U.S. needs to build vast numbers of nuclear power plants to meet growing energy demand while meeting climate goals, CEO southern company said at an event on Thursday.
“This country is going to need more nuclear power plants in the future,” Chris Womack told the Reuters Global Energy Transition conference in New York.
“I think we have to have more than 10 gigawatts of nuclear power in the future,” Womack said. That’s the equivalent of about 10 new nuclear power plants, each with just one reactor: a typical reactor in the United States produces about 1 gigawatt of electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Department of Energy.
Southern Company is the world’s second-largest company by market capitalization Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU). It is also one of the largest electricity providers in the United States, serving millions of people in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
Last year, the Atlanta-based utility built the first U.S. nuclear power plant in more than three decades, and the second of two new reactors began commercial operations in April.
Womack said Southern is facing levels of power demand the utility has not faced since the advent of air conditioners and heat pumps in the 1970s and 1980s. After two decades of almost flat power growth, Southern Co. now expects demand to triple or quadruple, he said.
“A lot of it depends on how we think about artificial intelligence and all the big learning models and what data centers are going to consume,” Womack said. “You’re also seeing incredible population growth in the Southeast, and you’re Seeing the localization of all this manufacturing.”
Reactors and cooling towers at Unit 3 of Georgia Power’s Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant on January 20, 2023 in Waynesboro, Georgia.
John Bazemore | Associated Press
According to statistics, Atlanta is one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the United States. By 2023, its construction volume will surge by 211% to 732 megawatts. Real estate services company CBRE. Utility stocks are making a comeback in 2024 on the back of power trends, with Southern Co. up 11% year to date.
Womack said that 80% of the demand faced by Southern Company between now and the end of the century will be provided by renewable energy, but natural gas and nuclear energy will also play a key role in providing reliable power.
“Nuclear power has to be an important part of that mix, that decarbonization focus, to make sure we have the power and energy our economy needs,” Womack said.
Nuclear power has the advantage of providing reliable power without emitting any carbon emissions, while renewable energy will require cheaper, longer-lasting batteries before it can power facilities such as data centers around the clock on a commercial scale.
But building new nuclear power plants is expensive and the review and construction process is time-consuming. Southern Co. is building a new nuclear reactor at its Vogtle, Ga., plant about seven years behind schedule and costing more than $30 billion, at least twice as much as originally forecast, according to the company. Energy Information Administration.
Not everyone in the power industry is convinced that nuclear power is the way forward. AES Corporation. Chief Executive Andres Gluski said earlier this month that he believed the “excitement” about nuclear power was “a bit overblown.” AES is a major power supplier to technology companies building data centers.
Glusky told CNBC that there is a limited amount of nuclear energy available, and commercial power providers can only re-contract it to locations such as data centers. “The question is, what will the price of new nuclear power be in the future,” he said.
Womack said the government must set the right incentives and ensure there are ways to mitigate cost overruns in building new nuclear power plants. The CEO said it is developing Small modular nuclear reactor Also key. These smaller plants, still under development, are theoretically easier to site and less capital intensive than traditional nuclear power plants.
GE Villenova CEO Scott Strazik told CNBC on Thursday that small modular nuclear reactors will become an important part of the energy mix. The company will commission a small modular reactor in Ontario, Canada, in 2029.
“Small modular reactors are going to be a bigger part of the equation,” Straczyk told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “There’s no doubt that they will be. “
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