Meta says it has reached a deal to purchase power from the Beaver Valley nuclear plant in western Pennsylvania and two others in Ohio, as part of its efforts to power its artificial intelligence ambitions.
The agreement with Vistra, the plant's owner, will provide 2,600 megawatts of electricity from the three nuclear plants for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, over a 20-year period. The deal also includes 433 megawatts – enough to power over 300,000 homes – of increased generation from the three plants.
The agreement would extend the license for each of the plants by an additional 20 years. Beaver Valley, in Shippingport, has one unit licensed through 2036 and another through 2047. The agreement calls for the company to buy nearly 2,100 megawatts of power from Perry Nuclear Power Station, east of Cleveland, and Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, east of Toledo.
The three plants had been slated to close in recent years. But increased power demand from AI has given a boost to the nation's nuclear industry, as a source of zero-carbon electricity to an increasingly power-hungry tech industry.
Vistra says the project will take nine years to build and provide around 3,000 project-related jobs.
In addition to the deal struck with Vistra, Meta announced separate agreements with two other nuclear power developers. The company will buy power from a new nuclear plant under development by Oklo in Pike County, Ohio, south of Columbus, and from two new reactors from TerraPower, a company backed by Bill Gates.
The Oklo project would provide 1,200 megawatts by 2034 at a site formerly owned by the Department of Energy.
The TerraPower reactors, combined, would provide 690 MW of new electric generation. The location of the TerraPower reactors hasn't yet been announced. "The companies will target identification of a specific site for the initial dual reactor unit in the coming months," TerraPower said, in a statement.
Microsoft recently entered into a similar agreement with a company to re-start the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg.