Dive Brief:
- A number of “large energy users,” including tech giants Amazon, Google and Meta, signed a pledge Wednesday to support nuclear energy’s role in creating energy resiliency and “at least” tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050.
- The signatories, which also include energy company Oxy and chemical company Dow, announced their support for the goal and signed the pledge at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference, which annually gathers energy industry CEOs and corporates.
- The commitment of support comes as the tech industry is seeing a rising energy demand due to the increased adoption of artificial intelligence. It followed a similar pledge made by countries and financial institutions in September at Climate Week NYC.
Dive Insight:
The pledge was signed at an event at the Houston conference co-hosted by the World Nuclear Association and nuclear enrichment services provider Urenco. A total of 14 companies considered to fall into the “large energy users” category signed the pledge March 12, which matched the number of financial institutions who pledged to support tripling nuclear energy capacity at New York City’s Climate Week last year.
The pledges from energy users and financial institutions, along with global governments, are designed to support the nuclear tripling goal first launched in 2023 at the World Nuclear Symposium, ahead of that year’s annual global climate summit COP28. More than 140 nuclear industry companies have signed an industry pledge to support the goal, in addition to 31 global governments signing a declaration to triple nuclear energy, according to the World Nuclear Association.
“This is not the end; it is just the beginning. We know that many other large energy users are considering joining the pledge in the future,” World Nuclear Association Director General Sama Bilbao y León said at the event. “That is our hope and our invitation.”
Wednesday’s signatories also included maritime construction company Allseas; testing, inspection and certification company Bureau Veritas Group; renewable energy adviser and developer Carbon 3 Energy; trade organization the Clean Energy Buyers Association; maritime nuclear company Core Power; sustainable aviation group the Fly Green Alliance; maritime and offshore industry service company Lloyd’s Register; European energy company Orlen Synthos Green Energy; and global energy solutions company Siemen’s Energy, which issued a statement of support.
The pledge itself commits signatories to the recognition that energy demand is expected to “increase significantly” across industries and agreeing that nuclear capacity should triple by mid-century to help meet that need.
“There is a significant role for nuclear technologies to provide generation for a wide range of economic activity, including the technology sector, increased electrification, the provision of high temperature industrial process heat, hydrogen production, district heating and the production of synthetic fuels,” the pledge states. “By ensuring that nuclear and other energy sources have equal access to finance, governments can enable nuclear capacity deployment at scale worldwide.”
The inclusion of Amazon, Google and Meta as the latest signatories comes as the companies have looked to offset the rising energy needs associated with the increased adoption of AI. Data centers could potentially consume up to 9% of the United States’ total electricity by 2030, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
Meta has already turned its eyes to nuclear energy to help account for the AI-related energy demand uptick. The tech and social media giant put out a request for proposals in December seeking up to 4 gigawatts of new nuclear power generation to power its data centers starting in the 2030s.
This request for proposals came after Microsoft announced a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy for nuclear power. The deal prompted Constellation to announce it would reopen the Pennsylvania nuclear power generation facility Three Mile Island in the coming years.
