NextEra, Brookfield to Build $100 Billion Kentucky Data Campus – Stefan Buchholz DOT com

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. 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. 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.

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