Google has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NextEra Energy to take nuclear power from the 615MW Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa.

The 25-year agreement will support restarting the plant, which has been shuttered since 2020.

The plant is the only nuclear energy project in Iowa and first entered service in February 1975. However, due to the 2020 Midwest derecho (straight-line windstorm), which damaged the facility’s cooling towers, repairs were deemed uneconomical, leading to its shutdown.

Reports surfaced late last year that NextEra was considering restarting the plant, following Microsoft's announcement that it would take 100 percent of a revived Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

The PPA is expected to provide the investment needed to restart the plant and cover the costs of producing the energy, which Google will use for its AI operations. According to the search engine giant, the plant is expected to start delivering power by 2029.

"Building on two decades of work in Iowa, including our recent $7 billion investment in the state this May, Google is proud to partner with NextEra Energy to reopen the Duane Arnold Energy Center – a project that will deliver nuclear energy and hundreds of new job opportunities in the Hawkeye State by the beginning of 2029," said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google.

In addition to the Google supply agreement, one of the plant's current minority owners, Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO), will purchase the remaining portion of the plant's output on the same terms as Google. As part of the deal, NextEra has agreed to acquire CIPCO and Corn Belt Power Cooperative's combined 30 percent interest in the plant, bringing its ownership stake to 100 percent.

The agreement is dependent on regulatory approvals to restart the plant. NextEra has already been granted permission to reconnect the plant to the grid in September 2025. FERC filings suggest it could be powered up in Q1 2028 at the earliest.

As well as the PPA, Google has also partnered with NextEra to explore developing new nuclear generation in the US market.

"Restarting Duane Arnold marks an important milestone for NextEra Energy," said John Ketchum, chairman and CEO of NextEra Energy. "Our partnership with Google not only brings nuclear energy back to Iowa – it also accelerates the development of next-generation nuclear technology.”

The deal is part of Google's broader investment in Iowa. In October, the company reported plans to develop up to six data centers near the Duane Arnold Energy Center. No timeline for the data center project has yet been shared, and discussions are still ongoing. Linn County is currently working on three ordinances related to the project: a data center ordinance, a nuclear power ordinance, and a gas power ordinance.

The proposal follows Google's June 2025 pledge to invest $7 billion to expand its data center footprint in Iowa.

Google is the latest hyperscaler to sign a long-term PPA to take power from a large-scale nuclear power plant, joining Amazon Web Services, Meta, and Microsoft.

Google has also signed several other deals across the nuclear sector. These include a 200MW PPA with Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a nuclear fusion firm, a 50MW PPA with small modular reactor firm Kairos Power, and a strategic agreement with Elementl Power to develop three nuclear energy projects in the US.