Microsoft has signed an agreement to reopen the closed Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. If approved by regulators, the software maker will have exclusive rights to 100% of the electricity generated for the needs of its artificial intelligence data centers. This was reported by The Verge.
Constellation, the owner of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, has announced a power purchase agreement with Microsoft. The plant will reopen in 2028, subject to regulatory approval.
The reactor from which Microsoft plans to receive energy was decommissioned in 2019 for economic reasons and is located next to the unit that was shut down in 1979 after the largest nuclear accident in US history. The plant can generate 837 megawatts of energy, enough to power more than 800,000 homes.
Microsoft has agreed to buy electricity from the plant, which will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center in honor of the late Chris Crane, former CEO of Exelon, for 20 years, a first-of-its-kind deal for the software giant.
“This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative,” said Bobby Hollis, Vice President of Energy at Microsoft. “Microsoft continues to collaborate with energy providers to develop carbon-free energy sources to help meet the grids’ capacity and reliability needs.”