Google's 25-Year Iowa Deal and 22-Year Fortum Contract Put Power Terms First

Google's long-term power agreements now support two named nuclear projects with different delivery schedules. The U.S. Department of Energy closed a loan of up to $1.9B to NextEra Energy on September 8 to restart Iowa's 615 MW Duane Arnold Energy Center, a project supported by Google's 25-year power purchase agreement. In Finland, Google signed a separate 22-year power purchase agreement with Fortum for half the output of the Loviisa nuclear plant. These contracts tie prospective demand to specific generation assets and delivery periods. A signed agreement gives a financing team terms it can assess; the plant's return to service still depends on the work and approvals needed to deliver that power.

That sequencing lands in Texas against an active audit. Governor Greg Abbott on August 3 directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit data centers advancing through ERCOT interconnection, covering public financial assistance, power and onsite generation, water and cooling, community impacts, and ownership. Projects must clear the review before advancing, and noncompliance denies grid connection. That review belongs in the site's interconnection schedule alongside the separate local permitting process. A developer assessing a Texas site can assemble the requested ownership, generation, and water records while checking the local approval timetable. Delays in either process can extend the period between acquiring land and serving customers.

Southern Nevada's local decisions show why site selection depends on the rules of the individual jurisdiction. Nye County commissioners enacted a temporary moratorium earlier this year, then in August adopted the state's most restrictive policy so far: a ban on data centers in Nevada Hydrographic Basin 162, which covers much of southern Nye County including Pahrump, per KTNV. KTNV reports that the ban leaves the planned location of Gigawatt Development's proposed $18.4B Manse Technology Campus, formerly Project Blackjack, in doubt. Elsewhere in Southern Nevada, Henderson's city council declined a proposed pause of up to 180 days and instead now requires developers to negotiate a development agreement with the city before building. Boulder City voters decide this November whether data centers qualify as an allowed land use in the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area.

The decisions range from an outright geographic restriction to a negotiated development agreement. CNBC reports NBC News polling at 69% local opposition, and real estate analysts quoted there note that tighter permitting tends to raise the value of already-permitted, powered sites held by operators like Equinix and Digital Realty Trust. For a Texas site comparison, the useful distinction is the current rule and its stage: an enacted prohibition, a proposed ordinance, and a required development agreement produce different schedules. Review those records before assuming that every announced pause has the same legal effect.

The Real Deal's September 8 roundup lists several distinct forms of local action. San Marcos prohibited data centers within its zoning districts; Athens voted 3-2 in August for an outright ban; Forney began prohibition procedures in early September, per The Real Deal. In mid-August, Fort Worth's City Council voted to initiate a proposed 90-day moratorium; the same roundup reports approval of Black Mountain Power's $10B facility in late August. The initial moratorium vote began a process, so it should not be counted as an enacted construction ban.

Mesquite's requirements include technical and noise studies, a water impact plan, and utility demand analysis. Lewisville requires special-use permits and two public hearings for applications, while North Richland Hills added special-use permits and public hearings in July. The same roundup describes a reversal in Hill County: Hill County passed a one-year construction ban in May, drew a $100M lawsuit from RCM Hill LLC over its stalled Project Aquila, and rescinded the ban after 43 days in favor of a disclosures checklist. For developers comparing these locations, identify the required studies and hearing dates before pricing the approval period into a land contract. A proposal moving through hearings can change the assumptions used when the site was first screened.

The two nuclear deals this week share a structure worth studying. A long contract from a buyer with years of AI demand ahead of it turns a hard restart, with its regulatory risk and repair work, into a financeable asset. The Department of Energy's Office of Energy Dominance Financing closed up to $1.9B to NextEra for Duane Arnold, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission records as permanently ceasing operations on August 10, 2020, after storm damage. NextEra targets full operation by 2029, pending regulatory approval, and estimates roughly 1,500 construction jobs and about 400 permanent positions once running.

Google's 22-year Fortum power purchase agreement covers 50 percent of the Loviisa plant's capacity from 2030 to 2049. Fortum says that revenue certainty supports a roughly €1 billion ($1.16B) lifetime extension program and a 10 MW capacity increase on top of a planned 38 MW uprate. That deal sits inside Google's broader €13 billion ($15.1B) two-year Finland investment. The pattern for Texas operators is direct: sequence generation procurement alongside site selection rather than after it. A site without a firm power path can wait quarters at interconnection while carrying cost accrues.

U.S. data centers consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons directly through cooling in 2023, plus another 211 billion gallons indirectly through the electricity that powered them, per a 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report, with direct use projected to double or quadruple by 2028. The reporting is uneven: of six major operators studied by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers, Google published per-facility figures while Amazon disclosed no water use at all. Cooling technology drives wide variation. Google's air-cooled Pflugerville, Texas center used about 10,000 gallons in 2024, while its Council Bluffs, Iowa site used roughly 1 billion gallons.

Texas local governments are taking several approaches to water disclosure. The Real Deal reports that Missouri City requires projected energy and water usage with public hearings, while Milam County has asked state officials for transparent resource-use reporting. Mark Cuban, in posts on X this week, urged towns to set explicit water caps before equipment is ordered and to negotiate noise limits. A useful local presentation separates on-site cooling water from the water associated with purchased electricity and explains the proposed system's summer operation. Without those distinctions, a comparison with a distant facility can give neighbors the wrong picture of local demand.

U.S. data center electricity use reached an estimated 312.6 TWh in 2025, up 25.5% year over year, nearly eight times the growth rate of overall U.S. generation, per the Energy Institute's 2026 Statistical Review. Data Center Knowledge reports that power availability is a leading site-selection constraint in hubs including Dallas, Phoenix, and Northern Virginia. DC Byte's Siddharth Muzumdar points to the ability to secure and deliver power as the initial screening question.

A 100 MW first phase can grow into several hundred megawatts, so a site assessment should distinguish committed capacity from supply that depends on additional upgrades. JLL's Sean Farney frames the pressure as time-to-revenue over nominal price, which is far harder to fix once a schedule slips. The article also describes growing interest in behind-the-meter generation. Separately, Mindstream Energy announced a proposed 245-acre Al-Risha campus in Jordan, designed to scale to 400 MW on contracted onsite gas with Phase 1 of 70 MW targeted for March 2027. The Jordan announcement is a proposed supply arrangement, with construction and operating targets still ahead. For a Texas project, compare on-site generation and grid supply against the actual permits, fuel arrangements, delivery dates, and capital each would require. Testing 12-, 24-, and 36-month delays can expose a site whose carrying costs overwhelm the initial price advantage.