TVA, Google, and Kairos Power unvieled a nuclear partnership to focus on power data centers with a small modular reactor. The agreement aims to deploy one of the first advanced nuclear power purchase agreements, promoting to meet esclating electricity demands from artificial intelligence data centers.
The initiative with TVA will purchase up to 50 megawatts of electricity from Kairos Power’s planned Hermes 2 reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The reactor will supply TVA's system, which delivers power to Google’s data centers in Tennessee and Alabama, marking the first time a U.S. utility has signed a PPA for electricity from a Generation IV advanced reactor.
The partnership with Google will receive the clean energy attributes from the plant through the TVA system to further decarbonize its data center operations in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama, and support future growth in the region.
Hightlighning TVA’s commitment towards integrating innovative, firm energy sources like Kairos Power’s advanced nuclear technology to proactively support the introduction of new clean generation within its service territory.
This aims to protects electricity customers by limiting development costs to first movers while supporting to bring costs down for customers as additional units are delivered.
Executive Statement
According to the Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s Global Head of Data Center Energy, we need to grow the availability of smart, firm energy sources to power the future. This collaboration with TVA, Kairos Power, and the Oak Ridge community will accelerate the deployment of innovative nuclear technologies and help support the needs of their growing digital economy while also bringing firm carbon-free energy to the electricity system. Lessons from the development and operation of the Hermes 2 plant will help drive down the cost of future reactors, improving the economics of clean firm power generation in the TVA region and beyond.