AEP has announced a roughly $4 billion investment to build a 702MW fuel cell power facility near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The plant will use Bloom Energy solid oxide fuel cells running on natural gas, with plans to add carbon capture and storage. Google will buy the output under a 20-year power purchase agreement, with construction set to start in 2026 and full operation targeted for the end of 2028. This deal shows how utilities are becoming dedicated power providers for large data center customers. AEP will own about 92% of the project entity, with Basalt Infrastructure Partners holding the rest. The CCS component is still in the planning stage, so the actual emissions profile is not yet verified. For anyone tracking clean power procurement or utility business models, this is a concrete example of long-term contracted generation tied to AI and cloud demand.
