US APPROVES $1.9BN LOAN TO RESTART IOWA NUCLEAR PLANT FOR GOOGLE

NextEra Energy has received a $1.9 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Centre, a 615-megawatt nuclear facility in Linn County, Iowa. Google will purchase power from the plant to supply its artificial intelligence data centres. NextEra stated that the project will create "thousands of direct and indirect jobs" and strengthen local grid reliability. The facility ceased operations in August 2020 after a tropical storm with gusts up to 140 mph knocked down its cooling towers.

The loan represents the second major Department of Energy financing for nuclear plant restarts aimed at supplying tech companies' data centre operations. The department extended a $1 billion loan to Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island last year. The Trump administration views revived nuclear power as a key electricity source for technology firms seeking to power AI infrastructure. Google previously committed to offset its power usage with green and renewable energy sources, though the company has also partnered with a natural gas power plant in Texas to supply one of its data centres.

NextEra plans to restart energy production at Duane Arnold by 2029. The Department of Energy has stated plans to restart three mothballed power plants to feed both the electrical grid and AI data centres. Other technology companies including Tesla and Meta have secured power from natural gas generators or drawn from less renewable grid sources to meet their data centre energy demands.