27 27 With the US pivoting to the need for firm, scalable power sources to meet data center demand, existing nuclear plants, able to provide clean dispatchable energy, have seen a revival. Microsoft signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Constellation Energy to restart the 835 MW Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor (renamed Crane Clean Energy Center), supplying carbon- free power to data centers in the PJM region by 2027. Talen Energy signed a PPA to supply power from the Susquehanna Nuclear Power plant to AWS’ 960MW Pennsylvania data center campus. Firm nuclear agreements remain limited to the extension or restart of existing plants. New nuclear technologies remain expensive, uncommercialized, and take years to develop, with very few reactors added to US grids this century. Nuclear renaissance However, California-based Deep Fission has signed nonbinding agreements to supply 12.5 GW of nuclear power—equivalent to more than 12 traditional reactors— mainly to data centers, amid rising demand for carbon- free energy. At the same time, technology firms are placing their bets in SMR technology. Amazon has partnered with X-energy to deploy Xe-100 small modular reactors (SMRs) near AWS data centers in Washington State. Each unit produces 80 MW, and Amazon aims to support up to 5 GW of nuclear capacity by 2039 through a $50 bn investment plan. Google is collaborating with Kairos Power to build seven SMRs delivering up to 500 MW by 2035, with the first unit expected online by 2030. Fusion technology is also gaining pace, with 42 private companies now in a race to deliver stable energy without the generation of nuclear waste. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is planning to start construction of Type One Energy’s stellarator fusion technology at the retired Bull Run coal plant by 2028. Sceptics still claim that the technology remains decades away. With the delay in the availability of turbines into the next decade, some see this as giving time for emerging technologies such as SMR, fusion and geothermal to catch up, adding to the growing uncertainty in the fuels mix beyond 2030. Unattributed quote We are seeing convergence of all energies — oil, gas, electricity — it’s no longer separate. We are building gigawatts of gas and renewables side by side. The only way to provide power for data centers is to combine both.