Amazon has anchored a Series C-1 financing round of approximately $500 million in X-Energy Reactor Company, which manufactures advanced small nuclear reactors (SMRs). The companies are collaborating to bring more than five gigawatts of new power projects online by 2039; additionally, Amazon has signed deals for building SMRs with Washington State’s Energy Northwest and Virginia’s Dominion Energy.
“Nuclear is a safe source of carbon-free energy that can help power our operations and meet the growing demands of our customers, while helping us progress toward our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040,” said Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in an Amazon blog post. “One of the fastest ways to address climate change is by transitioning our society to carbon-free energy sources, and nuclear energy is both carbon-free and able to scale — which is why it’s an important area of investment for Amazon. Our agreements will encourage the construction of new nuclear technologies that will generate energy for decades to come.”
Other tech giants including Microsoft and Google are ramping up their investments in nuclear energy, according to The New York Times. Microsoft has paid an energy company to revive the shuttered (and infamous) Three Mile Island power plans in Pennsylvania. Like Amazon, Google is focused on the new generation of small modular reactors. While these have not yet been commercialized, energy experts believe they will be cheaper and easier to build than the large reactors that the U.S. has built since the 1950s.
Amazon’s agreement with Energy Northwest, a consortium of state public utilities, will enable the development of four SMRs that are expected to generate approximately 320 megawatts (MW) in the project’s first phase, with the option to increase to 960 MW — enough to power 770,000 U.S. homes.
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The Dominion Energy agreement will explore the development of an SMR near its existing North Anna nuclear power station, a move that would bring at least 300 MW of power to the region, where Dominion projects that power demands will increase by 85% over the next 15 years.
Additionally, Amazon had previously agreed to co-locate a data center facility next to the Talen Energy nuclear facility in Pennsylvania, which will directly power the center and help preserve this existing reactor.
In January 2023 Amazon reported that its renewable energy portfolio had exceeded 20 gigawatts.
