NextEra Energy and Google announced a partnership to restart Iowa’s only Nuclear power facility, which was decommissioned in 2020. Duane Arnold Energy Center represents a significant transaction that underscores the intense energy demands generated by the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers. This agreement is a strategic move for Google, securing a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the output of the 615-megawatt nuclear facility, which is slated to be operational by early 2029 pending regulatory approval. The Central Iowa Power Collective has also agreed to purchase the surplus electricity leftover.
This long-duration, high-volume commitment demonstrates the need for high levels of power to meet the critical uptime and massive capacity requirements of their AI infrastructure, confirming nuclear energy’s unique value in the current generation mix. The deal functions as a corporate financing mechanism for energy infrastructure, with the long-term PPA de-risking the capital investment required to resurrect the now decommissioned plant.
This model signals a new trend in corporate energy procurement, where major tech companies are moving beyond simple purchasing to directly fund and accelerate the deployment of high-capacity energy assets, strengthening both their own digital supply chains and the reliability of the regional grid in Iowa.
The transaction has profound implications for industrial resource planning and asset valuation. The decision to invest in restarting a decommissioned nuclear plant, rather than building new capacity from scratch, reflects the urgent need for large-scale, reliable power to support unprecedented AI load growth. This re-valuation of existing high-capacity, zero-carbon infrastructure establishes a precedent for other legacy energy assets, potentially shifting market interest toward accelerated restarts of nuclear facilities across the U.S. Furthermore, by committing to a 25-year contract, Google effectively converts its power supply into a strategic supply asset, gaining cost stability and certainty over its carbon emissions profile for decades.
The collaboration also includes a joint effort to explore new nuclear generation technologies nationwide, reinforcing the view that the technology sector will be a primary driver and financier of the next era of nuclear energy development. Ultimately, the Duane Arnold restart is not merely a regional development; it is a clear indicator that the economics of AI have fundamentally altered the industrial energy landscape, necessitating the revival of high-capacity baseload generation.
This announcement comes a year after Constellation Energy announced that it had inked a 20-year deal with Microsoft to supply power to an AI data center from the previously decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. The re-commisioning of this project is still up for review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but Constellation Energy hopes to begin construction in early 2027.
