NUCLEAR MARKETS | DATA CENTRES SMRs: Dream ticket? Data centres and
There’s no doubt that data centres represent a source of surging energy demand. A new report argues that matching them with SMRs offers significant advantages to both sectors that could usher in a new industrial age
GROWTH IN DATA CENTRES REPRESENTS a huge opportunity for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), offering a transformative new approach that would plan data centre construction and growth together with this emergent nuclear technology. This is the conclusion of a new report from RED
Engineering Design, a subsidiary of Tractebel. Their analysis, ‘Powering data centres with advanced nuclear technologies’ notes that data usage and processing are poised to undergo a radical expansion associated with the growing need for digital connectivity and emerging functions such as Artificial Intelligence. As a result, the report says, the combined electricity consumption of Big Tech firms is projected to exceed that of some developed countries largely because of the hyper-exponential data centre growth, the prime machinery of the digital age. RED considers that the scale of energy demand for
data centres is such that it represents a potential to catalyse a new generation of energy systems and industrial clusters that can be formed around data centres. With complementary applications exploiting the synergy between power, heat and water intensive industries creating a highly integrated energy system.
However, the authors argue to achieve this change needs
a paradigm shift in the way energy systems are planned and to embrace integrated master-planning of new industrial clusters to put them on a sustainable growth footing. Putting SMRs and advanced nuclear at the heart of these data centre-led industrial clusters could address the energy quadrilemma by delivering affordable, sustainable, secure energy while maximising the positive social impact. The authors note that SMRs are designed to last over four decades, require long-term highly skilled local employment and offer a perfect platform for green growth. However, they also point out that SMRs have thus far been overlooked. If their mass production is to succeed in offering economies of scale, both a secure supply chain and end-user agreements by energy intensive users are needed. Data centres and SMRs thus present a unique partnership opportunity.
SMR benefits in the data centre role Using nuclear as an option to decarbonise a data centre makes sense beyond the SMRs under consideration. In January 2023 a 48 MW Data Centre began operating as a unit directly connected to the 2,475 MW Susquehanna
Above: Growth in data centres represents a huge opportunity for Small Modular Reactors 30 | April 2024 |
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