Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman speaks during a nuclear announcement at HQ2 in Arlington, VA. (Courtesy of Amazon)
Amazon announced Wednesday that it entered into an agreement with Dominion Energy to pay for the development of a small modular reactor as the utility explores building one at its North Anna Power Station, an existing traditional nuclear power plant in Louisa County.
At its second headquarters in Arlington, Amazon also announced an agreement with Energy Northwest to invest in building a small modular reactor in the state of Washington.
“There’s a ton that we need to do between here and there, and there’s a lot of work that needs to go into this, but this is a really important milestone that we’re celebrating today,” Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, said at the announcement.
A small modular reactor, or SMR, is a newer, smaller form of nuclear technology that doesn’t emit carbon that fuels climate change. Part of SMR’s appeal is that parts can be manufactured off site and put together on site with smaller footprints, but isn’t yet commercially viable outside of Russia and China.
The announcements show a commitment by one of the worlds’ largest tech companies to produce a zero-carbon emitting energy source instead of relying on natural gas to supply power for data centers, the energy intensive warehouses that store computers’ processing equipment, internet network servers and data drives.
About 70% of the world’s data centers are concentrated in Northern Virginia. Amazon Web Services has some in Loudoun County, which is home to an area dubbed Data Center Alley. Virginia as a whole is home to about 150 hyperscale data centers, those that can support artificial intelligence and have increased computing and energy needs.
Data centers have sparked public concerns about land clearing, water usage and noise, but also the opportunity to pad local and state coffers with tax revenue. Data centers have also been reported to be increasing emissions worldwide.
SMRs could change that.
“Our goal was by 2040 to get to a carbon-zero world,” Garman said. “We didn’t know how to do it. We didn’t necessarily know the path to get there. We knew it was important, and an important goal for us to set. Today is an enormous milestone along that path.”
“We’re very happy to partner with AWS,” said Ed Baine, president of Dominion Energy Virginia, adding, the agreement in the form of an MOU is “a way to help mitigate risks for customers while still advancing the technology.”
SMRs can produce about 300 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 300,000 homes, compared to a traditional reactor that produces about 1,000 megawatts, or 1 gigawatt. In its latest long term planning update, Dominion expects to connect a total of 16 new data center campuses, totalling an energy need of about 1 gigawatt by the end of 2024, and those projections are expected to increase.
Amazon’s announcement comes after Dominion Energy unveiled over the summer a request for proposals to design and determine the feasibility of an SMR at the North Anna Power Station.
It’s too early to say if that RFP would culminate in the Amazon-funded SMR.
Federal, state and local officials were on hand for the Amazon announcement, including U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
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