Data centers

A nuclear power plant produces about 1000 megawatts (MG) and some plants a bit lower. A 1000 MW plant is equal to one gigawatt (GW). The US is currently operating about 5,000 data centers using about 5 GW’s of new power and the demand is for 50 GW’s. There are 10,000 more data centers on the drawing boards and they would like to plug into the local power plants to avoid depending on the grid and to avoid long transmission lines. They will compete with local public and be willing to pay a higher rate. This will cause great consternation among the public users and will put pressure on data companies to build their own power plants. While these data centers will use less than ten percent of US power, the grid cannot handle the increase. A government watch dog agency says that data centers must bring their own power supply. The 50 GWs of additional power needed by 2030 will require $500 billion in new investments. The need for more power is immediate so the best short-term solution is to build natural gas plants but the longer term looks to nuclear. Nuclear provides a small land foot print, no pressure on the grid, no transmission lines, 24/7 power and no carbon emissions.