Amazon has put a new data center into operation for its web service. It is located right next to a nuclear power plant, which supplies the necessary energy.
With each passing day, the amount of information and data on the internet grows. According to forecasts, up to 284.3 zettabytes of data could be circulating on the internet by 2027. But how can this information be stored sustainably? After all, huge data centers usually require huge amounts of energy.
Amazon Web Services, the cloud division of Amazon, is therefore testing a new approach. The company acquired the Cumulus Data Assets data center campus from Talen Energy for USD 650 million. The newly acquired data center is characterized in particular by the energy mix used.
This is because it is operated 100 percent by the output of an adjacent nuclear power plant. This has an output of 2.5 gigawatts (GW) and covers an area of 1,200 hectares in Pennsylvania.
Amazon uses energy from nuclear power plant for data center
The nuclear power plant, known as the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, is one of the six largest nuclear power plants in the USA. Since its commissioning in 1983, it has produced 63 million kilowatt hours of electricity every day. The plant has two General Electric boiling water reactors whose operating licenses run until 2042 and 2044.
As part of an agreement between Amazon and Talen Energy, the energy provider will supply the new Amazon data center with nuclear power at a fixed price. Amazon has agreed contractual minimum power purchase obligations that increase in steps of 120 megawatts over several years. In addition, the Group has a one-time option to cap the commitments at 480 MW and two ten-year options for extensions linked to the renewal of nuclear power licenses.
Operation from 100 percent sustainable energy?
With this concept, Amazon Web Services aims to cover 100 percent of its own energy requirements with clean energy. However, the extent to which nuclear power is a sustainable source of energy in the long term remains controversial.
The Susquehanna Steam Electric Station was therefore chosen as it is already in operation. Amazon is also taking over the data center campus on a turnkey basis.
In the long term, the local energy requirements of data centers could therefore be available directly on site. It remains to be seen to what extent such an agreement will contribute to climate protection and what will happen after the operator license ends in 2044.
