Markets

  • 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 […]

  • DOE’s Section 202(c) Emergency Orders Since May 2025: 43 and Counting

    Since May 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued more than 40 emergency orders and extensions under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act—more than in any comparable period in the past two decades. The orders have fallen into two broad categories: retirement deferrals, which compel utilities and grid operators to keep specific generating […]

  • 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 in the middle of its biggest buildout in a

  • 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 […]

  • 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 […]

  • Resource Plans Drive Clean Energy Value Creation for Investors

    Electric utilities have a significant opportunity to create long‑term value by building new clean energy infrastructure—an approach Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway utilities have followed quietly but effectively for decades. Xcel Energy calls its version of this strategy “Steel for Fuel.”

  • 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 capacity was added across the U.S. last year.

  • FERC: Small QFs Lose FPA Exemptions When Certifications Become Inaccurate

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or the Commission) on February 19 of this year issued an Order on Rehearing and Clarification ruling that qualifying facilities (QFs) that are 20 MW or smaller cannot rely on their exemption from Federal Power Act (FPA) Sections 205 and 206 during periods when their Form No. 556 certifications are outdated due to any material changes from the original certification, such as changes in upstream ownership.

  • EQT, GIP Move to Take AES Private in $33B Bet on Data Center Power Demand

    A private equity–led consortium has agreed to take AES Corp. private in a $33.4 billion deal that—if completed—will shift one of the largest U.S.-listed power companies and a major data‑center renewables supplier into private ownership. AES’s board says the move, which comes as load growth and capital needs are rising across the sector, is designed […]

  • 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 […]

  • 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

  • Romania’s Coal-to-NuScale SMR Conversion Secures FID, Moves Into Implementation with Caveats

    Romania’s state nuclear utility Nuclearelectrica has approved a final investment decision (FID) for a 462‑MWe six-module NuScale module small modular reactor (SMR) project at the former Doicești coal plant. The decision by Nuclearelectrica’s shareholders on Feb. 12 to approve the FID effectively opens a pathway for the Doicești project—Europe’s most advanced SMR deployment—from an “analysis […]

  • Energea Launches Latin America Solar Portfolio with $100-Million Investment

    Global renewable energy developer and operator Energea said it has launched its LATAM Energy Portfolio, the company’s fourth and latest active investment strategy. The group on February 25 said it will invest in distributed solar power projects across South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

  • Geothermal Groundbreakers: The Projects Redefining Renewable Power

    Sponsored by:
    Halliburton

    A handful of geothermal projects are crossing from experimentation into execution, testing whether drilling gains, reservoir control, and new market demand can turn subsurface risk into firm, contractable power. Since 2021, geothermal power’s proposition has been quietly shifting, driven primarily by encouraging policy, but also a new class of decisive buyers. In response to reliability […]

  • 160 Days to Fission: Nuclear Power’s Sprint to Execution

    Sponsored by:
    TerraPower

    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 execution risk, supply chain constraints, and the race to achieve criticality by 2026. For the first time since the 1970s, multiple nuclear projects are under […]

  • Xcel Energy Inks Dual Alliances with GE Vernova, NextEra to Support 6-GW Data Center Outlook, Generation Expansion

    Xcel Energy has moved to lock in supply and development capacity for what could become 6 GW of data center load through separate strategic agreements with GE Vernova and NextEra Energy, announced this week, that reserve five F-class gas turbines, multiple gigawatts of wind capacity, and joint development resources to support generation buildout into the […]

  • Natura, NGL Move to Pair Nuclear Molten Salt Reactors with Large-Scale Produced-Water Treatment in Permian

    Abilene-based Natura Resources, which won the first federal construction permit for a liquid-fueled molten-salt reactor in 2024, will work with NGL Water Solutions Permian to explore deploying its 100-MWe reactor design alongside thermal desalination systems to transform briny drilling waste into usable water—while powering data centers and other industrial loads hungry for around-the-clock electricity. The […]

  • Evolving Technologies, Outdated Regulations Impact Mid-Atlantic Generation Permitting

    Energy-generation permitting in the Mid-Atlantic continues to evolve in 2026 not through wholesale deregulation or uniform acceleration, but through procedural and permitting reform and the potential allocation of generation development authority to public utilities. States are enacting these changes to meet the reality of reliability concerns, transmission constraints, large load-growth, and to address frequent obstruction of energy projects by local government.

  • PJM Dials Back Near-Term Load Outlook but Maintains Steep Long-Term Growth Trajectory

    PJM Interconnection has trimmed its near-term peak-demand projections in its updated 20-year load forecast, citing tighter vetting of large-load adjustment requests and revised electric-vehicle (EV) and economic assumptions. The grid operator, however, reaffirmed expectations for significant long-term growth driven by data centers and broader electrification. In its 2026 Long-Term Load Forecast, issued on Jan. 14, PJM […]

  • Meta Locks In Up to 6.6 GW of Nuclear Power Through Deals with Vistra, Oklo, and TerraPower

    In-Depth: Meta’s suite of three landmark agreements is poised to provide the financial certainty to extend aging plants, accelerate first-of-a-kind advanced reactor deployments, and relieve PJM’s tightening capacity constraints while establishing the hyperscaler as an anchor customer for a 6.6-GW corporate-backed nuclear fleet. In a stunning move that reinforces Big Tech’s growing role in underwriting […]

  • Transformers in 2026: Shortage, Scramble, or Self-Inflicted Crisis?

    Analysts still see multi-year deficits in U.S. transformer supply, even as equipment manufacturers invest billions in new factories and advanced manufacturing processes. But some brokers suggest there is no

  • Despite Federal Support, Economic Forces Are Driving the Future of Coal

    The Trump administration during both its terms has prioritized its efforts on reviving the coal industry by introducing a series of policy changes and executive actions intended to boost coal leasing and production on federal lands. Yet, despite these political moves, coal’s trajectory in the U.S. energy market has followed a different path.

  • Power Generation in the Age of AI: Year-End 2025 Outlook

    In early 2020, the prevailing narrative in the power sector was a continuation story of the developments from the decade before: renewable buildout will keep compounding, thermal capacity will keep retiring (albeit at a slower rate), markets will evolve to compensate for flexible generation products, capital will keep moving earlier in the development value chain […]

  • Lebanon, Egypt Sign Deal to Supply Natural Gas for Lebanese Power Plant

    Officials from both Egypt and Lebanon have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deliver Egyptian natural gas to the Deir Ammar power plant in Lebanon.

  • Report: U.S. Adds 11.7 GW of New Solar Capacity in Q3

    The U.S. solar power industry installed 11.7 GW of new generation in the third quarter of this year, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). It’s the third-largest quarterly gain on record, and moves total solar installations in 2025 above the 30-GW level.

  • Looking Back at 2025 to Look Forward for 2026: Navigating Policy Shifts and Market Surges

    The past year saw a multitude of factors driving up electricity prices, including rapid growth in electricity demand, supply chain tightness, deployment delays for transmission and production projects, and an uncertain political and permitting climate. We expect all of these trends to continue in 2026. Changing economics have turned the justification for project development in […]

  • Data Centers and the Grid: Key Insights from POWER’s Inaugural Data Center POWER eXchange Summit

    POWER breaks down the top insights from Data Center POWER eXchange, its unique one-day summit curated by POWER’s editorial team and convened to examine the collision between accelerating data center load and tightening grid constraints.  The rise of artificial intelligence is poised to create the fastest, largest, and most concentrated surge of electricity demand in […]

  • NERC: Winter Grid Reliability at Risk Amid Soaring Demand, Fuel Supply Gaps

    In its recently released Winter Reliability Assessment, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) found that while resources are adequate for normal winter peak demand, large swaths of North America face an elevated risk of electricity shortfalls during prolonged, wide-area cold snaps. Noting that four severe Arctic storms have swept across much of the continent since […]

  • FERC Approves NRG Energy Plan to Buy 12.9 GW of Gas-Fired Generation

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has signed off on NRG Energy’s plan to acquire nearly 13 GW of natural gas-fired power generation. The agency on November 13 said it supports Houston, Texas-based NRG’s $12-billion deal with New York-based LS Power for capacity in the PJM market territory.

  • Ready, Go, Set: How Disruptions Are Flipping EPC Contracting

    What’s driving a fundamental shift in engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracting? Equipment lead times. Workforce shortages. Data center timelines. POWER examines how the traditional EPC