Cumulus Data Assets Archives - Nucleation Capital

Google has partnered with Microsoft and Nucor to accelerate advanced clean electricity technologies through a new "demand aggregation model" to help bring "first-of-its-kind" commercial projects to market.

Technology companies compete with each other in a lot of ways but they all want to achieve the goal of being able to run operations and data centers using 24/7 carbon-free energy. They've done about as much as they can trying to buy, build and/or get credits from wind and solar plants and it hasn't been sufficient. With its announcement, Google acknowledges that they "need a broader portfolio of advanced clean electricity technologies" to be able to fully decarbonize their energy consumption.

The announcement lists the following as "advanced clean electricity technologies": next-generation geothermal, advanced nuclear, clean hydrogen and long-duration energy storage. This is an astounding announcement because it makes it clear that the tech companies are now moving their focus away from wind and solar, which are just too inconsistent and unreliable, to better, more reliable options.

The initiative aims to aggregate their demand for better types of clean energy to increase their buying power, their lobby power (we have to believe) and diversify the risks of investing in first-of-a-kind (FOAK) plants, whose costs are always higher than "Nth" of a kind plants. They recognize that there are a bevy of developers looking to build next-generation nuclear (and probably also geothermal) plants and they want to be able to help these ventures build those FOAK units, without each individually and solely having to take on risk. This is a tremendously important initiative and concept, it will definitely help accelerate the timelines for companies seeking to get plants built.

THe announcement comes just a few weeks after Amazon announced their purchase of Talen's nuclear-power Cumulous Data Center, which will enable Amazon Web Services to achieve their very ambitious decarbonization goal by 2025. But there aren't many nuclear power plants with spare generating capacity. In order to get access to sufficient quantities of 24/7 clean nuclear power, the U.S. will need to start building next-generation plants, many of which will be Gen IV designs.

Read more at Google's The Keyword: "A new initiative with Microsoft and Nucor to accelerate advanced clean electricity technologies," by Maud Texler, Global Director, Clean Energy and Decarbonization Development March 19, 2024.

Also see the IEA Report, Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, cited by Google for its support of the need for advanced energy technologies, revised October 2021.

Published by Nucleation Capital in 100% Renewables, Advanced Nuclear, Advanced Nuclear Customers, Carbon emissions, Corporate decarbonization, Corporate purpose, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Private companies, Public companies, Solving climate, US competitiveness, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy

Amazon has leapt out ahead of other large tech companies in meeting its 2025 carbon reduction goals by buying Talen's existing nuclear-powered data center, adjacent to and powered by Talen's Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant. This, however, is part of a trend in which tech companies are going nuclear . . . in order to obtain 24x7 clean energy.

According to Nuclear Newswire, Talen Energy announced the sale of Cumulus Data Assets, its 960-megawatt data center campus to cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon, for $650 million. Cumulus sits on a 1,200-acre campus in Pennsylvania and is directly powered by the adjacent Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, which generates 2.5 gigawatts of power.

“We believe this is a transformative transaction with long term benefits,” said Mark “Mac” McFarland, Talen president and chief executive officer of Talen, on a Monday call with investors and media. As power demand continues to rise worldwide, “data centers are at the heart of that growth,” he added.

“Several years ago, Amazon set an ambitious goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2040—ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. As part of that goal, we’re on a path to power our operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original 2030 target,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “To supplement our wind and solar energy projects, which depend on weather conditions to generate energy, we’re also exploring new innovations and technologies and investing in other sources of clean, carbon-free energy. This agreement with Talen Energy for carbon-free energy is one project in that effort.”

The Susquehanna nuclear power plant is the sixth largest nuclear power plant in the United States and produces 63 million kilowatt hours per day. Its two General Electric boiling water reactors have been on line since 1983 and are licensed to operate through 2042 and 2044, respectively. Talen, its majority owner, is a Houston, Texas-based company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2022 as part of a financial restructuring. The company exited bankruptcy in 2023, and officials have said that this recent transaction with AWS is a boost to its cash flow. After paying off debts, interest and other costs, Talen expects net proceeds of $361 million from the deal with Amazon.

Read more at Nuclear Newswire "Amazon buys nuclear-powered data center from Talen," March 7, 2024.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear Customers, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Corporate decarbonization, Energy abundance, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Private companies, Public companies, Solving climate, Zero emission energy

Tech companies collaborating to accelerate advanced nuclear

Amazon buys Nuclear-Powered Data Center