May 29 (Reuters) - Duke Energy ( DUK ) on Wednesday

announced agreements with Amazon ( AMZN ), Google, Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Nucor ( NUE ) to

support carbon-free energy generation in response to growing

data center demand.

In memorandums of understanding (MOUs) signed this month,

the companies proposed developing new rate structures, or

"tariffs" to reduce the long-term costs of investing in clean

energy technologies like new nuclear and long-duration storage

through early commitments.