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Energy technology firm Oklo Inc. has signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to collaborate on a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with oil and gas company Diamondback Energy Inc.
Oklo is proposing to provide its Aurora powerhouse technology to supply reliable and emission-free electricity to Diamondback’s operations in the Permian Basin, Oklo said in a recent news release. Aurora is an advanced fission clean energy plant design that the company has developed.
According to the terms of the LOI, Oklo intends to license, build, and operate powerhouses capable of generating 50 megawatts (MW) of electric power to Diamondback E&P LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Diamondback near Midland, Texas. The LOI also outlines options to renew and extend the potential PPA for an additional 20-year term, according to the release.
Oklo’s powerhouse designs are intended to be able to operate for 40 years, it noted. The company highlighted that customers such as Diamondback will be able to purchase power “without complex ownership issues or other capital requirements” due to its design-build-own-operate business model.
“By developing and providing a low-cost, high-reliability, and emission-free energy source, Oklo is poised to help meet the growing energy requirements of operators like Diamondback,” Oklo CEO and co-founder Jacob DeWitte said.
The collaboration between Oklo and Diamondback “represents a significant step towards emissions reductions and supporting national energy security by providing reliable access to electricity to power domestic energy operations,” Oklo said.
In January, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reviewed and approved the Safety Design Strategy (SDS) for the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility is being designed to demonstrate the reuse of recovered nuclear material to support Oklo’s planned commercial advanced fission power plant demonstration at INL, the company said in a separate news release.
The Aurora powerhouse houses the Aurora advanced fission power plant, also called a fission battery. The plant uses metal fuel to produce heat, an advanced fuel type that has been well demonstrated with decades of experimental data, Oklo said. Heat pipes carry the heat to a heat exchanger, and a power conversion cycle converts the heat into electricity.
“The Aurora is built on years of technology research, development, and demonstration done at the U.S. national labs and universities, and work done by Oklo to make the Aurora possible,” DeWitte said in an earlier statement.
California-based Oklo describes itself as a fast fission clean power technology and nuclear fuel recycling company. The company is developing fast fission power plants to provide clean, reliable, and affordable energy at scale. It submitted the first advanced fission custom combined license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and is developing advanced fuel recycling technologies in collaboration with the U.S. DOE and U.S. National Laboratories.
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