International
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Solar
China Donates 5,000 Solar PV Systems to Cuba Amid Energy Crisis
The Cuban National Electric Union (UNE) is implementing a program to install 5,000 2-kW photovoltaic (PV) systems, donated by China, with the goal of diversifying the energy mix and ensuring essential services amidst the current energy crisis. Elena Maidelín Ortiz Fernández, head of the project to install these systems, explained to a Cuban newspaper that […]
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Nuclear
Ontario Advances Bruce C Nuclear Project with $300M Pre-Development Agreement
Ontario took its most decisive step yet toward building Canada’s first large-scale nuclear station in more than three decades, directing the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to enter a cost-sharing and recovery agreement with Bruce Power to advance pre-construction work on the proposed Bruce C project. The agreement, announced on May 7 by Energy and […]
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Top Plant
POWER Reveals 2026 Awards Finalists; Readers to Choose Plant of the Year
POWER is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 POWER Awards, recognizing the projects, people, and organizations setting the pace for the global power industry. Winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony at Experience POWER in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, at 5 p.m. New this year: the Plant of the […]
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Energy Storage
Europe Embraces Energy Storage to Enhance Power Flexibility
Europe is a top market for deployments of energy storage, as companies expand investment for the technology. A recent report from Wood Mackenzie said Europe’s utility-scale pipeline for energy storage exceeds 130 GW, with more 3,000 projects across at least 37 countries.
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Energy Security
ZettaJoule Pursues a Second Act for Japan’s High-Temperature Nuclear Reactor
A Houston-based nuclear technology startup is advancing a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) design that targets outlet temperatures of 950C (1,742F)—well beyond the range of most advanced reactor
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Renewables
POWER Digest (May 2026)
Octopus Australia in March broke ground on the $900 million Blind Creek Solar Farm and Battery project. Local officials said the installation is a major milestone for regional infrastructure and energy security in New South Wales (NSW).
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Energy Security
Cuba’s First Biomethane Plant: Renewable Fuel for Buses and Electricity
The Cuban state-owned Cuba Petroleo (Cupet) announced in April 2026, via its Facebook page, that Cuba’s first biomethane plant, located in the municipality of Martí, Matanzas province, has progressed to its final assembly and production phase. Edrey Rocha González, Cupet’s general director, supervised the work on this facility, designed to produce biomethane to fuel buses […]
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Safety
Death Toll from Boiler Explosion at Vedanta’s India Coal Power Plant Rises to 24, Triggers Probes
A catastrophic boiler explosion at Vedanta Limited’s Chhattisgarh Thermal Power Plant (VLCTPP) in east‑central India has left scores of workers dead and injured, prompting questions over boiler safety enforcement and operator oversight at privately owned coal plants in the country. The explosion, which occurred on April 14, has triggered parallel criminal, technical, and administrative investigations […]
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Wind
DTEK Will Build $1.4-Billion, 650-MW Wind Farm in Ukraine
The largest private energy company in Ukraine said it will invest €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) for construction of the 650-MW Poltavska wind farm in that country.
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Technology
China Restarting Massive Coal-to-Gas Project After Decade-Long Pause
Chinese officials have said they will revive a multibillion-dollar coal gasification project, in part due to global gas supply disruptions caused by the U.S. and Isreal’s war with Iran.
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Cybersecurity
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 […]
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Nuclear
Framatome Joins Four Utilities to Advance VVER 440 Nuclear Fuel Design
Longtime France-headquartered nuclear energy group Framatome and representatives from four utilities have signed a contract to advance the development of Framatome’s 100% sovereign European VVER 440 fuel design.
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Data Centers
TikTok Investing $1.16 Billion for Second Data Center in Finland
Social media group TikTok said it would invest €1 billion ($1.16 billion) to build the company’s second data center in Finland. TikTok on April 7 said the new facility would be in Lahti, in southern Finland, and would have capacity of 50 MW, scalable to 128 MW.
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Nuclear
GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy Supporting Deployment of SMR in Sweden
GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) said it has entered into a main services agreement with AFRY, a Sweden-headquartered engineering, project management, and advisory company, to support deployment of GVH’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) technology in that country.
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Energy Security
Keeping the Lights On: How Cuba Is Fighting an Energy Crisis Under Tightened Sanctions
The current state of the national power grid in Cuba is a response to an exceptionally complex scenario, marked by the intensification of the U.S. embargo and its direct impact on fuel supplies. This was the message delivered by First Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Argelio Jesús Abad Vigoa, during his appearance on the […]
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Hybrid Power
Aggreko Signs PPA with Mining Group for Hybrid Power Facility in Australia
Aggreko has finalized a landmark power purchase agreement (PPA) with international mining company Harmony Gold for the Eva Copper Mine Project in Northwest Queensland, Australia. The PPA announced April 2 supports development of Australia’s largest off-grid renewable hybrid power facility.
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Energy Storage
Investment Group Acquires Stake in TotalEnergies’ German Energy Storage Portfolio
TotalEnergies has sold a 50% stake in an 800-MW portfolio of battery energy storage projects in Germany to Allianz Global Investors, a Germany-based group that has nearly $640 billion of assets under management.
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History
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 effort still underway—and the new
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Renewables
Geothermal’s Rise a Hot Topic Worldwide
The global surge in energy demand is spurring investment in several sectors, and is bringing renewed interest in areas such as geothermal. The world’s literal hot spots—places such as Iceland, Indonesia, Kenya, and part of the U.S.—are seeing new projects, often as part of testing of advanced technologies such as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS).
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Gas
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
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Energy Security
Europe’s Grid Is Already a Hybrid War Target—Most Utilities Aren’t Ready
European electricity infrastructure has become a target of sustained hybrid warfare, and a new report from Eurelectric, the region’s power sector trade group, finds that most of the continent’s utilities
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Renewables
The Hidden Idle Asset Trap: A New Era of BESS Optimization in Europe
Record battery deployments across Europe are masking a growing crisis: assets that are grid-connected but financially idle, stranded by saturated markets and outdated optimization strategies.
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Gas
How Energas Turned an Environmental Concern into Cuba’s Cheapest Power
Energas is a company that stands as a successful example of foreign investment for over 20 years. Its partners include the Cuban state-owned companies Unión Eléctrica (UNE) and CubaPetróleo (CUPET), and its foreign partner is Sherritt International. With an installed capacity of 480 MW across three plants—Energas Boca de Jaruco (Figure 1), Energas Puerto Escondido, […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Solar Power Satellites and Orbital Data Centers—International Space Law Implications
In 2011, I published an article in the Boston University Journal of Science & Technology Law examining space-based solar power (SBSP) and the issue of property rights in space, and more specifically, in geostationary orbit (GEO), under the current regime of international treaties and policies. Today, as the demand for computing power grows, that question […]
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Electrification
UK Government Will Require Solar Power, Heat Pumps in All New British Homes
Officials in the UK have published a planning document that calls for housing developers to install solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes in England starting in 2028. The government on March 24 also said plug-in solar panels that homeowners can self-install on balconies would be widely available in the coming months.
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T&D
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 […]
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Energy Storage
Cuba Begins Testing First Battery Energy Storage System to Boost Grid Stability
As part of the country’s strategic program to strengthen the stability of the national grid, Cuba has begun load testing of the first unit of a battery energy storage system (BESS) at the El Cotorro substation in Havana. This is the first of four systems with a total capacity of 200 MW. According to the […]
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Nuclear
GE Vernova, Hitachi Exploring SMR Deployment in Southeast Asia
Energy giants GE Vernova and Hitachi said the companies have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) as part of a plan to deploy the groups’ water-cooled BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) in Southeast Asia.
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News
Cuba Suffers Widespread Power Outage After Guiteras Plant Failure: Timeline of the National Grid Restoration
On March 4, the Cuban Electric Union (UNE) reported, through its official account on the social network X, that at 12:35 pm a partial power outage occurred affecting the national grid from the province of Camagüey to Pinar del Río province. Following the outage, all established protocols for system restoration were immediately activated, with the […]
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blackouts
THE BIG PICTURE (Infographic): Blackouts in 2025
Major power outage events in 2025 reveal a broad spectrum of reliability risks, spanning voltage instability and protection failures to extreme weather and heat-related transmission stress. Compared with recent years, which were largely characterized by weather-driven disruptions and resource-adequacy events, 2025 incidents more clearly highlight vulnerabilities in interconnected system operations, including voltage management, reactive power […]