Meta announced Tuesday morning that it would be paying billions of dollars to maintain Illinois nuclear power plants until 2047. The social media company will purchase all “clean energy attributes” from the Clinton Clean Energy Center at Constellation Energy, a 1.1 Gigawatt nuclear power plant in Central Illinois, starting in June 2027.
As electricity continues to flow to the local grid, Meta purchases do not directly power one of the data centers, but no company is located about two hours north of Clinton in DeKalb. Rather, the transaction is a bit of carbon accounting to reduce the overall climate impact of the company. It does not reduce emissions on the grid, but prevents potentially increasing emissions.
Although neither company discloses accurate financial terms, billions of dollars transactions helps constellations extending to rely on the plant and guarantee customers during that license extension.
Large tech companies, including Meta, have recently become supporters of the fission industry’s voice. Before the recent boom in data center construction, nuclear reactors faced a tough future as cheap winds, solar and natural gas reduced power generation costs. However, the surge in AI and cloud computing has led to a series of investments in nuclear startups as tech companies search for electricity.
Meta and Constellation hint at the deal as a way to save nuclear power plants from closures, but neither of them are said to be at an immediate risk of closures.
The power provider initially planned to close the Clinton reactor in June 2017 as it faced a tough competition with cheap natural gas, but Illinois legislators helped grants encouraged lights on the constellation. These subsidies are set to expire in 2027, and Constellation says meta-trading will help prevent closures.
However, since 2017, Constellation has not threatened to close the Clinton power plant. Instead, in 2022, the company said it would be applied to extend the reactor’s operating license until 2047.
TechCrunch asked Constellation about plans for the Clinton Power Plant before the meta trade was realized. I will update this article if I receive a reply. The company would have turned its attention to rate wages. This is what the constellations suggest in today’s press release. The Meta contract “essentially replaces the ZEC (Zero Emission Credit) program and ensures long-term operation of the plant without the support of a fee payer.”
Meta and its leading high-tech piers have recently gone head-on due to nuclear power. Earlier this year, Meta announced it was seeking proposals for new nuclear power plants that would generate 1-4 gigawatts of electricity. Today, the company said it has received more than 50 eligible submissions from sites in more than 20 states.
With the meta contract, Constellation landed another large technical passenger for the nuclear fleet. In September, the power provider said it would restart the reactor on the three-mile island after Microsoft agreed to buy all the resulting power.