TerraPower and Sabey Data Centers (SDC) have announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a strategic collaboration agreement to explore the deployment of advanced nuclear Natrium plants for powering data centers. This partnership marks a significant step towards integrating clean, innovative power within the rapidly growing data center industry.
The collaboration between TerraPower, a nuclear innovation company, and SDC, a leading data center developer, owner, and operator, aims to address the surging energy demands of data centers with reliable and adaptable solutions. The initiative comes at a crucial time, as the rise of artificial intelligence, and by extension, data centers, is projected to increase U.S. electricity demand by 323 terawatt hours by 2030. Nuclear energy is being explored across the industry to meet growing demands for power, with tech giants such as Google and Amazon pursuing major agreements in the nuclear sector in 2024.
At the heart of the partnership is TerraPower’s groundbreaking Natrium technology, which is the first advanced nuclear technology to be deployed in the U.S. The Natrium plant features a 345MW sodium-cooled fast reactor coupled with a patented molten salt-based energy storage system. This unique combination allows the system to boost its output to 500MW when needed, providing the flexibility and reliability crucial for data center operations. SDC and TerraPower’s collaboration is not limited to a single project, with the companies planning to explore leveraging the technology across SDC’s current and future data center operations. The agreement includes exploring new Natrium plants in both the Rocky Mountain region and Texas in order to support growing power needs for SDC’s data centers.
As one of the largest privately owned multi-tenant data center owners/developers/operators in the United States, SDC’s move towards nuclear energy could set off a ripple effect across the industry. The company has long been a pioneer in sustainability within the data center sector, prioritizing whole-building energy efficiency and aimed for carbon-free energy operations across its portfolio. This recent agreement is poised to set a new standard for powering data centers with clean, reliable energy.
