Meta buys a nuclear power plant (more or less)

Dead Declare On Tuesday morning, billions of dollars were paid to keep a nuclear power plant in Illinois passing until 2047. The social media company will buy all the “clean energy features” of the Clinton Clean Energy Center in the constellation of energy, a 1.1 GB nuclear power plant in the center of Illinois, starting in June 2027.

Electricity will continue to flow to the local network, so buying Meta will not directly operate one of its data centers, although the company has about two hours north of Clinton in Dekalb. Instead, the deal is part of the carbon that reduces the general climate effect of the company. It does not reduce emissions on the network, but prevents it from a possible increase.

None of the company has revealed the accurate financial conditions, but the deal, which is worth billions of dollars, will help distinguish the factory and ensure a customer throughout the period of extension of this license.

Large technology companies – including Meta – have become audio supporters for the recent fission industry. Before the last boom in building the data center, nuclear reactors have faced a dark future like cheap wind, solar energy and natural gas that reduces power generation costs. But the increase in artificial intelligence and cloud computing has sent energy technology companies, which in turn led to a A series of investments In nuclear starters.

Meta and Constellation referred to the deal as a way to save the nuclear power plant from the closure, although it has not said an imminent danger to the closure.

Energy provider plans initially to close the Clinton reactor in June 2017 She also faced intense competition from cheap natural gas, but legislators in Illinois intervened With subsidies Encourage this constellation to keep the lights. The validity of these subsidies is scheduled to end in 2027, and Constellation says that the definition deal will help prevent closure.

But since 2017, Constellation has not threatened to close the Clinton Energy Station. Instead, in 2022, the company He said It will apply to the extension of the reactor’s operating license until 2047.

I asked Teccrunch Constellation about her plans for the Clinton Power Plant before the Meta deal is achieved, and we will update this article if we receive a response. The company is likely to have turned into the price perpetrators, which alludes to a constellation a day press release: The deal with Meta “mainly replaces the ZEC program (emissions) and ensures long -term processes of the factory without price supporters.”

Meta and her peers in adult technology fell on the heels on the nuclear energy recently. Meta itself announced earlier this year that it was Seam proposals for new nuclear power plants It would generate between 1-4 GB of power. Today, the company said it has received more than 50 qualified notes for sites in more than 20 states.

With the Meta deal, Constellation fell another large technical sponsor for its nuclear fleet. In September, the energy provider said he would do so Restart a reactor On the island of Three Mile after Microsoft agreed to buy all the resulting energy.