- Goal signs a 20 -year agreement to support the Illinois Nuclear Energy Center
- Clinton Clean Energy Center was ready to close in 2027
- The installation will provide 1,121 megawatts of “nuclear energy without emissions”
Meta has revealed an agreement to underpin a nuclear energy plant in the next 20 years in what it says is an attempt to boost the continuous demand for AI.
The Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois, owned by Constellation Energy, had to be a moth in 2027, but now it will remain open thanks to the support of Meta.
The 20 -year agreement will cause the installation to provide 1,121 megawatts of “nuclear energy without emissions”, with an additional incremental capacity of 30MW if necessary.
The agreement will mark only the second American site to organize a nuclear reactor completely built this century, after Plant Vogtle, built in 2023 near Waynesboro, Georgia.
“As we have embarked on understanding and helping to cultivate nuclear energy in the US, we have heard of the entire ecosystem that existing nuclear power plants will not be able to remain indefinitely without partners and investments that help to extend the existing operational licenses and increase the generation capacity,” target said in a statement.
“It is clear that there are many nuclear plants that serve the US. UU. That need long -term support to help our electrical networks to remain reliable as energy needs grow.”
“Maintaining an existing plant will have the same positive effect as adding new clean energy to the network and avoiding the interruption that has occurred when other nuclear units have retired prematurely.”
Built in 1987, Meta says that the support of the Clean Clinton Energy Center will also preserve more than 1,100 local jobs and contributes $ 13.5 million annually in tax revenues.
The plant had faced the closure of the time due to financial pressure, but Illinois approved its future Energy Jobs Law in 2016, which extended its operations through a zero emission credit program (ZEC). This should expire in 2027, but the goal support should now see that it works far beyond this.
“We are proud to associate with goal because they asked that important question, and even better, they discovered that supporting the relationships and expansion of existing plants is as shocking as finding new sources of energy,” said Joe DomÃnguez, president and CEO of Constellation.
“Sometimes, the most important part of our trip forward is to stop steps back.”
A March 2025 report commissioned by the firm and made by the Brattle Group said that closing the Clinton plant would have led to 34 million metric tons of additional carbon contamination for 20 years, the equivalent of 7.4 million additional cars with gasoline that comes to the road for a year, so it causes the Illinois GDP to fall in $ 765 million to the annual.
