Engineering

In a milestone for the U.S. nuclear fuel cycle, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Feb. 13 issued its first approval of a commercial Category II nuclear fuel fabrication facility, granting a license to TRISO-X, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-energy, which allows the company to fabricate commercial tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel using high-assay low-enriched […]

Fusion energy company Helion said its Polaris prototype has set new industry benchmarks, becoming the first privately developed fusion energy machine to demonstrate measurable deuterium-tritium fusion and achieve plasma temperatures of 150 million degrees Celsius.

A Massachusetts-headquartered nuclear energy company said it has received $33 million from a Series A funding round as the group scales its technology. Alva Energy on February 12 announced it has launched with a goal to support new electric power generation capacity from the existing U.S. reactor fleet.

Lunar Energy, a leader in integrated home battery systems and virtual power plant software, announced it raised $102 million in an oversubscribed Series D round led by B Capital and Prelude Ventures. This round follows a previously unannounced Series C financing of $130 million led by Activate Capital.

Officials with UK-based power systems developer Rolls-Royce said the company is launching a new modular solution for gas engine power plants.

Several natural gas–fueled units are being developed as a way to support the industrial sector, including data centers, and to help integrate more renewable energy to the grid.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) maintains one of the richest and most diverse histories in the federal government. Although the department itself has only existed since 1977, its lineage traces back to the Manhattan Project—the massive scientific effort that developed the atomic bomb during World War II—and to various energy-related programs that were previously […]

Scientists around the world are making progress as they try different techniques to bring commercial fusion energy to fruition.

Global energy company GE Vernova announced the launch of another offering in the group’s GridBeats portfolio, which features software-defined automation solutions designed to modernize electrical grids by improving resilience, efficiency, and flexibility.

Vema Hydrogen, developer of a low-cost and clean hydrogen production technology known as Engineered Mineral Hydrogen, said the company has completed drilling its first two pilot wells in Quebec, Canada. The milestone marks completion of the world’s first Engineered Mineral Hydrogen pilot wells, according to the company. 

Xylem Inc., a global water solutions company, announced the launch of Sensus Evolve, its new intelligent grid platform designed to help electric utilities gain deeper insight, act faster, and adapt to a rapidly changing energy landscape.

A group dedicated to supporting private broadband networks for critical infrastructure, including the power generation sector, is marking five years of accelerating private broadband adoption to enable power grid modernization.

Sense, a company focused on grid edge intelligence, has announced a new edge-powered Fault Detection Solution that is embedded directly into next-generation smart meters.

By positioning satellites significantly closer to Earth, LEO networks deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity that makes connection speed at an offshore platform or remote location, just as fast and secure as you will find at corporate headquarters.

Operators of aging F-class units face a narrowing window to plan for rotor life extensions as supply chains tighten and demand surges. The late 1990s and early 2000s marked a frenetic period in American power generation. Deregulation opened the floodgates for independent power producers racing to bring quick-build gas turbine plants online. GE’s 7FA and […]

U.S.-based technology company Baker Hughes said it has a strategic technology solutions and equity agreement with energy storage group Hydrostor. The deal between the companies, announced January 28, integrates Baker Hughes’ technology as part of Hydrostor’s core design offering for the latter’s advanced compressed air energy storage, or A-CAES, solution.

Among the companies working on advanced geothermal tech is Rodatherm Energy Corp., a privately held company with a primary focus on the Great Basin region in the Western U.S. The Utah-based company, which also has operations in Calgary, Alberta in Canada, is known for its pioneering Advanced Geothermal System (AGS).

Developers of a new pumped storage hydropower installation in Washington state said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued an operating license for the project. Rye Development, a U.S.-based developer of pumped storage hydropower, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), on behalf of its Flagship Fund CI V, on January 22 said FERC gave the […]

Integrating distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar, wind, batteries, and electric vehicles into the power grid is an important part of the energy transition. Utilities and transmission system operators know they need more flexibility when it comes to power generation and delivery, which involves modernizing infrastructure, using advanced controls, and developing new market rules to manage two-way power flow.

In recent years, the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape has shifted from quiet curiosity to relentless noise. Conference taglines, vendor solicitations, and slide decks all seem to begin with the same question: What can AI do for you? And too often the answer comes in the form of a catalog of hundreds of “use cases,” neatly […]

Power systems today operate in an environment where reliability and safety must be maintained despite rising loads, expanding interconnections, and increasing dependence on distributed energy resources. One of the most important technologies that supports this stability is the digital overcurrent relay.

The electricity sector faces a timing problem that’s becoming impossible to ignore. Data centers, artificial intelligence (AI) deployment, industrial reshoring, and broader electrification are driving load growth at rates not seen in decades—and much of that new demand wants carbon-free, firm power. Nuclear checks those boxes. But can the industry deliver capacity fast enough? POWER […]

Deep Isolation Nuclear, an innovator in nuclear waste disposal technology, on January 13 said the company has successfully completed its Project SAVANT (Sequential Advancement of Technology for Deep Borehole Disposal), a two-year research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E).

Recent breakthroughs at U.S. fusion labs, along with new public-private partnerships, are bringing us closer than ever to realizing fusion energy’s limitless potential. However, the U.S. has a major gap to fill in fusion research and development (R&D), and workforce development.

Hydropower is among the most mature and reliable renewable energy technologies, but its dependability rests on thousands of tonnes of rotating equipment humming quietly for decades. Generators are at the heart of those units, and their performance hinges on bearings that carry enormous radial and axial loads. When a bearing fails, the result is not […]

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (HASI), a leading investor in sustainable infrastructure assets, and Sunrun, a provider of home battery storage, solar, and home-to-grid power plants, announced the closing of an innovative joint venture to finance distributed energy assets. The partnership announced January 6 is expected to ultimately finance more than 300 MW of capacity across […]

In power distribution systems, three-phase transformer configuration directly impacts system reliability and load management. Understanding the trade-offs between Delta and Wye connections enables engineers to

Distributed energy resources (DERs) have become a major part of the power generation landscape, particularly in support of a more reliable and resilient grid. Generating electricity from a variety of sources, including fossil fuels and renewables, using smaller-scale installations is now a key element of demand response and energy efficiency.

Critical plant control systems can be vulnerable to both physical and remote attacks. Marnie and Maya demonstrate some of these vulnerabilities as they become white-hat hackers at a biomass power plant. The

Power plants are engineered with precision down to the smallest detail, yet one critical variable is often considered too late in the process: water chemistry. When it’s considered early in design rather