NextEra Energy and Google have reached an agreement to restart an Iowa nuclear power plant that was closed down five years ago, an indication that data-centre power demand is renewing interest in US nuclear energy, owing to the technology industry’s demand for huge amounts of carbon-free power for artificial-intelligence processing. Under NextEra’s deal with Google, the 615 MW Duane Arnold Energy Centre near Cedar Rapids in Iowa is scheduled to resume operations in early 2029, pending regulatory approvals. The restart is backed by a 25-year agreement for Google to buy electricity generated by plant. NextEra Energy now has nearly 3 GW of energy projects executed with Google across the USA.
NextEra and Google will also explore the development of new nuclear technology, the companies said. NextEra Energy and Google have also signed an agreement to explore the development of new nuclear generation to be deployed in the USA.
“Restarting Duane Arnold marks an important milestone for NextEra Energy,” said CEO John Ketchum. “Our partnership with Google not only brings nuclear energy back to Iowa, it also accelerates the development of next-generation nuclear technology.”
Google will be the primary buyer of electricity from the new nuclear plant, while one of the plant’s minority owners, Central Iowa Power Co-operative, will purchase the remaining portion of its output on the same terms as Google, NextEra said.
The agreement follows a similar announcement at the former Three Mile Island NPP plant, which is owned by Constellation Energy, in Pennsylvania to fuel Microsoft data centres.
The Duane Arnold Energy Centre, Iowa’s only nuclear plant, closed in 2020 after operating for 45 years. While there are now three US restart efforts under way, no mothballed nuclear power plant has actually been restarted to date.
Duane Arnold is expected to be online and delivering electricity to the grid by the first quarter of 2029.
