(Bloomberg) — Technology companies are so desperate to build giant data centers in the United States that they're asking clean-energy giant NextEra Energy Inc. to find sites with enough power to power an entire city.
“We have some companies that are saying, 'Can you show me a place that can handle 5 gigawatts of demand?'” John Ketchum, chief executive officer of Florida-based NextEra Inc., told Bloomberg News in an interview Wednesday in New York. “Just think about it. That's the same size as powering the city of Miami.” Ketchum declined to name the companies.
Providing that much electricity — enough to power five nuclear reactors or about 3 million homes — would require new wind and solar farms, battery storage, and grid connections, Ketchum said, adding that finding sites for 5 gigawatts would require significant effort, but there are sites in the US that could accommodate 1 gigawatt.
In the United States, electricity consumption is soaring, driven by artificial intelligence, high-speed streaming, and the construction of new data centers needed for remote work. This is being fueled by a revitalization of domestic manufacturing and the electrification of vehicles and other vehicles. While the surge in demand is fueling a boom in clean-energy generation, it is also spurring plans for new fossil-fuel plants, complicating the achievement of climate goals.
The surge in demand has led NextEra to consider restarting the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Iowa, which closed in 2020 after its largest customer opted to pull out of a power purchase agreement. More than a dozen nuclear reactors have been closed in the U.S. since 2013 as operators struggled to compete with cheaper electricity from natural gas and renewables, but there are now rumors some of them could be restarted as consumption soars.
Ketchum said he has received inquiries from potential data center customers who might be interested in using the 600-megawatt Duane Arnold reactor. “If we can do it safely and within budget, we'll consider it,” he said.
He said he expects U.S. electricity demand to grow nearly 40% over the next 20 years, compared with just 9% over the past 20. He said renewable energy will meet most of the growth in consumption because new gas-fired power plants are much more expensive, take longer to connect to the grid and must be delivered by gas pipelines that are difficult to build.
He said adding battery storage to wind and solar farms could enable these carbon-free sources to provide around-the-clock power almost as well as fossil fuels.
“If you're willing to pay twice as much, go for a gas-fired plant,” Ketchum said.
NextEra is the world's largest non-government-backed wind and solar power developer after China's major state-owned enterprises. The company has plans for about 300 gigawatts of renewable energy and storage projects.
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