Amazon buys 100% nuclear-powered data center for $650 million
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has acquired Talen Energy’s 1,200-acre Cumulus data center campus at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The company will pay a total of $650 million for this. Talen’s two separate divisions include: Cumulus Data, which focuses on hyperscale data centers, and Cumulus Coin, which focuses on digital currency mining.
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Amazon will expand its data center to up to 960 megawatts
Talen energy owns and operates power generation and transmission facilities in the United States. The data center complex being sold is called “Cumulus” and was built in early 2023 next to a 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant in northeastern Pennsylvania – the sixth largest nuclear power plant in the United States. As part of the sale, in addition to the nuclear-powered Cumulus plant, the associated energy infrastructure will also become the property of Amazon. What the cloud empire actually plans to do with the newly gained energy is still unknown as the company has not yet commented on it. An investor presentation from Talen states that AWS will further develop the data center campus up to 960 MW.
Contractual: Power purchase secured for ten years
Talen Energy will not receive $650 million from AWS for Cumulus Data all at once. The power producer is set to receive $350 million upon closing of the deal and the remainder after certain development milestones are met during 2024. AWS has contractually committed to increasing the minimum electricity volumes in 120 MW increments over several years. There is a one-off option to cap commitments at 480 MW, and two 10-year extension options are part of the deal. These are tied to the renewal of nuclear licenses. To this end, Talen has issued AWS a 10-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with energy from the Susquehanna Power Plant.
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“Low-cost, sustainable power adaptable for high-performance computing or AI”
Mac McFarland, President and CEO of Talen, speaks of significant value creation for his company by selling attractive returns to investors and highlights the clean, carbon-free electricity that the “leading-edge Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant” is expected to produce. Cumulus also receives electricity from the neighboring 2.5 GW Susquehanna Steam Electric Station (SSES) nuclear power plant. In addition to the first hyper-scale facility with an output of 48 MW and an area of 28,870 square meters, the nuclear power plant also has a separate crypto facility. Cryptocurrency company TeraWulf is working with Talen on the crypto mining side of the project. Paul Prager, CEO of TeraWulf, commented on the deal with Amazon: “This sale underscores the considerable value of scalable infrastructure with access to low-cost, sustainable power adaptable for high-performance computing or AI.”
