News
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Gas
APS Will Convert Retired Coal Units to Burn Natural Gas at Cholla Site
Arizona Public Service (APS) said it plans to convert two closed coal-fired units at its Cholla Power Plant to burn natural gas. The utility this month said construction on the conversion would begin in 2028, with the new units—designed to generate 380 MW of electricity—coming online the following year.
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Press Releases
WeaveGrid, GM Advance Grid-Integrated EV Charging and Home Energy Programs
WeaveGrid, a grid-edge orchestration software provider for electric utilities, is collaborating with GM Energy to support access to utility programs across the country. The collaboration is aligned with General Motors’ vehicle-to-grid (V2G) efforts and is designed to help eligible Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac EV drivers participate in utility programs that can help support a more […]
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Fusion
Google Invests in $468-Million Funding Round for German Fusion Group
Proxima Fusion, a Munich, Germany-based group that is considered among the leading European companies working on fusion energy, said it completed a €411 million ($468 million) funding round. Proxima on July 7 said investors included technology giant Google along with global energy company RWE.
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Solar
ES Foundry Completes 2-GW Solar Cell Factory Expansion
South Carolina-based ES Foundry, a crystalline solar cell production company, said it has completed a 2-GW expansion of its factory in Greenwood, South Carolina. The company on July 7 said the first solar cell has come off the new production line at the site, and said its total annual solar cell manufacturing capacity is now 3 GW.
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Fuel Cells
Brookfield, Bloom Energy Expand AI Infrastructure Partnership to $25 Billion
Fuel cell systems developer Bloom Energy and investment firm Brookfield said the companies are expanding their partnership agreement and increasing their project financing to $25 billion. The companies initially announced a $5-billion partnership deal in October of last year.
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Energy Storage
First Year in Operation: Performance Lessons From a 100-MW/400-MWh CAISO Battery
Battery energy storage promises fast response, grid flexibility, and predictable output, yet most discussions rely on modeled projections rather than actual operating data. This article presents first year performance results from Caballero, a 100-MW/400-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) active in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid since early 2025. It also examines a […]
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advanced nuclear
Aalo Atomics’ Test Reactor Reaches Criticality at INL, Fourth DOE-Authorized Advanced Reactor by July 4
Aalo Atomics’ Aalo-X Critical Test Reactor (CTR)—dubbed “Project First Light”—has reached criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), marking the fourth Department of Energy (DOE)–authorized advanced reactor startup under the federal push to accelerate reactor testing and demonstration. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said July 6 that Aalo’s test reactor, which DOE referred to as […]
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Nuclear
AMPERA Produces First 3D-Printed Nuclear Reactor Module
Advanced energy technology group AMPERA announced the company has completed production of what it called the first full-scale, 3D-printed nuclear reactor module.
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Nuclear
Centrus Signs $900M DOE Contract, Pivots Sole U.S. HALEU Cascade to Commercial Operation
Centrus Energy has finalized a $900 million task order with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that clears the way for the company to transition its pioneering high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) cascade in Piketon, Ohio, from a government-funded demonstration to private commercial operation. The Bethesda, Maryland-headquartered firm on July 1 announced that its wholly owned subsidiary American […]
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Legal & Regulatory
NRC Proposes Landmark Reactor Licensing Overhaul, Bundling Decades of Modernization Into One Rule
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed what may be its most consequential reactor-licensing overhaul in a generation, a 553-page rulemaking that seeks to rewrite core pieces of the regulatory framework governing how commercial nuclear plants are sited, licensed, built, modified, operated, renewed, fueled, and ultimately decommissioned. Issued July 1, the proposed rule, “Modernizing Reactor […]
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Full Coverage
Deployable Energy’s Unity Nuclear Reactor Achieves Criticality at INL, Third Under DOE Nuclear Push
Deployable Energy’s Unity demonstration reactor has achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), making it the third Department of Energy (DOE)–authorized advanced reactor to reach the milestone ahead of the July 4 deadline set under President Trump’s May 2025 nuclear executive order. The U.S. DOE on July 1 said Deployable Energy’s Unity reactor completed a […]
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History
Against the Wind: Inside the Completion of America’s Largest Offshore Wind Plant
A decade after Dominion Energy secured a federal lease off Virginia Beach, the 2.6-GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project has cleared the full U.S. permitting stack, survived a federal stop-work
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Renewables
A Model for a Clean Energy Future: Arevon’s Eland Solar-Plus-Storage Project
Arevon’s Eland solar-plus-storage project in California provides power for the Los Angeles region and is helping the state progress toward its goal of providing more renewable energy.
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Data Centers
A Republican and a Democrat Walk Into EEI—and Agree on Data Centers
Brian Kemp is a Republican. Katie Hobbs is a Democrat. The governor of Georgia campaigns on tax cuts and a growth agenda; the governor of Arizona calls herself a social worker who came to the job from a
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Data Centers
Blue Energy, GE Vernova Advance ‘Gas Bridge’ Model to Unlock Nuclear Finance
At a recent energy conference, power sector stakeholders agreed the looming fleet of hyperscale data centers will require vast amounts of clean, firm capacity. But while nuclear looks like the most plausible
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Renewables
Battery Energy Storage, Grid Investments Surge Across Europe
A major renewable energy developer and a leading independent asset manager have joined to support a portfolio of battery energy storage systems in Poland, part of the continuing buildout of new power infrastructure across Europe.
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News and Notes
POWER Digest [July 2026]
X-energy Advances 6-GW Nuclear Partnership With UK’s Centrica. Advanced nuclear reactor developer X-energy on June 2 said it submitted an application for the UK’s Generic Design Assessment (GDA)—the
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Hybrid Power
Cogeneration’s Advantage: Efficiency, Resilience, and the Case for Captured Heat
The average U.S. power plant wastes two-thirds of its fuel as heat, yet the technology to capture it has existed for decades—and already powers 30% or more of the grid in parts of Europe.
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Nuclear
NRC Charts a Disposal Path for Nuclear Waste Stuck at a ‘Dead End’
For decades, the most radioactive category of low-level waste in the U.S. has had a disposal plan that exists only on paper: a deep geologic repository that was never built. Late last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) moved to replace that plan with one that can actually be licensed. The agency proposed a sweeping […]
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Legal & Regulatory
Public Power’s Affordability Edge Faces Its Hardest Test in Years
For decades, the pitch for community-owned electric utilities has been simple enough to fit on a bill insert: lower rates, reliable service, and decisions made close to home. The numbers still back that up. What has changed, according to Scott Corwin, president and CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA), is the difficulty of […]
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Geothermal
Ormat Bets on Standardization to Win the Geothermal Race
Electricity demand is climbing at a pace the power industry hasn’t seen in a generation, and the companies trying to feed it with geothermal energy are mostly racing in one direction: drill faster. Ormat Technologies is making a different bet. The company that has built and run geothermal plants for six decades thinks the constraint […]
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Hydro
Pumped Storage Additions Lead Global Hydropower Growth
The International Hydropower Association (IHA) said global installed hydropower capacity reached 1,469 GW in 2025 after the addition of 28 GW of new capacity during the year, including a record 11.6 GW of pumped storage. Pumped storage capacity surpassed 200 GW globally for the first time.
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Energy Storage
Ore Energy Will Deploy 1 GWh of Iron-Air Long-Duration Energy Storage in Europe
Ore Energy, the Netherlands-based iron-air multi-day energy storage company, on June 22 announced an agreement with Budget Thuis, one of the largest Dutch energy suppliers, to deploy 1 GWh of iron-air long-duration energy storage (LDES).
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Offshore Wind
Blending Marine and Energy Technologies for Floating Offshore Wind
The unique demands of floating offshore wind turbines require a blend of specialized coating systems engineered to help prevent corrosion and extend asset service life in some of the world’s harshest environments.
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Geothermal
Geothermal Has Its Own Ghawar Fields—Nobody Is Looking for Them Yet
The global hunt for clean, always-on power is intensifying. Data centers powering artificial intelligence (AI) are signing long-term energy contracts at extraordinary speed. Against this backdrop, geothermal energy—carbon-free and available around the clock—is attracting serious capital for the first time in a generation.
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Nuclear
Elementl Power Developing Ohio SMR Project with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy
An independent developer of utility-scale nuclear power projects said it has an agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy for a nuclear power plant utilizing small modular reactors (SMRs). Elementl Power on June 18 said the facility, sited along the Ohio River about 100 miles southeast of Columbus, has a planned capacity of as much as 1.5 GW.
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Energy Storage
REV Renewables, Community Choice Aggregators Bring Energy Storage Project Online
REV Renewables (REV), an LS Power company and a developer, owner, and operator of renewable energy and energy storage projects, said the company marked a major milestone with the commissioning of its Tumbleweed Energy Storage facility in Kern County, California.
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Solar
Soltec Touts PFE-Compliant Certification for Solar Trackers
Soltec has announced that it is now able to provide PFE-compliant certification for its U.S. SFOne and SF7 series 1P and 2P trackers, reinforcing the company’s ability to support utility-scale solar projects in the U.S. under the new regulatory and market conditions.
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advanced nuclear
Valar Atomic’s Ward 250 Becomes Second Reactor to Go Critical Under DOE Pilot Program
Valar Atomics has achieved self-sustaining criticality and completed zero-power testing at Ward 250, its Gen IV tri-structural isotropic (TRISO)-fueled modular high-temperature gas reactor (HTGR), at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab in Emery County. The project is the second advanced reactor to go critical under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Reactor Pilot Program and the first DOE-authorized […]
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Nuclear
In a First for Advanced Nuclear: Siemens Energy Turbine Package Advances for Oklo’s Aurora-INL
The steam turbine and generator package for Oklo’s first Aurora powerhouse at Idaho National Laboratory (INL)—a pioneering application of a commercially established industrial turbine platform at the heart of a first-of-a-kind advanced reactor’s conventional island—is in active production at Siemens Energy’s facilities in Görlitz and Erfurt, Germany. In details provided to POWER, both companies confirmed the […]