Reusing decommissioned federal nuclear infrastructure is the strategy behind NextEra Energy and Brookfield's $100 billion data center plan for Paducah, Kentucky. The site already carries transmission capacity, water access and fiber connections left over from its uranium enrichment days, the companies said, infrastructure they said could speed a project sized at 1.8 gigawatts and targeted for completion by 2032.
A five-party consortium
The coalition behind the project includes Brookfield, NextEra Energy, Big Rivers Electric Power Corporation, Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative and Paducah Power System, the companies said. Brookfield would own and operate the completed 1.8 gigawatt campus. NextEra, described by the companies as the largest U.S. utility, would supply the generation and storage behind it.
Power split between gas and batteries
NextEra's share of the project breaks down as:
- 2 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power
- 2.6 gigawatts of battery storage capacity
One gigawatt can power about 750,000 homes. NextEra said it will add power generation resources in stages as the campus ramps up, so that the data center's growing power needs are met by new supply as it grows.
A former nuclear weapons site
The campus would sit on the Department of Energy's Paducah Site, built in the 1950s to produce enriched uranium, initially for nuclear weapons. The facility later produced enriched uranium for nuclear reactors before it closed in 2013. Because of that history, the companies said the site already has transmission capacity, water and fiber infrastructure that could speed development. The project is expected to be completed by 2032.
Tied to a rate pledge
NextEra said the project fulfills the Trump administration's "Ratepayer Protection Pledge." The company said the pledge seeks to ensure that companies building and using data centers pay above normal rates so that costs are not passed on to average households. The project is subject to negotiation and execution of definitive documentation.
Soaring U.S. electricity demand is driving investment in artificial intelligence data centers and other technologies that are straining an aging U.S. power grid.
We reported last month that DOE and NextEra plan $100 billion energy hub at Kentucky's Paducah site.
