Meta jumped aboard the nuclear power bandwagon, inking a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy to buy output from the Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois. The deal comes less than a year after Constellation secured a high-profile deal with Microsoft to bring the Three Mile Island nuclear plant back online to help power the latter's data centers.
As part of the agreement, Constellation will supply 1.1 GW of nuclear energy starting in June 2027 to help power Meta's operations in the region. Meta noted in a blog the deal will help it run its AI data centers using clean energy.
The arrangement helps secure the future for the Clinton plant, which has struggled financially. The plant was originally slated to close in 2017, but was bailed out by a 10-year financing subsidy included in the Future Energy Jobs Act. The agreement with Meta will kick in right as that financing expires.
Under the deal, Clinton will add 30 megawatts of increased output from nuclear uprates. With the guarantee that Clinton will continue to run for another two decades, Constellation is also evaluating strategies to extend the plant’s existing early site permit or seek a new construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pursue development of an advanced nuclear reactor or small modular reactor (SMR) at the Clinton Clean Energy Center site.
Read the full press release here.