Aaron Larson
Articles By

Aaron Larson

Aaron Larson is the Executive Editor of POWER, where he has covered the global power generation industry since joining the editorial team in 2013. He oversees editorial operations and budget, and serves as content director for the Experience POWER Conference, where he frequently moderates sessions.

Aaron is the host of The POWER Podcast, with more than 200 episodes featuring in-depth conversations with energy industry leaders, technologists, and policymakers. His work has earned regional and national editorial awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) and the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA), including recognition for best interview, best editorial, and best podcast.

Before entering trade journalism, Aaron spent 13 years in the U.S. Navy nuclear power program, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. He has also worked at commercial nuclear, biomass, and coal-fired power plants in operations, maintenance, safety, financial, and management roles. He holds a Chief A Engineer boiler operator license in Minnesota, a bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering technology, and a master's degree with a specialization in finance.

  • Rural Co-ops Navigate a New Era of Load Growth, Rising Costs, and Policy Pressure

    After decades of relatively flat electricity demand, the U.S. power sector is suddenly racing to keep up—and rural electric cooperatives, which serve 42 million people across 54% of the nation’s land mass, are feeling the squeeze as acutely as anyone. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric […]

  • GAS POWER Direct—April 15, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Why POWER? Gas Power   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 15, 2026 Full Throttle: Five Trends Reshaping the Gas Power Boom A once-predictable industry is moving at hyperscale speed. Here are five trends defining the biggest gas power buildout in a generation. Natural gas power is […]

  • Best of POWER—April 13, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 13, 2026 Chernobyl at 40: The World’s Worst Nuclear Power Accident and Where It Stands Now On the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, POWER sent a freelance photographer and correspondent to the site in Ukraine to document the massive decommissioning […]

  • Project Glasswing: What Power Companies and Grid Operators Need to Know

    On April 7, Anthropic announced Project Glasswing, a coalition of 12 major technology companies marshaling a new frontier artificial intelligence (AI) model to find and fix critical software vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. While the announcement is framed around technology infrastructure broadly, the implications for the power sector are immediate and serious. Partner posts […]

  • POWERnews—April 9, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 9, 2026 Westinghouse Files to Update AP1000 Design Certification, Make Vogtle Expansion the U.S. Reference Plant Westinghouse has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to renew and update the design certification for its AP1000 reactor, formally proposing Vogtle Unit 4’s as‑built […]

  • Renewables Reenvisioned: How Linea Energy Built a 7-GW Renewable Pipeline in Under Two Years

    Cassidy DeLine has spent more than 16 years developing renewable power plants. Now, as the founder and CEO of Linea Energy, she’s building an independent power producer that she believes can do the work better, not by tearing up the playbook, but by running every play better. As a guest on The Power Podcast, DeLine […]

  • Inside AMPERA’s Bet on Subcritical Thorium Microreactors

    A Florida-based startup intends to build factory-produced nuclear systems designed to fit in shipping containers and run for 30 years without refueling. Here’s how the technology works—and where it stands. The global appetite for electricity is surging. Data centers, industrial electrification, and perhaps a coming wave of humanoid robotics are layering exponential demand onto a […]

  • DATA CENTER POWER Direct—April 8, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 8, 2026 Hyperscalers Sign White House Pledge to Fund Data Center Power, Grid Upgrades Seven of the nation's largest artificial intelligence (AI) companies and hyperscalers signed a White House-brokered agreement committing to build, procure, or fund new generation capacity sufficient to […]

  • T&D POWER Direct—April 6, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   April 6, 2026 Southwest Power Pool Announces Expansion of Service Territory The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) said it has successfully expanded its service territory. The SPP's expanded operations took effect on April 1, and tThe regional transmission organization, or RTO, is now […]

  • The Genesis Mission: How AI Supercomputing Is About to Reshape American Science and Energy

    Dr. Dario Gil, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Under Secretary for Science, lays out a bold vision to double the productivity of U.S. research and development (R&D) within a decade—and explains why energy and artificial intelligence (AI) are two sides of the same coin. After 22 years at IBM, where he rose to senior vice […]

  • Cracking the Power Supply Chain Code

    The power industry finds itself in an uncomfortable bind. Demand for electricity is surging, driven by data center buildouts, broad electrification, and the retirement of aging coal fleets, but the equipment

  • Best of POWER—March 30, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 30, 2026 Anatomy of a Blackout: Findings from the Spain-Portugal Grid Collapse Final Report An analysis of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) Expert Panel’s final report on the April 28, 2025, Iberian Peninsula power grid incident. […]

  • Investing in Energy’s ‘Anti-Fragile’ Future

    With federal tax credits under threat and regulatory stability in short supply, Bala Nagarajan, managing director of the energy investments team at S2G Investments, explained what he looks for in a company. “Is the product or the solution sold by this business cheaper, faster, better than the incumbent solution?” he asked. If so, it’s worth […]

  • NUCLEAR POWER Direct—March 25, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 25, 2026 A Historic First: NRC Clears TerraPower's Natrium Nuclear Reactor for Construction The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) authorized staff to issue a construction permit for TerraPower's Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 in Kemmerer, Wyoming—the first commercial reactor the agency…   […]

  • Anatomy of a Blackout: Findings from the Spain-Portugal Grid Collapse Final Report

    An analysis of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) Expert Panel’s final report on the April 28, 2025, Iberian Peninsula power grid incident. On a mild, sunny Monday in late April 2025, the power grids of Spain and Portugal collapsed in less than 90 seconds. At 12:33 p.m. Central European Summer […]

  • Nuclear Sprint: DOE and Industry Race to Meet Trump’s Target

    The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources convened March 19 for a full committee hearing to examine the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) implementation of President Trump’s May 2025 nuclear energy executive orders. Three witnesses—DOE Assistant Secretary Theodore Garrish, Kairos Power CEO Dr. Michael Laufer, and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Director Dr. John C. Wagner—testified, […]

  • How a University and Industry Partner Are Building Tomorrow’s Power Workforce

    The power industry is staring down a workforce crisis. An aging labor force is heading for the exits, new recruits aren’t arriving fast enough to replace them, and a historic wave of energy infrastructure investment is only widening the gap. Against that backdrop, a partnership between Stony Brook University and Haugland Group—an infrastructure services company […]

  • RENEWABLE POWER Direct—March 18, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 18, 2026 Solar Adds 43 GW in 2025; Fifth Straight Year as Top New Generation Source A new report from a leading solar industry group and a top energy data analytics firm said about 43 GW of new solar power generation […]

  • Best of POWER—March 16, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 16, 2026 DOE Unveils Initiative to Add 5 GW of Nuclear Capacity Through Uprates and Restarts The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a new initiative to increase U.S. nuclear generating capacity—targeting 2.5 GW of additional nuclear capacity by 2027 […]

  • The Frog Is Dead: North America’s Power Grid Faces Its Biggest Reckoning in a Generation

    For much of the 21st century, the North American power sector drifted along on near-zero demand growth. Utilities retired aging coal plants, developers filled interconnection queues with wind and solar, and investors looked elsewhere for excitement. Then came the data center boom—and seemingly overnight, the industry found itself in a full-blown supply crisis. In a […]

  • T&D POWER Direct—March 9, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 9, 2026 How America's Power Regions Chose Their Futures and How That Has Played Out On April 24, 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 888, requiring all public utilities owning or operating interstate transmission facilities to file open-access […]

  • DATA CENTER POWER Direct—March 4, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   March 4, 2026 Google Data Center in Minnesota Would Be Powered by Wind, Energy Storage Minnesota Power has signed an electric service agreement (ESA) with Google for the energy needed to power a 700-MW data center project in the state. The companies on […]

  • How America’s Power Regions Chose Their Futures and How That Has Played Out

    On April 24, 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 888, requiring all public utilities owning or operating interstate transmission facilities to file open-access

  • Engine Power Plants Surge as Data Centers Drive Unprecedented Demand

    Manufacturers respond with gigawatt-scale deployments, fast-start technology, and expanded production capacity. The global appetite for electricity has never been more insatiable, and at the heart of this

  • NUCLEAR POWER Direct—February 25, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   February 25, 2026 160 Days to Fission: Nuclear Power’s Sprint to Execution For the first time in decades, a wave of nuclear projects across the U.S. is advancing in parallel—from test reactors to early construction. POWER examines how first movers are navigating… […]

  • Best of POWER—February 23, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   February 23, 2026 SB Energy Tapped for Proposed 9.2‑GW Ohio Gas Power Plant in First Tranche of $550B U.S.–Japan Deal: What We Know The Trump administration is touting a proposed 9.2‑GW natural gas power complex near Portsmouth, Ohio, as the centerpiece of […]

  • RENEWABLE POWER Direct—February 18, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   February 18, 2026 CleanChoice Energy Triples Capacity with Solar Acquisitions in North Carolina A company known for supplying "farm-to-table" clean energy to homes and businesses said it was growing its portfolio by acquiring two solar power projects in North Carolina. CleanChoice Energy, […]

  • FINANCIAL POWER Direct—February 17, 2026

    POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   February 17, 2026 New 1.2-GW Gas-Fired Plant Planned in WV; Three Solar Projects Also Announced Two subsidiaries of FirstEnergy Corp. announced plans to build a new 1,200-MW natural gas-fired power plant on land adjacent to the companies' coal-fired Fort Martin Power Station […]

  • Powering Tomorrow: A Multi-Technology Roadmap for the Global Energy Transition

    As global electricity demand surges 40% by 2035 and warming projections worsen, nuclear, geothermal, gas, offshore wind, storage, and fusion must all advance—along with the workforce to build them. The global energy landscape is undergoing its most significant transformation since the Industrial Revolution. Electricity demand is surging at unprecedented rates while the imperative to decarbonize […]

  • Battery Storage Comes of Age: From Grid Accessory to Essential Infrastructure

    From plunging costs to policy upheaval, the global battery storage sector is transforming grid design—and facing unprecedented challenges. The energy storage industry stands at a pivotal crossroads. On one side, costs are plummeting so dramatically that utility-scale batteries can now deliver solar power around the clock at competitive prices. On the other, regulatory upheaval—particularly in […]