AEP to build $4B, 702 MW Bloom fuel-cell plant in Wyoming under a 20-year power deal with Google

AEP said it will own about 92% of Cheyenne Fuel Cell LLC, the project company near Cheyenne, with the remaining stake just under 8% held by funds advised by Basalt Infrastructure Partners. The plant uses solid-oxide fuel cells from Bloom Energy rather than combustion turbines, and AEP says it plans to add carbon capture as the project matures. Google is the customer under the 20-year power purchase agreement. Tech Insider, which reported the details and links to AEP's newsroom post, notes the plant is modest next to some multi-gigawatt nuclear and gas deals this year. The structure is the notable part: a regulated utility is building and owning dedicated generation for a single tech customer instead of only sending more power over existing lines. Oracle's earlier deal with Bloom is the closest precedent, and fuel cells ship as modular units that can avoid long turbine queues. For AI builders, power access has become a gating factor for capacity. Deals like this show where new compute is likely to land, and why hyperscalers sign 20-year contracts.