Google partners with Elementl Power on nuclear energy sites as power demand for AI grows

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Google is partnering with Elementl Power on three project sites for advanced nuclear energy as the energy required to power burgeoning artificial intelligence projects rises sharply.

Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Google will provide capital for the projects, which the companies say will each produce 600 megawatts of power capacity. No dollar figure for Google's investment was given.

“Our collaboration with Elementl Power enhances our ability to move at the speed required to meet this moment of AI and American innovation," said Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's head of data center energy.

Google and Elementl said they will collaborative with utility and regulated power companies to identify and advance new projects.

“We look forward to working with Google to execute these projects and bring safe, carbon-free, baseload electricity to the grid,” said Elementl Power Chairman and CEO Chris Colbert.

U.S. states have been positioning themselves to meet the tech industry’s power needs as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and gutting regulatory obstacles.

Last year, 25 states passed legislation to support advanced nuclear energy, and lawmakers this year have introduced over 200 bills supportive of nuclear energy, according to the trade association Nuclear Energy Institute.

Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the federal government’s regulatory pipeline as the industry touts them as a reliable, climate-friendly way to meet electricity demands from tech giants desperate to power their fast-growing artificial intelligence platforms.

In October, Amazon announced that it was investing in small nuclear reactors, just two days after a similar announcement by Google.

A month before that, Constellation Energy, the owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said it it planned to restart the reactor so tech giant Microsoft could secure power to supply its data centers.

Three Mile Island, located on the Susquehanna River just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident, in 1979.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft also have been investing in solar and wind technologies, which make electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions.

Elementl Power was founded in 2022.