“Today, we announced a collaboration with NextEra Energy to accelerate nuclear deployment across the US, including the restart of the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa,” Google said in a .
“We expect Duane Arnold to be back online in early 2029, and the plant will provide more than 600 MW of clean, safe, ‘always-on’ nuclear energy to the regional grid. This will support our growing cloud and AI infrastructure in Iowa and bring thousands of jobs and substantial economic benefits to the state. Through this agreement, we’re enabling the investment to restart the plant and covering costs for the production of energy from Duane Arnold.
“Restarting a once fully operational plant is the fastest path to unlock large-scale nuclear power to meet AI growth in the near-term.”
Restarting the plant will increase generation capacity for the region, but the power purchase agreement means that Iowa energy customers “will not bear any costs associated with the power Google purchases from the facility”, NextEra said.
Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) – currently a minority owner of the plant – will purchase the remaining portion of the plant’s output on the same terms as Google. NextEra Energy has signed definitive agreements to acquire CIPCO and Corn Belt Power Cooperative’s combined 30% interest in the plant. This will bring NextEra Energy’s ownership to 100%, the companies said, without giving a timeline for the acquisition.
NextEra Energy and Google have also signed an agreement to explore the development of new nuclear generation to be deployed in the USA, which would help power America’s growing electricity needs.
The announcement is not Google’s first foray into the nuclear energy space: in 2024 the company signed an agreement with Kairos Power to purchase power from its fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature small modular reactors, and it recently announced a collaboration with Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority in a power purchase agreement that will see output from Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 demonstration reactor deliver power to the grid for Google’s data centres. Earlier this year, it became a signatory of the supporting the goal of at least tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. It has also signed an investment and offtake agreement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems for power from its first ARC commercial fusion plant which is to be built in Virginia, as well providing early-stage capital for Elementl Power to prepare potential sites for advanced nuclear power projects in the USA.
Duane Arnold is a 610 MWe boiling water reactor plant owned and operated by NextEra Energy in Linn County, Iowa. It began commercial operation in 1974. Although currently licensed for operations until 2034, the plant ceased operations in 2020: it had been expected to run until 2025, but the closure date was brought forward after NextEra Energy and utility Alliant Energy agreed to shorten an existing power purchase agreement by five years. The plant was taken offline after a severe storm in August 2020 damaged its cooling towers, and although the reactor itself was not damaged, it did not return to service.
