Google has ordered up to seven small nuclear reactors (SMRs) from Kairos Power, with the first due to be completed by 2030 and the remainder by 2035. It hopes that the deal will provide it with a low-carbon source of power to support its ever-growing fleet of data centres.
The company, which is owned by Alphabet, said that nuclear power would provide it with “a clean, round-the-clock power source that can help us reliably meet electricity demands”.
The demand for generative AI has seen the need for power soar and just last month Microsoft signed an agreement to source energy from the ‘infamous’ Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania, activating the plant for the first time in five years.
Where the new plants will be located and the financial details of the agreement have not been released, but Google has agreed to buy a total of 500 megawatts of power from Kairos, which is building a demonstration reactor in Tennessee, due to be completed in 2027.
The grid needs new electricity sources to support AI technologies and according to Google this agreement will help accelerate a new technology to meet energy needs cleanly and reliably, while helping to ‘unlock the full potential of AI.’
The deal, which is still subject to regulatory permits, is being seen as a vote of confidence in SMR technology which are smaller, factory-built power plants. Critics of the technology, however, suggest that SMRs are expensive and won’t be able to achieve the same economies of scale that are possible with larger plants.
