NextEra Energy is considering adding up to 6 gigawatts or 6,000 megawatts of new nuclear generation in part to help meet artificial intelligence (AI) data center demands.
In a Jan. 27 earnings call, the Juno Beach, Fla.-based energy utility said small modular reactors (SMRs) could be built at its existing nuclear power plants or at new potential sites.
NextEra, with its subsidiary Florida Power and Light Company, operates seven nuclear reactors across Florida, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. The utility’s CEO, John Ketchum, said it sees opportunities to expand nuclear generation at its power plants Point Beach in Two Rivers, Wisc. and Seabrook Station in Seabrook, N.H.
“Our nuclear fleet outside Florida is also ripe for advanced nuclear development,” Ketchum said during the call. “That’s why we are spending time closely evaluating the capabilities of various SMR OEMs [original equipment manufacturers]. All told, we have six gigawatts of SMR co-location opportunities at our nuclear sites and are working to develop new greenfield sites.”
Ketchum continued: “Our breadth and depth allow us to have a multi-year, multi-gigawatt, multi-technology discussion with hyperscalers. These data center hub opportunities, as we call them, represent a powerful channel to originate large generation projects with expansion opportunities where we can grow alongside our hyperscaler partner rather than building on a project-by-project basis.”
Adding new nuclear energy to power data centers goes with the utility’s data center hub strategy, after it announced several deals in December with hyperscalers. The strategy, named “15 by 35”, is to add 15 gigawatts of new power generation for data center hubs by 2035.
Along with adding new generation, NextEra has already begun to pursue plans to revive its Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa to bring megawatts back onto the grid. NextEra and Google plan to have Duane Arnold back online by 2029 to supply power to Google’s AI operations.
Duane Arnold ceased operations in 2020.