POWER Magazine

The power generation sector, including electric utilities and grid operators, recognizes the value of moving equipment underground to mitigate outages, lessen risks to assets, and reduce the chances of that equipment causing a wildfire.The post Growing Grid Strategy: Undergrounding Power Lines to Withstand Weather appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Companies are deploying a variety of strategies in efforts to strengthen the power grid against severe weather and other issues.The post Advanced Technologies Tackling Task of Grid Hardening appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Extreme weather is making one thing clear-hardening of the power grid alone is not enough to solve the problem of keeping the lights on.The post Building a Storm-Ready Grid: Why Operations Matter as Much as Infrastructure appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The power sector recognizes the urgent need to harden the power grid, which involves upgrading and fortifying electrical infrastructure to withstand severe weather, cyberattacks, and surging demand for electricity. The U.S. Dept. of Energy is providing billions of dollars to groups involved with modernizing the grid, underscoring the importance of measures designed to support power [...]The post The POWER Interview: Hardening Power Systems to Withstand Natural Disasters appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Electricity is no longer just energy-it is becoming infrastructure for intelligence. This shift means electricity customers, residential and industrial, will need to become active grid participants, while utilities learn to coordinate these millions of flexible devices as virtual power plants to effectively meet rising energy needs.The post From Powering Machines to Powering Intelligence-The New Age of Electricity appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Antares Nuclear Inc.'s Mark-0-a sodium heat-pipe-cooled microreactor fueled by high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel compacts-has achieved zero-power criticality at Idaho National Laboratory's (INL's) Reactor and Critical Experiment (RACE) facility, becoming the first advanced reactor to reach that milestone under the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Reactor Pilot Program. The development, announced on June [...]The post Antares Mark-0 Becomes First Advanced Nuclear Reactor to Achieve Criticality Under DOE Pilot Program appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced the company has published five peer-reviewed physics basis papers detailing its work on the group's ARC fusion power plant.The post CFS Publishes Papers Validating Physics of ARC Fusion Power Plant appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Google and Intersect, a clean energy developer Google acquired in March 2026, have launched construction on the Meitner Energy Center, a co-located data center and generation complex in the Texas Panhandle that will integrate more than 1 GW of wind, solar, and battery storage with on-site gas-fired generation for reliability firming. The project is located [...]The post Google Launches 1-GW-Plus Co-Located Data Center and Generation Complex in Texas Panhandle appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fusion energy group Helion said the company has completed a $465-million Series G investment round, increasing the Everett, Washington-based group's valuation to $15.5 billion. Helion is among dozens of U.S. and global companies working to commercialize fusion power.The post Helion Announces $465-Million Funding Round to Support Fusion Energy appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the energy system: While the expansion of wind and solar power continues to progress across Europe, AI will ensure the efficient use of every generated kilowatt-hour. Intelligent algorithms that synchronize generation and consumption in real time will help stabilize grids, avoiding expensive curtailment. Software will become an important tool for [...]The post AI-Powered Grid Management: Reducing Renewable Electricity Curtailment appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Urenco USA, operator of the only U.S. commercial-scale uranium enrichment facility, will expand low-enriched uranium (LEU) capacity at its National Enrichment Facility (NEF) in Eunice, New Mexico, by nearly 50% through a privately funded, multibillion-dollar investment that includes construction of a new enrichment plant. The project will add 2.1 million separative work units (SWU) of [...]The post America's Only Commercial Uranium Enricher Is Privately Building a New Plant Amid a Widening Nuclear Fuel Supply Gap appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Colorado-headquartered Xcimer Energy has announced the start of operations for Phoenix, what the company calls the largest privately owned laser system in the world. Phoenix, named after the legendary bird from Greek and Egyptian mythology, is the company's prototype for commercializing laser fusion.The post Xcimer Energy Starts Operations of Prototype for Laser Fusion Architecture appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Trump administration's unprecedented assault on wind energy development in the U.S. stands in sharp contrast to its promotion of oil and gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, and microreactor nuclear projects. Agencies have blocked 165 wind projects nationwide while simultaneously spending nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds to convince energy companies to abandon offshore [...]The post Contrasting Trump's Campaign Against Wind Energy With Promotion of Oil and Gas, LNG, and Nuclear Projects appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Another U.S.-based energy company said its technology has achieved key performance metrics that advance its goal of commercial fusion by the mid 2030s. California-headquartered Pacific Fusion on June 2 said its core pulsed power technology is on track to achieve net facility gain by 2030. That's the state where the entire fusion machine produces more [...]The post Pacific Fusion Touts Funding, Technical Achievements on Way to Fusion Power appeared first on POWER Magazine.

According to the State of the Global Climate 2024 report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the continued rise in global temperatures is driving a measurable increase in both the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Among these, tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and typhoons, as well as extreme precipitation events, have emerged as [...]The post Design and Construction Planning of Solar Power Projects Under Extreme Weather Conditions appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Installed utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) is expected to cross the 100-GW milestone this year, and yet no two utility-scale BESS installations are exactly alike. A 4-hour, fully integrated AC block LFP shifting 100 MW of Kern County sunshine, a 1-hour tier-2 air-cooled NMC tied to a dusty 5kV pole somewhere in West Nowhere, [...]The post BESS Needs to Be the Most Reliable Cornerstone of the Modern Grid-Analytics Can Help appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Global clean energy group ContourGlobal announced the start of commercial operation of another utility-scale solar-plus-storage project in Chile, one the company said features Latin America's longest-duration battery energy storage system.The post ContourGlobal Brings Major Solar-Plus-Storage Project Online in Chile appeared first on POWER Magazine.

POET, a South Dakota-headquartered company and the world's largest producer of biofuels, has joined with Antora Energy to commission a 5-GWh, multi-day thermal energy storage system at POET's bioprocessing facility in Big Stone City, South Dakota. Antora is supplying batteries from the company's recently expanded San Jose, California gigafactory. The companies earlier in May said [...]The post Major Thermal Energy Storage Project Commissioned for South Dakota Biofuels Producer appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Sweden's nuclear reversal marked three major developments this past week, as advanced modular reactor developer Blykalla and long-established nuclear services firm Studsvik filed separate applications for up to 1.7 GW of new reactors at two sites, while the government formalized an unprecedented financial commitment to another flagship project. The filings, among the first in Sweden's [...]The post Blykalla, Studsvik File for Up to 1.7 GW of New Swedish Nuclear Capacity as Government Proposes $3.7B Capital Commitment to Ringhals SMR Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Uptime has become the defining performance metric of the modern datacenter. As digital servicesunderpin everything from financial markets totransportsystems, tolerance for disruption has all but disappeared. For mission-criticalenvironments, 99.999% availability and just five minutes of downtime per yeararen'tthe dream,but the baseline. Industry performance is improving. According to theUptime Institute's Annual Outage Analysis2025, datacenterservice availability has [...]The post Five-Nines Data Center Uptime Starts with Automation appeared first on POWER Magazine.

New Jersey-based Thea Energy, one of several U.S. companies working to commercialize fusion energy, said the company has raised $100 million in Series B funding. Thea is advancing stellarator technology to provide baseload fusion power. The company, which has several investors, is moving toward beginning construction of its Helios power plant (Figure 1) by the [...]The post Thea Energy Raises $100 Million in New Funding to Advance Fusion Technology appeared first on POWER Magazine.

DigitalBridge Group said it has a definitive agreement to acquire ArcLight Capital Partners as part of a $1.05-billion deal.The post DigitalBridge Acquiring ArcLight in $1-Billion Power Infrastructure Deal appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Florida-headquartered Spearmint Energy said it has closed a financing package of $450 million to support a standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) installation in Texas.The post Spearmint Energy Secures $450 Million in Financing for Texas BESS Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

It's a known fact that wind power sites across the U.S. eventually will reach the end of their lifecycles. So now what? The industry is coming upon an age where owners and operators must repower these sites by leveraging existing infrastructure to help meet the growing national demand for power. With more than 75,000 turbines [...]The post Wind Repowering-A Second Wind for the Industry appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Google will invest $15 billion in Missouri infrastructure, including a new data center in New Florence, Montgomery County, in a project that pairs its expanding data center footprint with new generation commitments, a large-load cost-allocation framework, and Ameren Missouri rate structures designed to protect existing customers from infrastructure costs tied to large energy users. When [...]The post Google Pledges Power, Ratepayer Protections in $15B Missouri Data Center Expansion appeared first on POWER Magazine.

VoLo Earth and Equal Ventures co-lead Series A in grid technology firm building an operating system" to help utilities consolidate data and maximize value across operations - from data center load to renewables growth to distributed energy resources. Texture, the grid software platform that provides utilities a single view of every device and data source [...]The post Texture Raises $12.5M to Tackle the Operational Complexity of the Modern Grid appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Finnish energy group Steady Energy has signed a letter of intent with Alva-yhtiot, the city of Jyvaskyla's water and energy group, to study the suitability of small-scale nuclear power as a source of district heating for the city.The post More Nuclear-Powered District Heating Planned in Finland appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Fives ProSim, a subsidiary of the Fives Group and an expert in industrial process simulation and optimization, announces the release of ProSimPlus Python API. This new solution enables users to run the engine of ProSimPlus, a leading software dedicated to the design, simulation, and optimization of continuous industrial processes, directly from the Python environment. A [...]The post Fives ProSim Launches ProSimPlus Python API, a New Generation of Python Driven Process Simulation appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Enel Group announced it has agreed to acquire seven solar photovoltaic facilities across three states as the company expands its U.S. portfolio. Enel, acting through wholly owned subsidiary Enel Green Power North America, on May 18 said it has an agreement to invest $140 million for the purchase of the plants, which the company said [...]The post Enel Acquiring Seven PV Solar Farms Across Three States appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Dr. Remy Notermans, director of Strategic Planning for Atom Computing, a Boulder, Colorado-based group developing large-scale quantum computers, recently provided POWER with information about how quantum computing works. Notermans discussed how quantum computing can benefit electric utilities and the power generation sector.The post The POWER Interview: Quantum Computing's Importance for Utilities and Power Generators appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Clean energy group OCI Energy and Texas-based power company CPS Energy announced they've broken ground for construction of the Alamo City Battery Energy Storage System near San Antonio, Texas.The post OCI, CPS Break Ground on Major Texas BESS Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Investment firm Hull Street Energy (HSE), which focuses on the power sector, announced an agreement to acquire FirstLight USA from the Public Sector Pension Investment Board. The transaction includes a portfolio of about 1,400 MW of clean energy generation in the U.S. Northeast.The post Hull Street Energy Scales Hydro Footprint With Acquisition of FirstLight USA appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A year after President Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14300 directing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to cut red tape and speed nuclear deployment, the agency is claiming a string of historic firsts, a backlog of rules in motion at unprecedented scale, and an internal reorganization due to take effect next month. In a news [...]The post How Trump's EO 14300 Is Reshaping NRC Nuclear Licensing and Regulation appeared first on POWER Magazine.

With hundreds of 7FA and 7EA gas turbines approaching end-of-life thresholds and industry-wide constraints on forgings and shop capacity, MD&A has invested a decade in reverse engineering, supply chain development, and production of rotor components to offer utilities an independent path forward. The gas turbine bubble of 2000 to 2004 saw between 600 and 700 [...]The post MD&A Positions Itself as Alternative Source for 7FA and 7EA Gas Turbine Rotor Life Extensions appeared first on POWER Magazine.

NextEra's purchase of Dominion Energy, if approved, would have an impact on many areas of the electricity sector. Some analysts told POWER they're concerned about how it would affect customers' power bills. Others wonder whether the $67-billion deal s part of a trend that will lead to more mergers and acquisitions in the power space.The post Energy Experts Discuss Implications, and Intrigue, of NextEra/Dominion Deal appeared first on POWER Magazine.

After more than a decade of construction setbacks, Cuba has begun erecting turbines at the Herradura 1 wind farm in the eastern province of Las Tunas-the largest wind project ever attempted on the island. Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba's Minister of Energy and Mines, said the facility will be brought online this year, with [...]The post Cuba Begins Installing Turbines at Herradura 1, Its Largest Wind Farm appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its environmental assessment (EA) of the proposed 320-MW Long Mott Generating Station at Dow's Seadrift site in Texas, issuing a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the four-reactor X-energy project. According to X-energy, the NRC completed the environmental review in under a year, marking the first time [...]The post NRC Clears Long Mott's Environmental Review on a Faster Path-Another Milestone for Commercial Advanced Nuclear appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Juan Gualberto Gomez Ferrer International Airport, the main gateway to the Varadero resort area, will become the first in Cuba to manage its entire electricity demand using solar energy, with the construction of a photovoltaic solar park that is already in the preparation stage. The information was confirmed by Osmany Sanchez, Secretary General of the [...]The post Cuba's Varadero Airport Aims for Solar Self-Sufficiency with New Photovoltaic Park appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Expected annual energy yield (PVout) is a fundamental number for every utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) project. It informs the design, shapes the budget, feeds the financial model, and influences what investors and lenders are willing to accept. Behind every expected yield estimate, however, is a range of uncertainty. Part of it comes from the solar resource [...]The post How Solar PV Yield Risk Shapes Project Design, Investment, and Bankability appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Data centers have traditionally depended on uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and backup generators to keep them online during a power cut, grid event, or natural disaster. But the critical nature of modern artificial intelligence (AI) workloads is such that there is no tolerance of downtime. Further measures must be in place to ensure energy [...]The post From Backup to Prime Power: How AI Data Centers Are Bypassing the Grid appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Florida-headquartered NextEra Energy, one of the largest U.S. power utilities, is set to buy Virginia-based Dominion Energy in an all-stock deal valued at about $67 billion.The post NextEra Will Buy Dominion Energy in Largest-Ever Electric Utility Deal appeared first on POWER Magazine.

NextEra Energy, one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., is reportedly in talks to acquire Virginia-based Dominion Energy.The post Reports Say NextEra in Talks to Acquire Dominion Energy appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The requests flooding interconnection queues come from data center developers, private equity funds, land brokers, and shell companies, many of whom lack site control, a construction timeline, or even a signed customer. They secure a queue position, bet that powered land will attract a buyer, and wait. The industry calls them "phantom data centers," and the grid isn't prepared to handle them.The post Phantom Data Centers Didn't Break the Power Grid-They Proved It Was Already Broken appeared first on POWER Magazine.

U.S. natural gas supply is expected to reach a record 117 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) this summer, including 111.7 Bcf/d of dry gas production, but growing demand from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, data center load, industrial activity, and power generation is absorbing much of that growth, leaving less gas available for storage [...]The post Record Power Burn Expected This Summer as Coal Retirements and Data Centers Drive Gas Demand appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Sunraycer Renewables LLC, a developer, owner, and operator of clean energy power sites, on May 14 announced the closing of a $901-million project financing facility to support three Texas-based solar power projects.The post Sunraycer Renewables Closes $901-Million Package to Support Three Solar Projects appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Technology group Wartsila has signed two equipment supply contracts with Origem Energia for the development of new balancing power projects in Brazil. The contracts announced May 13 cover the supply of two batches of 18 Wartsila 34SG balancing engines.The post Wartsila, Origem Energia Partner on Brazilian Power Plant Projects appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Behind even the smallest convenience powered by AI is a massive surge of computing power for training models and inference. All that computing power requires energy.The post Managing AI's Footprint in a Carbon-Constrained World appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Utilities are under increasing pressure to move distributed energy resources (DER) through interconnection queues more quickly. In many regions, review timelines have stretched from months into years as requests for solar, storage, and electric vehicle infrastructure continue to rise.The post The Hidden Bottleneck Slowing DER Interconnection-and What Utilities Can Do About It appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Duke Energy's 11-unit nuclear fleet finished 2025 with a capacity factor greater than 97%-its best result on record. For Steven Capps, Duke's senior vice president and Chief Nuclear Officer, that number is the foundation everything else has to sit on. 2025 was the best year we have had in terms of overall capacity factor for [...]The post Duke Energy's Nuclear Playbook: Three Horizons, One Strategy appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Within a single week last month, Kairos Power broke ground on its Hermes 2 reactor in Tennessee, and days later TerraPower and Bechtel began construction on the Natrium reactor in Wyoming. Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), told industry leaders in Washington, D.C., at the Nuclear Energy Policy Forum on [...]The post State of the Nuclear Industry 2026: Korsnick Says the Real Test Is Now Scale appeared first on POWER Magazine.