer/companion formally made the HTGR demonstration a pioneering industrial challenge. The Dow challenge is backed with $1.23 billion in funding from the November 2021-enacted Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act (IIJA) over the seven-year demonstration interval. Dow and X-energy are at the moment working to arrange a Half 50 building allow utility for the SMR challenge to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Fee (NRC).
Dominion and Amazon to Discover SMRs for Virginia
The MoU between Dominion Power Virginia and Amazon introduced on Wednesday will discover “revolutionary new improvement constructions” that will assist advance potential SMRs thrive in Virginia, Dominion stated.
Beneath the settlement, the 2 firms will collectively discover financing, “whereas additionally mitigating potential value and improvement dangers for purchasers and capital suppliers,” it added. “Dominion Power stays dedicated to the credit score and threat profile targets of the lately concluded enterprise overview.”
Dominion famous it’s contemplating SMRs as a possible resolution to satisfy future energy demand. “Energy demand in Virginia is rising by greater than 5% yearly and is predicted to double within the subsequent 15 years. To reliably serve this unprecedented progress, Dominion Power is growing an ‘all-of-the-above’ combine of latest energy era sources, together with main investments in offshore wind, photo voltaic, battery storage and pure gasoline,” it stated. Nonetheless, “Within the 2030s, SMRs may play a pivotal function on this ‘all-of-the-above’ vitality combine. Like conventional nuclear, SMRs generate around-the-clock, carbon-free energy, however with a considerably smaller footprint and decrease upfront capital prices,” it stated.
The MoU with Amazon is provides a brand new layer to Dominion’s quest for brand new, dependable vitality provides. In July 2024, the utility introduced a request for proposals (RFP) from main SMR nuclear expertise firms to judge the feasibility of growing an SMR on the firm’s North Anna Energy Station in Louisa County, Virginia. “Whereas the RFP will not be a dedication to construct an SMR at North Anna, it is a vital first step in evaluating the expertise and the feasibility of growing it at North Anna,” the corporate stated on Wednesday.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
