By Vallari Srivastava
July 29 (Reuters) – A consortium including NextEra Energy and Brookfield plans to develop a $100 billion data center campus at a former uranium enrichment site in Paducah, Kentucky, the companies said on Wednesday.
Soaring U.S. electricity demand is driving investment in artificial intelligence data centers and other technologies that are straining an aging U.S. electric grid.
The coalition includes Brookfield, NextEra Energy, Big Rivers Electric Power Corporation, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative and Paducah Power System.
NextEra, the largest U.S. utility, would deliver 2 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power and 2.6 GW of battery storage capacity to support the data center, while Brookfield would own and operate the 1.8 GW campus, the companies said.
One gigawatt can power about 750,000 homes.
NextEra Energy will add power generation resources in stages as the campus ramps up, ensuring the data center’s growing power needs are met by new supply.
The campus would be located on the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site, which was built in the 1950s to produce enriched uranium, initially for nuclear weapons. The facility later produced enriched uranium for nuclear reactors and closed in 2013.
Because of its past operations, the site already has transmission capacity, water, fiber and other infrastructure that could speed development, the companies said
The project is expected to be completed by 2032.
NextEra said the project fulfills the Trump administration’s “Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” which seeks to ensure that companies building and using data centers pay above normal rates so that costs are not passed on to average households.
The project is subject to negotiation and execution of definitive documentation.
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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