Google, Kairos Power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are to collaborate on power supply and advanced nuclear energy. Through a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed between Kairos Power and TVA, Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 plant in at the Heritage Centre in Oak Ridge, will deliver up to 50 MWe to the TVA grid that powers Google data centres in Tennessee and Alabama.
TVA is the first US utility to sign a PPA to buy electricity from a Gen IV reactor. This is also the first deployment under Kairos Power’s 2024 deal with Google to enable 500 MWe of nuclear capacity to come online by 2035 to support Google’s growing data centre power demand. To accelerate the delivery of energy to Google, Kairos Power will increase the output from Hermes 2 from the planned 28 MWe to 50 MWe.
In 2023, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a construction permit for Kairos Power’s Hermes demonstration reactor – the first non-water-cooled reactor to be approved for construction in the US in more than 50 years.
The Hermes design is for a 35 MWt non-power version of the company’s fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor design, the KP-HFR. Kairos has also submitted a construction permit application for Hermes 2, a proposed two-unit demonstration plant that would build on the experience of Hermes and would produce electricity and demonstrate the complete architecture of future commercial plants. Hermes will use a TRISO pebble bed fuel design.
Kairos believes the Hermes demonstration reactors will help to mitigate technology, licensing, supply chain, and construction risk to achieve cost certainty for KP-HFR technology. Kairos is targeting commercial deployments in the early 2030s. Hermes is to be built at Oak Ridge. The project is being supported through the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).
In July, Kairos Power installed the reactor vessel for its third Engineering Test Unit (ETU 3.0), which is under construction at the Oak Ridge campus. ETU 3.0 will be used to inform the design of the Hermes low-power reactor.
Through the new agreement, Google will receive energy from the Hermes 2 plant through the TVA system to further decarbonise its data centre operations in Montgomery County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama. “To power the future, we need to grow the availability of smart, firm energy sources,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s Global Head of Data Cenre Energy.
She added: “This collaboration with TVA, Kairos Power, and the Oak Ridge community will accelerate the deployment of innovative nuclear technologies and help support the needs of our growing digital economy while also bringing firm carbon-free energy to the electricity system. Lessons from the development and operation of the Hermes 2 plant will help drive down the cost of future reactors, improving the economics of clean firm power generation in the TVA region and beyond.”
Mike Laufer, Kairos Power CEO and co-founder said the collaboration is an important enabler to making advanced nuclear energy commercially competitive. “The re-envisioned Hermes 2 gets us closer to the commercial fleet sooner and could only be made possible by close collaboration with TVA and Google, and a supportive local community. We are excited to grow Kairos Power’s operations in Oak Ridge while writing a new chapter in the region’s distinguished nuclear history.”
TVA said the collaboration demonstrates its commitment to integrating innovative, firm energy sources such as Kairos Power’s advanced nuclear technology to proactively support the development of new generation within its service territory.
“Energy security is national security, and electricity is the strategic commodity that is the building block for AI and our nation’s economic prosperity,” said Don Moul, TVA President & CEO. “The world is looking for American leadership, and this first-of-a-kind agreement is the start of an innovative way of doing business. By developing a technology, a supply chain, and a delivery model that can build an industry to unleash American energy, we can attract and support companies like Google and help America win the AI race.”
Google, Kairos Power, and TVA aim to deliver an innovative solution for industrial energy users to meet their growing business needs while driving local economic growth and opportunity. This limits development costs to first movers while helping to bring costs down for customers as additional units are delivered.
“The deployment of advanced nuclear reactors is essential to US AI dominance and energy leadership,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “The Department of Energy has assisted Kairos Power with overcoming technical, operational, and regulatory challenges as a participant in the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, and DOE will continue to help accelerate the next American nuclear renaissance.”
TVA’s cooperation with private nuclear firms is not limited to Kairos. Earlier this year TVA also agreed to offer Type One Energy access to its Muscle Shoals power services shops under a cooperative deal to help develop a nuclear fusion pilot plant on the former Bull Run plant site.
