Google Signs Deal for 3.59 Gigawatts of Power, Including Nuclear Plant Upgrades

Google has signed agreements to secure 3.59 gigawatts of electricity, including a 20-year power purchase arrangement tied to upgrades at eleven existing nuclear reactors across Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, the company said this week, in one of the largest corporate power deals of the year.

The nuclear portion of the deal is expected to add roughly 890 megawatts of output through plant uprates — a process that increases the generating capacity of existing reactors through equipment upgrades and efficiency improvements, rather than building new reactors from scratch. Uprates are generally faster and cheaper to bring online than new nuclear construction, which can take a decade or more, making them an attractive option for companies seeking to add carbon-free power to the grid on a shorter timeline. The first additional output under the agreement is expected to come online in 2028.

The deal is one of several recent moves by major technology companies to lock in long-term power supplies as data centers used to train and run AI systems drive a sharp rise in electricity demand. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have each signed nuclear-related power agreements over the past two years, reversing a decades-long decline in corporate interest in nuclear energy and helping extend the operating lives of plants that might otherwise have faced retirement.

Utilities and grid operators have warned that AI-driven demand growth could strain regional power systems over the next decade, particularly in regions where data center construction has clustered around existing transmission infrastructure. That dynamic has pushed tech companies to increasingly turn to nuclear power, which offers steady, round-the-clock output unlike intermittent sources such as wind and solar, as a complement to their broader renewable energy investments.

Environmental groups have offered a mixed response to the trend, with some welcoming the extended life of carbon-free nuclear generation and others cautioning that tech companies' growing appetite for power could crowd out capacity needed for residential and industrial customers if new generation does not keep pace with demand. Google said the agreement is part of a broader strategy to match its data center electricity use with carbon-free power sources around the clock, rather than through annual accounting offsets.