Google and energy infrastructure company NextEra Energy have joined together to restart Iowa’s only nuclear power plant to help power Google’s growing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, the companies announced Monday.
NextEra Energy owns the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa, which was originally opened in 1974 but was shut down in 2020 during a windstorm that knocked it offline. The storm damaged the cooling towers.
The energy company said tech giant Google has signed a 25-year deal to buy power from the facility, which the Florida-based firm wants to restart.
“Restarting Duane Arnold marks an important milestone for NextEra Energy,” John Ketchum, the company’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “Our partnership with Google not only brings nuclear energy back to Iowa—it also accelerates the development of next-generation nuclear technology.”…