The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) said the agency has closed a loan of as much as $1.9 billion to NextEra Energy to support the restart of the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa. The station is one of three U.S. nuclear power plants where work is being supported by the Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF), long known as the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, to bring the power plants back online.
Duane Arnold closed in August 2020 after running for 45 years. The 615-MW facility in Palo, in Linn County, was shut down after sustaining damage from a derecho wind event, with officials in part determining it did not make economic sense to repair the power plant. Duane Arnold was Iowa’s only nuclear power station.
The restart is partly tied to the need for energy to supply growing demand from data centers. NextEra has a 25-year power purchase agreement with Alphabet’s Google to supply electricity for the technology company. The facility is targeted to resume commercial operation in the first quarter of 2029, pending approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The DOE on September 9 said the restart project will create about 1,500 jobs during construction and support more than 450 jobs during operations.
Baseload Generation
“Restarting Duane Arnold is about delivering new power to meet new demand while generating billions of dollars in economic value for Iowans,” said John Ketchum, chairman, president and CEO of Florida-headquartered NextEra Energy. “Just as importantly, it shows how America can support rapid economic growth and rising electricity demand while helping keep power affordable for existing customers. By bringing new generation online to serve new demand, we can strengthen the grid, create hundreds of good-paying jobs and help ensure Iowa families and businesses are not asked to bear the costs of growth.”
James P. Daily, deputy secretary of Energy, in a statement Tuesday said, “Returning 615 megawatts of reliable baseload generation will drive down electricity costs, while supporting thousands of American jobs. This administration is pursuing a comprehensive nuclear strategy, restarting existing reactors, increasing the output of our nuclear fleet, and accelerating new construction, to build the abundant, affordable, and reliable power system required for American prosperity and reindustrialization.”
Gregory A. Beard, head of the EDF, said, “Duane Arnold is exactly the kind of investment that will help restore American nuclear leadership, strengthen our energy security, and deliver the affordable, reliable power Americans need to fuel our nation’s future.”
The Iowa facility would join other closed U.S. nuclear power facilities, such as the Palisades station in Michigan and Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, that could be restarted after being set for decommissioning. A $1-billion conditional loan commitment for Three Mile Island, which has been renamed as the Crane Clean Energy Center, was finalized in November of last year. Constellation Energy and Microsoft have said they could bring the plant back online as early as next year.
Financing to restart the Palisades station was finalized during the Biden administration.
NextEra Agreements
NextEra in announcing the PPA with Google last year also said the company has signed definitive agreements to acquire Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) and Corn Belt Power Cooperative’s combined 30% interest in the Duane Arnold plant. That transaction will leave NextEra as the power station’s sole owner. NextEra said CIPCO would buy output from Duane Arnold under the same contract terms as Google.
The DOE in June of this year said it would commit as much as $17.5 billion to help finance five projects sponsored by utilities and energy companies in order to accelerate the deployment of 10 large-scale commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S. The agency in that announcement said Westinghouse will partner with up to five eligible utilities and energy companies to procure long-lead items necessary for the projects at a fixed price. Each project will be jointly owned by Westinghouse and a utility or energy company partner.
The DOE said that both Westinghouse and the partner are required to fully commit their project equity, $500 million each ($1 billion total per project), upfront prior to accessing DOE loan funds. The projects would feature Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, each capable of producing 1.1 GW of electricity. The DOE said the goal is to have the reactors under construction by 2030.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
