Meta is looking to build on its renewable energy plans with the introduction of nuclear power in an effort to bolster the company’s future energy needs.

The company said it is actively seeking partners to help in the development of nuclear energy technology, releasing a request for proposals with the aim of hitting 1-4 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity.

According to Meta, advancing these technologies will require electric grids to expand, embracing new sources of clean, and renewable energy. The firm believes that harnessing nuclear energy could provide the base needed to support that growth and power its data centres.

The company said that it is aiming to have the additional nuclear capacity online and being delivered in the early 2030s, with developers being sought to accelerate and scale up the availability of new generators in the hope of lowering the ongoing costs by deploying multiple units, both to provide for Meta’s future energy needs and to advance broader industry decarbonisation.

To that end, the company said it is looking for partners who can permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these new power plants.

Compared to other renewable energy projects Meta is involved in, the company said it expects these nuclear projects to take longer to provide a return on investment, due to requiring extensively more capital, being subject to more regulatory requirements, and being more difficult to develop.

However, the firm also expects that such nuclear power projects will have a longer operational life than other sources of clean power, providing much needed energy security in the face of increasing concerns around the availability and reliability of power supplies.  

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Meta stated that it is expanding its commitment to clean energy by building on its progress in powering global operations with 100% renewable energy since 2020. The company also highlighted its focus on developing new energy resources through innovative partnerships, which it claims has resulted in over 12,000 MW of renewable energy contracts worldwide to date.

This year has already seen other big tech firms, such as Amazon and Google, signing their own agreements to develop new nuclear solutions based on small modular reactor technology, while Microsoft signed a twenty-year deal in September to purchase power from the Three Mile Island energy plant in the US.