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Fourteen of the world’s largest financial institutions will pledge increased support for nuclear power, according to a Financial Times report.
The move attempts to unlock financing for new nuclear projects.
Institutions including Bank of America, Barclays, PNP Paribas, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are expected to support the COP28 goal of tripling global nuclear power capacity by 2050. They will join White House climate policy adviser John Podesta at an event Monday in New York, according to the Financial Times report.
Driven by decarbonization goals and projected load growth from an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, support for nuclear power has especially increased the last couple of years. The specifics of Monday’s event weren’t public the morning of, but support from the world’s largest banks is significant due to the high cost of financing new nuclear projects.
Technology giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon are significantly driving electricity demand, primarily through extensive and rapidly expanding data center operations. In doing so, they’ve expressed interest in nuclear as a partner.
Last week Constellation Energy announced Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit 1 would reopen following a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed with Microsoft. Under the agreement, Microsoft would purchase energy from the plant as part of its goal to help match the power its data centers in PJM use with carbon-free energy.
Under the agreement, Microsoft will purchase energy from the re-opened plant as part of its goal to help match the power its data centers in PJM use with carbon-free energy.
