NextEra and Google Team Up to Restart Iowa Nuclear Plant, Power the AI Era
October 28, 2025
NextEra Energy has announced a major collaboration with Google to bring the long-dormant Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa back online. Once shuttered in 2020, the 615-megawatt facility is slated to resume operations by early 2029 and will supply electricity under a 25-year agreement to Google for its expanding cloud and AI infrastructure.
As part of the deal, NextEra will acquire full ownership of the plant by purchasing minority stakes held by local cooperatives, streamlining control and enabling the restart. The project is expected to bring thousands of jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic impact in Iowa. Google’s role not only secures long-term, clean power but also strengthens the region’s grid resilience and supports national ambitions for reliable, carbon-free energy.
This partnership reflects a broader trend in which large tech companies are turning to baseload nuclear power as they scale up data-center operations and AI workloads. For NextEra, it ushers in a new chapter in the U.S. nuclear industry, revitalizing infrastructure rather than building from scratch—a potentially faster and more cost-effective route to large-scale clean power.
