Power purchase agreements are quietly the most important financing tool in the SMR industry right now. Here's what they are, why they matter, and who has actually signed one.
A power purchase agreement is a long term contract to buy electricity at an agreed price, usually signed years before the plant that will generate it is even built. Instead of buying power on the open market day to day, a buyer locks in a deal, often for 15 to 20 years, with a specific project.
A reactor costs billions and takes years to build, so nobody builds one speculatively. A signed PPA is what gives a project the revenue certainty to secure financing and start construction. In practice, PPAs are the mechanism turning SMR designs into funded, real projects.
Data centers and AI have pushed electricity demand higher and faster than utilities can build for. Companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft need firm, round the clock power, and nuclear is one of the few sources that can deliver it. That demand is now flowing directly into SMR offtake deals.
Signing a PPA is a commitment to buy power once it exists, not a guarantee the plant gets built on time or at all. Oklo's deal with Meta, for example, targets first power as early as 2030, well before its reactor design has finished NRC licensing.
A running list of the corporate offtake agreements behind the SMR projects in our directory, and a few of the larger existing-plant deals shaping the market around them.
Forward power purchase agreement for output from Oklo's Aurora reactor, part of Meta's wider nuclear procurement push.
Forward offtake agreement for future Natrium output, alongside Meta's Oklo deal, as part of the same January 2026 nuclear procurement announcement.
Direct PPA for power from Kairos's Hermes reactor fleet, the deal widely seen as the signal that firm PPAs for advanced reactors are becoming a real commercial model.
Industrial offtake agreement anchoring the Xe-100 project at Dow's Seadrift, Texas site. Functionally similar to a PPA, but for on-site industrial power and heat rather than grid delivery.
NuScale's exclusive partner ENTRA1 Energy is in active talks with the Tennessee Valley Authority toward what could become the largest nuclear power deployment program in US history.
20-year PPA for existing nuclear output, plus a reserved option for power from a future 300 MW SMR at a Vistra site. Not in our SMR directory since it draws on operating plants, but it's shaping the same market.
If your organization is exploring a PPA for the first time, the biggest risk isn't the contract itself, it's picking the wrong project or vendor to sign with. That's exactly the gap NuclearVox is built to help close: understanding the landscape, comparing designs, and knowing which projects are actually far enough along to take seriously.