Once again, private enterprise is showing up the essential uselessness of government enterprises. Elon Musk is revolutionising space exploration, while NASA struggles to replicate its feats of a half century ago.
And, while the Australian government sets our energy infrastructure up for decades of failure, with its Luddite refusal to consider next-generation nuclear technology, Meta is canvassing building multiple reactors to power its AI servers. Making even further mock of the Australian government’s ‘renewables’ obsession, Meta is tacitly stating that wind and solar are simply not up to the task of supplying reliable energy.
“Advancing the technologies that will build the future of human connection – including the next wave of AI innovation – requires electric grids to expand and embrace new sources of reliable, clean and renewable energy,” the Facebook parent company wrote in a blog post announcing the RFP on Tuesday.
While the announcement is clearly spun to appease the Climate Cult, “reliable, clean and renewable” means only one thing in reality: nuclear.
While Meta plans to continue investing in solar and wind, hyperscalers seem convinced that harnessing the atom is the only practical means of meeting AI’s thirst for power while making good on its sustainability commitments.
This wouldn’t be the first time Meta has pursued nuclear fission power. As we previously reported, Meta had planned to build an atomic datacenter complex, but was foiled after a rare species of bees were discovered on a prospective site, resulting in its cancellation.
When Boofhead Bowen, Australia’s poor excuse for an energy minister, babbles about nuclear ‘taking too long’”, this is why. It’s not the technology, but the endless spiral of green tape holding up development.
Meta is looking for someone to deploy between one and four gigawatts of nuclear power, suggesting they're still a little uncertain as to the extent of power that’ll be required to achieve their goals and that these plans are destined for the US.
The blog post also mentions the prospect of deploying multiple units to cut costs. Given the timeline, this suggests that Meta is very likely looking at small modular reactors (SMRs).
Luddites like Bowen sneer that SMRs are pie-in-the-sky stuff, but the reality is that they’re here, now, and infinitely cheaper and easier to site than solar and wind boondoggles.
As their name suggests, SMRs are really just miniaturized reactors not unlike those found in nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, which can be manufactured and co-located alongside datacenters and other industrial buildings.
Many hyperscalers and cloud providers faced with AI’s energy demands have turned to SMRs for salvation, and there’s certainly no shortage of options to choose from. Oklo, X-energy, Terapower, Kairos Power, and NuScale Power are just a handful of the companies actively developing reactor designs.
As always, don’t rely on dinosaur governments: follow the smart money in private investment.
Most recently, Sam Altman-backed startup Oklo revealed it had obtained letters of intent from two major datacenter providers to deliver 750 megawatts of power.
Amazon has also committed to investing in nuclear power. Back in October, the e-commerce and cloud giant announced it was working with X-energy to construct several SMRs. Google, meanwhile, has teamed up with Kairos on a similar plan, and Oracle says it’s obtained building permits for a trio of SMRs to power a one gigawatt datacenter campus.
Even old-school reactors are looking a better bet than solar and wind.
Microsoft is working with Constellation Energy to bring the decommissioned Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island back online. Meanwhile, Amazon earlier this year purchased Talen Energy’s Cumulus atomic datacenter co-located alongside the 2.5 gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania for $650 million.
But, as always, government is getting in the way.
However, even existing nuclear infrastructure isn’t a sure bet. This November, Amazon hit a roadblock after federal regulators rejected a deal that would have let it increase its power draw at the site from 300 to 480 megawatts.
Ronald Reagan was right.
