February 16, 2025
Energy

5-GW with X-Energy, Agreements With Energy Northwest, Dominion


In yet another major set of deals spearheaded by a tech giant in support of nuclear power development, Amazon will back the deployment of 5 GW of new X-energy small modular reactor (SMR) projects by 2039, starting with an initial four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 plant with regional utility Energy Northwest in central Washington.

Separately, Amazon signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Dominion Energy to explore the deployment of a 300-MW SMR project near Dominion’s existing North Anna nuclear power station in Virginia. The project will seek to help the utility meet future power demand, which is set to soar by 85% over the next 15 years.

Amazon on Wednesday said the efforts are part of its commitment to address growing energy demands while working toward its Climate Pledge to achieve net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040.

The new agreements follow Amazon affiliate Amazon Web Services’ deal last year to co-locate a 960-MW data center campus powered by Talen Energy’s 2,500-MW Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

Other tech giants have secured similar deals, citing carbon commitments and a projected surge in power demand. As POWER reported in September, Microsoft and Constellation Energy committed $1.6 billion to restart the Unit 1 reactor of the shuttered Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania by 2028. The facility, known as the Crane Clean Energy Center, could supply Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data centers for at least 20 years. Earlier this week, Google signed a Master Plant Development Agreement to facilitate the development of a 500-MW fleet of Kairos Power molten salt nuclear reactors by 2035 to power Google’s data centers. 

X-Energy Gains Major Backer in Amazon

Amazon’s collaboration with X-energy to deploy 5 GW of new nuclear projects by 2039 “represents the largest commercial deployment target of SMRs to date,” the companies noted in a joint statement.

The effort is geared to help meet growing energy demands in “key locations,” the companies said. Amazon and X-energy said they plan to deploy the ambitious target through direct project investments and long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) “to help power Amazon operations.”

X-energy on Wednesday noted it secured a $500 million investment from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Citadel Founder and CEO Ken Griffin, affiliates of Ares Management Corporation, NGP, and the University of Michigan through a Series C-1 financing. The financing round, which is aimed at supporting its growth and development, follows a $235 million Series C financing round in December 2023 that garnered X-energy new backers, which so far include Ares Management Corp, Ontario Power Generation, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, DL E&C, and Doosan Enerbility.

Under a key undertaking as part of their collaboration, Amazon and X-energy plan to establish and standardize a deployment and financing model to develop projects in partnership with infrastructure and utility partners.” A primary effort will entail supporting

the initial buildout of the four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 project with utility Energy Northwest, a consortium of state public utilities, in central Washington, with an option to increase the plant’s units to 12 for a combined capacity of 960 MW.

Amazon is immediately committing a direct investment in the Energy Northwest project to fund early development work that X-energy will perform,” the companies said in a joint statement.

The reactors will be constructed, owned and operated by Energy Northwest,” Amazon separately noted. “These projects will help meet the forecasted energy needs of the Pacific Northwest beginning in the early 2030s.”

The new investment will pivotally also fund the completion of X-energy’s design and licensing of the 80-MWe Xe-100, a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) SMR, as well as the first phase of its TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where X-energy will manufacture its proprietary tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel, TRISO-X. In addition, it will support future X-energy Xe-100 reactor projects.

So far, the flagship project in X-energy’s pipeline is a proposed four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 advanced nuclear reactor facility at Union Carbide Corp. Seadrift Operations, a sprawling Dow chemical materials manufacturing site in Seadrift, Calhoun County, Texas.

The Dow project—the first grid-scale SMR to power an industrial site—and X-energy’s TRISO X commercial facility is one of two demonstrations under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). The project is backed with $1.23 billion in funding from the November 2021-enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) over the seven-year demonstration period. Dow and X-energy are currently working to prepare a Part 50 construction permit application for the SMR project to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Dominion and Amazon to Explore SMRs for Virginia

The MoU between Dominion Energy Virginia and Amazon announced on Wednesday will explore “innovative new development structures” that would help advance potential SMRs thrive in Virginia, Dominion said.

Under the agreement, the two companies will jointly explore financing, “while also mitigating potential cost and development risks for customers and capital providers,” it added. “Dominion Energy remains committed to the credit and risk profile objectives of the recently concluded business review.”

Dominion noted it is considering SMRs as a potential solution to meet future power demand. “Power demand in Virginia is growing by more than 5% annually and is expected to double in the next 15 years. To reliably serve this unprecedented growth, Dominion Energy is developing an ‘all-of-the-above’ mix of new power generation sources, including leading investments in offshore wind, solar, battery storage and natural gas,” it said. However, “In the 2030s, SMRs could play a pivotal role in this ‘all-of-the-above’ energy mix. Like traditional nuclear, SMRs generate around-the-clock, carbon-free power, but with a significantly smaller footprint and lower upfront capital costs,” it said.

The MoU with Amazon is adds a new layer to Dominion’s quest for new, reliable energy supplies. In  July 2024, the utility announced a request for proposals (RFP) from major SMR nuclear technology companies to evaluate the feasibility of developing an SMR at the company’s North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Virginia. “While the RFP is not a commitment to build an SMR at North Anna, it is an important first step in evaluating the technology and the feasibility of developing it at North Anna,” the company said on Wednesday.

Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel@POWERmagazine).





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