For most of the past decade, the Clinton Clean Energy Center in central Illinois survived on state support. On June 3, 2025, Constellation Energy announced that a technology company would take over that role. Meta signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for the plant's output, beginning in June 2027, when the state's ratepayer-funded zero emission credit (ZEC) program expires.
The deal is small next to the gigawatt-scale data center announcements of the past year. But it may be one of the more replicable models for how AI demand can support existing clean generation.
The terms
According to Constellation, the agreement covers 1,121 MW of emissions-free nuclear energy and "supports the relicensing and continued operations" of Clinton "for another two decades after the state's ratepayer funded zero emission credit (ZEC) program expires." It will expand Clinton's output by 30 MW through uprates, preserve 1,100 local jobs and deliver $13.5 million in annual tax revenue.
Constellation described the deal as "a market-based solution that essentially replaces the ZEC program and ensures long-term operations of the plant without ratepayer support." The ZEC program, created under Illinois' Future Energy Jobs Act, provides financial support to the plant through mid-2027.
Utility Dive reported that the uprate will come in two steps. Constellation will first modify the plant's high-pressure steam turbine to increase efficiency and generator capacity, then improve reactor power measurement to allow the plant to run closer to full capacity. It aims to finish the generator uprate in 2027 and the measurement uncertainty recapture project in 2029, taking total output from 1,092 MW to 1,121 MW. The deal will support a 20-year operating license extension, allowing the plant to run until at least 2047.
A virtual agreement
The power will not flow directly to a Meta data center. Utility Dive described the deal as a virtual power purchase agreement under which Meta purchases the clean energy attributes of the plant. Constellation said the power purchases will support Meta's "clean energy goals and operations in the region," and that Clinton will continue to supply power to the local grid in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator's (MISO) zone four, which covers central and southern Illinois.
That structure sidesteps the controversy that has surrounded co-location deals, in which a data center connects directly at a nuclear plant and takes power that would otherwise serve the grid. In a virtual agreement, the plant's electricity stays on the grid and the buyer pays for the attributes. The grid keeps the capacity, and the plant gets a long-term revenue stream.
Why Meta wants it
Meta said the agreement fits its strategy for meeting growing demand from AI while adding clean energy to the grid. It also said it was continuing a separate request for proposals for new nuclear capacity and was "in final discussions with a shortlist of potential projects to meet our 1-4 gigawatt target."
For a hyperscaler, an existing nuclear plant offers something solar and wind cannot: around-the-clock output. Companies that have committed to matching their consumption with clean energy hourly, rather than on an annual basis, need firm sources. Existing reactors are the largest source of firm, carbon-free power in the US.
Why Constellation wants it
For Constellation, the deal locks in revenue for a plant that was close to closing before the state stepped in. The company said the ZEC program saved Clinton from premature closure in 2017 "after years of financial losses." A 20-year contract with a creditworthy buyer justifies the investment in relicensing and uprates.
Constellation also said that with Clinton's future assured, it is evaluating whether to extend the site's existing early site permit or seek a new construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pursue an advanced reactor or small modular reactor at the site.
A template for other plants
Utility Dive cited analysis from ClearView Energy Partners suggesting that aging plants in Illinois, New York, New Jersey and other states may turn to technology companies for relicensing and operating support. Many reactors in those states rely on state programs that will expire in the coming years.
Within days of the Meta announcement, Amazon Web Services and Talen Energy announced an expanded deal for power from the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, restructured from a behind-the-meter arrangement to a front-of-the-meter supply of about 1.9 GW, according to Utility Dive. The two deals show different routes for the same idea: technology companies using long contracts to secure output from existing reactors.
What MISO gains
Clinton sits in MISO, not PJM, and that matters. MISO's capacity market has also tightened as retirements of coal plants outpace new firm supply, and the loss of a 1 GW nuclear unit in central Illinois would have made that worse. A plant that might have faced closure after 2027 now has a contracted future through the mid-2040s, and an extra 30 MW of output. For MISO planners, that is firm capacity they do not have to replace. For Illinois, it keeps the state's largest source of clean firm generation intact without new spending from ratepayers.
The public interest question
The Clinton deal is easier to defend than some co-location proposals because it keeps power on the grid and removes a subsidy that ratepayers had been paying. Illinois customers no longer carry the cost of keeping the plant open after 2027, and the plant's capacity continues to serve the regional system.
The open question is price. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and the value of nuclear output to tech companies seeking firm clean power may exceed what wholesale markets would pay. If that premium keeps reactors running that would otherwise close, it adds to the supply of firm power. If it simply redirects existing output, the effect on the grid is smaller.
What to watch
The relicensing application, the timing of the uprates and the outcome of Meta's separate nuclear request for proposals will show whether this becomes a pattern. If more reactors with expiring state support sign similar deals, tech companies could become the main financiers of the existing US nuclear fleet.