High energy needs are now forcing Amazon to use nuclear power plants to generate electricity for their data centers. Amazon signed agreements with several companies to not only use nuclear energy sources but also develop new reactor technology in the near future.
First of all Amazon signed an agreement with Energy Northewest to develop four Small Modular Reactors (SMR) which will generate 320 MW of energy in the first phase and then increase to 960 MW after full completion. Unlike conventional nuclear reactors, SMRs can be built faster allowing Amazon to use sustainable energy faster to meet its overall goal of zero-carbon operations by 2040.
Amazon is also investing in X-energy which is developing the next generation SMR that can generate up to 5 GW of sustainable energy. A similar investment was also made into Dominion Energy which also has its own SMR technology. Finally, Amazon will open a new data center next to a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
The opening of new data centers by global technology companies received criticism last year for their high energy and water consumption. High energy consumption causes almost all companies to fail to meet their carbon footprint reduction targets due to the use of fossil fuel power plants. A few days ago Google also announced the use of SMR nuclear energy for data centers after Microsoft started the first steps in mid-September.
This will also be a big issue in Malaysia which will be the main data center of the Southeast Asian region. The majority of Malaysian power plants use fossil fuels. this may be one of the main reasons why Malaysia does not reject the use of nuclear energy in the near future.