Maryland’s largest energy source is about to get more powerful. That’s due, in part, to money from Amazon, the country’s biggest data center operator.
The Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant’s two reactors in Calvert County have formed a chunk of the state’s energy generation since construction in the mid-1970s. But amid the boom of artificial intelligence, they will undergo their most substantial upgrades in their half-century existence, allowing them to pump out about 10% more energy.
Investments to the nuclear plants, which are notoriously expensive, will cost about $3 billion. Neither company shared financials of the deal, but said that it was made possible by a long-term purchase agreement. Amazon will buy energy from across the Baltimore-based Constellation’s fleet for 20 years.
The agreement comes two months after Amazon scrapped plans to build a data center at the Calvert Cliffs plant following intense blowback from residents, who ousted three county commissioners over their support for data center development in the area.
Within four to six years, Calvert Cliffs will be “uprated,” meaning its reactors will be able to pour more power into the regional energy grid. Through various changes, such as refining equipment, the reactors can be made more efficient.
Constellation said in a news release that the deal will provide the company the “revenue certainty” to seek relicensing for the plants and add new clean energy power plants at the site. The company has previously floated the possibility of constructing new reactors there and expects to explore the possibility of smaller, advanced reactors under the Amazon agreement.
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“Amazon’s commitment supports the long-term operation of Calvert Cliffs for generations to come and creates a strong foundation for future investment in both the facility and in advanced nuclear technologies,” said Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s chairman, president and CEO.
Nuclear plants provide large-scale, around-the-clock and emissions-free energy, and the fuel source has seen renewed interest from industry and policymakers as energy demands from AI have grown. That’s been a boon for Constellation, which owns the country’s largest fleet of nuclear reactors and is the biggest publicly traded company in the Baltimore area.
Constellation plans to reopen its Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania next year, part of a 20-year deal to power Microsoft data centers, and the energy company entered a similar arrangement with Meta last year for power at an Illinois nuclear plant.
Dominguez, who took home $17.1 million last year, appeared on the cover of “Barron’s” magazine last year with the words “The Power Broker.” The company made about $6 billion in net income over the last two years.
Amazon has pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its global business by 2040, and its commitment to Calvert Cliffs is part of its investments in carbon-free energy sources around the world, according to the company’s website.
The tech giant has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years into nuclear plants and technology and has an agreement to purchase power from a Pennsylvania nuclear plant for a data center next-door.
Decades ago, nuclear energy suffered a reputational black eye from disasters, but bipartisan support recently thrust it back into the limelight. As Constellation considered whether to expand its fleet, it first sought to extend the federal licenses of existing plants (the Calvert Cliff licenses expire in 2034 and 2036) and then uprate existing facilities.
Kathleen Barrón, the company’s then-chief strategy and growth officer, told The Banner last year that any conversation on uprates would hinge on identifying a “customer base for that output that is going to cover the cost of that investment.”
In this case, Constellation found that customer in Amazon.
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