Google and the developer of Elementl Power nuclear sites announced this week that they would work together on three sites for advanced nuclear reactors.
The technological society has rushed to lock energy sources because its ambitions stimulate increasing power requests in its data centers. This year only, Google plans to spend $ 75 billion in construction center capacity.
With the New Deal, Google promises to add at least 600 megawatts of generation capacity to each of the three sites. Elementl said that the reactors will be connected to the “Commercial Layout” network, which means that Google can buy energy directly.
Elementl stealthily operated until this announcement. The team has experience in the nuclear industry, although it has not yet developed power plants. The company was launched by Breakwater North and is supported by Energy Impact Partners.
Elementl adopts an “agnostic” technological “approach, which means that it has not decided from the small modular reactor company (SMR) with which he will work to develop projects. There are a number of possibilities, although Kairos Power is a probable precursor given its existing agreement with Google.
Kairos says that its demonstration plant will generate 50 megawatts of electricity, with a possible commercial factory producing 150 megawatts shared between two reactors.
There is no universally accepted definition, but SMRs tend to complete about 300 megawatts. In comparison, the most recently completed nuclear power plant in the United States, Vogtle Unit 4 in Georgia, generates more than 1.1 gigawatts of electricity, almost four times the size of a large SMR.
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Silicon Valley was struck by SMRs. Startups rush into space, promising to reduce reactor costs thanks to mass manufacturing activated by the smallest SMRS size. This, associated with the promise of 24/7 power which could be located near the data centers, pushed them to sign a certain number of transactions with SMR startups, notably Oklo, X-Energy and the aforementioned Kairos.
However, no SMR was built outside of China. A nuscal startup approached the construction of one, but it underwent a setback in 2023 when its utility partner canceled its contract after the estimated cost of the project has more than doubled – even if the plans have been reduced in order to contain costs.
