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NextEra, Brookfield to Build $100 Billion Kentucky Data Campus

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Why This Matters

This $100 billion investment in Kentucky's data center campus signifies a major push towards large-scale data infrastructure, integrating renewable energy and battery storage to support the growing demand for AI and cloud computing. It highlights the industry's move towards sustainable, high-capacity data solutions that can power millions of homes and facilitate technological advancements. The project also demonstrates how government assets and private investments are collaborating to boost economic growth and technological competitiveness in the U.S.

Key Takeaways

NextEra and Brookfield plan to invest more than $100 billion to transform a former uranium-enrichment site in Kentucky into a data center campus with a generating plant. "The privately funded effort will include construction of 2 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power at or near the site in Paducah in western Kentucky, and as much as 2.6 gigawatts of battery storage capacity," reports Bloomberg. " For context, a single gigawatt of capacity is roughly the output of a traditional nuclear power plant and can power about 750,000 homes at any given moment." From the report: Brookfield will develop and operate the 1.8 GW data center campus, which will occupy portions of the sprawling 3,556-acre Energy Department site once used to produce weapons-grade uranium and fuel for nuclear reactors. Operations using the now obsolete enrichment technology known as gaseous diffusion stopped in 2013 and the site is now subject to cleanup efforts. Construction is expected to be completed in 2031, the Energy Department said. "The U.S. government is leveraging its assets -- like our federal lands -- to add power generation, create jobs, and ensure the United States wins the AI race," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. The project is expected to create 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent positions, the department said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.