Nuclear

Pennsylvania nuclear plant to power new data center

Standard Power plans to build a large data center adjacent to Energy Harbor’s Beaver Valley nuclear facility in Shippingport, Pennsylvania.

Standard Power plans to build a large data center adjacent to Energy Harbor’s Beaver Valley nuclear facility in Shippingport, Pennsylvania.

Under a 10-year agreement, Standard Power would purchase between 200 and 300 MW of electricity and be directly connected to the Beaver Valley plant.

Phase 1 of development is expected to come online in 2023 and 2024. Development could scale up to 900 MW in subsequent phases.

“This effort is an important step in the transformation of the regions around our nuclear plants into clean energy centers (CECs) that will be the necessary 24/7 carbon free, infrastructure backbone of the U.S. economy,” said David Hamilton, Energy Harbor’s Chief Nuclear Officer, David Hamilton.

This isn’t the first agreement between the partners. In July 2021, Energy Harbor agreed to a five-year deal to power Standard Power’s Bitcoin blockchain mining center in Coshocton, Ohio using its nuclear fleet.

Beaver Valley’s two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors have a total capacity of 1,872 MW. Unit 1 came online in 1976 and Unit 2 came online in 1987. The plant was expected to be closed in 2021 but Energy Harbor rescinded the deactivation notice in 2020.

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