Microsoft announced last week that it had reached an agreeme with Constellation Energy to restart a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island; This agreeme was in order to meet the growing needs of data ceer electricity.
In the past decade, seven nuclear reactors in the United States have been decommissioned, and only two new reactors have been turned on in that time span. Meanwhile, the number of data ceers has increased. With more than ten thousand data ceers worldwide, half of which are in the United States, and with the growth of cloud computing, a power industry research organization predicts that the sector’s energy demand will increase from 29 perce to 166 perce by 2030.
Today, data ceers consume about 4% of US electricity. By the end of the decade, this number may reach 9%.
Hyperscale data ceers, such as those relied on by Microsoft, Google and Amazon, and startups such as OpenAI and Ahropic, are responsible for 60 to 70 perce of all data ceer energy consumption, according to a report by the American Electric Power Research Institute.
For companies like Microsoft, which was to eliminate its carbon emissions by 2030, the growth of cloud computing and artificial ielligence creates a special challenge; The company’s carbon emissions have increased by about 40% in the last four years, mainly as a result of the expansion of data ceer operations. Google’s carbon emissions have also increased by 48% in the last five years.
All of this has led companies to look to nuclear power as a way to reconcile their data ceer boom with their commitme to net zero. In this coext, it is easy to see why nuclear power is attractive.
Fission reactors can operate for years without ierruption and operate at maximum capacity more than 90% of the time. Outages and repairs are usually planned mohs or years in advance, giving data ceers pley of time to prepare. Not surprisingly, Microsoft signed a 20-year coract with Constellation.
Outside of the new deal, Amazon recely purchased a large-scale data ceer directly connected to a nuclear power pla and has hired a nuclear engineer to develop and acquire nuclear power.
The investme of the gias of the information technology world on nuclear energy has also increased; For example, Bill Gates is one of the founders of TerraPower and he has personally invested more than a billion dollars in this company. Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold’s name is also on the main table through Iellectual Veures. Sam Altman has also recely eered the game through his startup oklo.
