French Datacenter Biz Signs 12-year Nuclear Pact With EDF

The datacenter industry's unquenchable thirst for nuclear energy has seen French bit barn operator Data4 sign a 12 year supply deal with EDF.

The arrangement will see Data4's network of server farms across France tap into a 40MW slice of EDF's atomic-powered grid from next year, making it the first datacenter operator in the country to sign a Nuclear Production Allocation Contract (CAPN).

Data4n operates facilities across a number of campuses in France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Germany, and Greece, and is understood to have at least 1.5 GW of infrastructure in play.

Those in France at least will now be partly powered via a CAPN, in addition to long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) Data4 already has in place for solar and wind energy.

The contract involves a "cost and risk-sharing mechanism" based on the actual volumes of energy produced - a so-called behind-the-meter arrangement where it can secure energy at a reduced cost over the long term.

The move is part of a broader strategy by Data4 to integrate low-carbon and renewable energy across all operations, and thereby operate its datacenters more sustainably.

Such efforts are not altruistic. Many companies in Europe and elsewhere are starting to demand environmental sustainability data from their suppliers amid efforts to comply with regulations such as the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

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"Combined with renewable energy purchase agreements, [this contract] guarantees reliable, resilient, and continuous access to low-carbon energy at a controlled long-term cost - a considerable advantage for our clients and the development of our infrastructure," said François Stérin, Data4's chief operating officer.

France is perhaps the ideal country for such an agreement, as about 70 percent of its electricity is produced by nuclear power.

"This initiative is fully aligned with EDF's commitment to supporting the development of datacenters in France and contributing to the country's energy and industrial sovereignty," said EDF Group executive director Marc Benayoun.

Earlier this year, EDF offered bit barn operators access to suitable sites on its own land for developing new campuses, with "a favorable situation" for connection to the electrical grid, reducing the time required to complete projects by several years.

EDF was also among the partners for a giant AI datacenter campus to be built near Paris, announced earlier this year. The 1.4 GW site is the result of a joint venture formed by Nvidia, Mistral AI, the French national investment bank, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) investment fund MGX, and is slated to be online by 2028.

Atomic power has been held up as a solution to the rising energy requirements of the datacenter industry, driven by an insatiable demand for more infrastructure to feed the current AI craze.

Building new nuclear generating capacity in other regions will take years and so is not suitable to solve the pressing needs of the IT industry in the short-term.

"Undoubtedly, nuclear energy will serve as part of the world's energy mix for years to come," former Canalys principal ESG analyst Elsa Nightingale told The Register in May. "However, investing heavily in nuclear energy doesn't address the core issue. For one, nuclear projects have long lead times while AI's energy demands are coming now." ®