A cyclist rides past the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms in Mountain View, California, on Nov. 9, 2022.
Peter Dasilva | Reuters
Meta has signed a 20-year agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation Energy, continuing the wave of tech giants teaming up with the industry in order to meet the growing power needs of data centers.
Beginning in June 2027, Meta will buy roughly 1.1 gigawatts of energy from Constellation’s Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois, which is the entire output from the site’s one nuclear reactor. The companies said the long-term agreement will support the continuing operation of the plant, as well as its relicensing. Without the commitment from Meta, the plant was in danger of closing when its zero-emission credit, which it’s relied on since 2017, expired.
“We are proud to partner with Meta. … They figured out that supporting the relicensing and expansion of existing plants is just as impactful as finding new sources of energy,” said Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s president and CEO. “Sometimes the most important part of our journey forward is to stop taking steps backwards.”
Terms of the deal, which will also expand Clinton’s output by 30 megawatts, were not disclosed. The plant will not power Meta’s data centers directly – instead it will continue to provide power to the regional grid, while contributing to the tech giant’s goal of 100% clean electricity.
Constellation shares rallied more than 15% on the agreement.
CEG rallies
Tuesday’s announcement is the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. In September, Constellation said it would restart Three Mile Island – the site of the worst nuclear meltdown in U.S. history – and sell the power to Microsoft under a 20-year agreement.
Google recently pledged to fund the development of three new nuclear sites, after last year teaming up with small modular reactor developer Kairos Power. Amazon invested more than $500 million to develop SMRs in October, and bought a data center campus powered by the Susquehanna nuclear plant in March 2024. Tech giants, including Amazon, Google and Meta, signed a pledge in March led by the World Nuclear Association calling for nuclear energy worldwide to triple by 2050.
Still, the deal with Constellation marks Meta’s first official foray into nuclear. In December, the company put out a request for proposals to find nuclear energy developers to partner with, saying they wanted to add between one and four gigawatts of new nuclear generation in the U.S. That proposal, which is focused on advanced nuclear, remains in progress, and stands apart from the company’s backing of the Clinton facility.
“Securing clean, reliable energy is necessary to continue advancing our AI ambitions,” said Urvi Parekh, head of global energy at Meta. “We are proud to help keep the Clinton plant operating for years to come and demonstrate that this plant is an important piece to strengthening American leadership in energy.”
President Donald Trump recently signed four executive orders aimed at speeding nuclear deployment, setting a target of quadrupling U.S. nuclear energy by 2050. The executive orders call for, among other things, an overhaul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as building out a domestic supply chain for nuclear fuel.
The White House has also called for faster regulatory approval for reactors – including small modular reactors. In the past, nuclear projects have been plagued by high upfront costs and long construction timelines. The industry is hoping that SMRs can be a more cost-effective way to scale up nuclear power. At present, there are no operational SMRs in the U.S.
Constellation said Tuesday that it is considering seeking a new permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to possibly build a small modular reactor at the Clinton site.
