Sustainability

  • White House Expands Data Center Ratepayer Pledge as Congress Moves to Codify Protections

    Congress and the White House advanced parallel tracks this week to keep large data centers from shifting their grid costs onto electricity customers, reflecting a concern that has gathered momentum among state regulators, consumer advocates, and members of both parties. On July 21, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 52-0 to advance the Ratepayer Protection […]

  • Severe Service Control Valves for Power Plants: Reducing Cavitation, Noise, and Maintenance Costs

    Power industry severe service applications can be difficult, but new advanced trim designs and external noise reduction devices have created higher-performing and more cost-effective alternatives. Power industry applications practically define the phrase “severe service.” Elevated temperatures and pressures, cavitation, erosive solids, and high noise all conspire to push control valve technology to its very limits. […]

  • America Needs a Fifth Nuclear Executive Order

    President Trump’s four nuclear executive orders issued on May 23, 2025, represented a historic liftoff for American nuclear energy. COMMENTARY As electricity demand surges, geopolitical energy competition intensifies, and America’s power infrastructure faces mounting strain, the administration acted decisively. It recognized that American energy dominance—and leadership in the digital age—requires a resurgence of nuclear reactor […]

  • Space Solar Power Is Coming Home to the Energy Industry

    Join energy leaders in the Space Solar Power Symposium at Experience POWER 2026 in Washington, D.C. A few weeks ago, while opening a panel on Space Solar Power (SSP) at SF Climate Week 2026 co-hosted by the Space Frontier Foundation and the Young Professionals in Energy, Bay Area, I asked the audience a simple question: […]

  • 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 […]

  • The Grid, Not Just Generation, Has Become the Central Climate Story

    For much of the past decade, the climate and energy debate has been fixated on how electricity is generated: which technologies are cheapest on paper, how renewables can scale fastest, which breakthrough is

  • On-Demand Webinar: Simplifying real-time natural gas monitoring with integrated process Raman and flow measurement

    Sponsored by:
    Thermo Fisher Scientific

    This webinar explores an integrated approach to natural gas monitoring that combines real-time, in-line process Raman spectroscopy with advanced flow measurement and control. Process Raman technology provides continuous gas composition and heating value (BTU) measurements, while the flow computer platform delivers standardized flow calculations, operational monitoring, and remote visibility from wellhead to pipeline. Attendees will […]

  • Wildfire Risk Is Rising. Electric Cooperatives Are Acting—Congress Must Too

    Wildfires are no longer isolated disasters limited to the western United States—they are a growing threat to communities, infrastructure, and electric grid reliability nationwide. For the 42 million Americans served by electric cooperatives, the risk is especially acute. Co-ops power more than half the nation’s landmass, primarily in rural areas where wildfire danger is highest […]

  • Advanced Weather Forecasting: How Sub-Kilometer Models Are Reshaping Utility Risk and Wildfire Decisions

    As fire-weather risk expands beyond California, utilities are turning to sub-kilometer, asset-level forecasts to support public safety power shutoff decisions they can defend in front of regulators. When the National Weather Service (NWS) issued routine convective outlooks on the morning of May 27, 2025, public guidance for the Houston metro called for widespread 30 to […]

  • How the Power Sector Is Bracing for a More Violent Climate

    Utilities, federal agencies, and the national labs have finally assembled the tools to harden the grid against an increasingly hostile environment. The question is whether they can put them together fast enough. When a line of storms tore across the Northeast in late April 2025, racing from Ohio into central Pennsylvania, meteorologists recognized the signature […]

  • AI-Powered Grid Management: Reducing Renewable Electricity Curtailment

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the energy system: While the expansion of wind and solar power continues to progress across Europe, AI will ensure the efficient use of every generated kilowatt-hour. Intelligent algorithms that synchronize generation and consumption in real time will help stabilize grids, avoiding expensive curtailment. Software will become an important tool for […]

  • Cuba’s Varadero Airport Aims for Solar Self-Sufficiency with New Photovoltaic Park

    Juan Gualberto Gómez Ferrer International Airport, the main gateway to the Varadero resort area, will become the first in Cuba to manage its entire electricity demand using solar energy, with the construction of a photovoltaic solar park that is already in the preparation stage. The information was confirmed by Osmany Sánchez, Secretary General of the […]

  • Managing AI’s Footprint in a Carbon-Constrained World

    Behind even the smallest convenience powered by AI is a massive surge of computing power for training models and inference. All that computing power requires energy.

  • Beyond Carbon: How Emerging Fuels and Technologies Can Help

    For years, the case for emerging fuels and technologies has often been told through the lens of decarbonization. That lens still matters, but it does not reflect the entire value proposition. Energy strategy is now being shaped by artificial intelligence (AI)/data centers, policy volatility, geopolitical disruption, supply-chain constraints, rising system complexity, and rapidly rising demand, […]

  • A Blueprint for Successful Solar Canopy Projects

    Solar canopies are unlocking clean energy potential in some of the built environment’s most underutilized spaces, but success depends on getting the details right. Solar canopy projects above parking

  • AI Data Center Growth Is Now a Power Infrastructure Problem

    Why megawatts, siting, firm generation, and power-aware design are becoming the real inner loop of the artificial intelligence (AI) race. “We are knocking on the door of these incredible capabilities. The ability to build basically machines out of sand.” Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, used that phrase at Davos this January to describe how silicon […]

  • Data Centers and Communities: Why the Conversation Demands More Nuance

    On April 7, the Maine House voted 82–62 to advance Legislative Document (LD) 307, a bill sponsored by Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, that would impose a moratorium on artificial intelligence (AI) data

  • Don’t Replace the Turbine, Re-Engineer It

    As the first generation of wind turbines ages out of manufacturer service agreements, operators are discovering that the smarter path forward isn’t wholesale replacement—it’s re-engineering components to

  • Why PLC Modernization Is Critical for Power Generation and Industrial Water Facilities

    Aging programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are exposing power generation and industrial water facilities to growing operational risk. A structured migration strategy can reduce downtime, strengthen cybersecurity, and position plants for a digital future.

  • How to Reduce Energy Consumption with Improved Data Center Cooling Efficiency

    By installing optimal components, finetuning utility processes, and partnering with the right suppliers, hyperscalers are improving data center cooling loop performance, which is increasing operational uptime, equipment safety, facility reliability, sustainability, and profitability. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an increasing staple in daily routines, data centers today are undergoing significant architectural shifts. Driven by the […]

  • How Corporate Energy Buyers Are Reshaping the U.S. Grid: CEBA CEO Rich Powell on Data Centers, Nuclear, and Permitting Reform

    Corporate America has become one of the most consequential forces shaping the U.S. electricity system. Speaking as a guest on The POWER Podcast, Rich Powell, CEO of the Corporate Energy Buyers Association (CEBA), explained how the country’s largest energy buyers are responding to unprecedented demand growth, betting on a widening mix of clean technologies, and […]

  • 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 […]

  • Electric Cooperative Leaders Advocate for Federal Policies Essential to Maintaining Affordable, Reliable Power

    Next week, roughly 1,500 electric cooperative leaders will gather in Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers and federal agencies at a pivotal moment for the nation’s energy future. They represent not-for-profit utilities that power 42 million Americans—many in rural communities—and they are coming with a clear message: smart energy policies are urgently needed to address […]

  • Making Solar Truly Sustainable: The Case for Recycling End of Life Panels

    Leading corporations are advancing their sustainability goals by investing in renewable energy, particularly through community solar credits that support both environmental and social impact. This trend follows the ever-growing solar market, driven by new production contracted by these large companies and utilities, businesses, and residential solar panel users. But to be sustainable, there’s more to […]

  • Every Fifth Pole: Ameren’s Staggered Strategy for Grid Hardening

    Ameren Illinois and Ameren Missouri found a “creative” way to strengthen their utility service territory by strategically installing fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite utility poles by Creative

  • GE Vernova, IHI Achieve 100% Ammonia Combustion in F-Class Gas Turbine Test

    GE Vernova and Japanese integrated heavy industry group IHI Corp. have demonstrated for the first time that full-scale combustor components for GE Vernova’s F-class gas turbines can operate on 100% ammonia at full-load conditions, clearing a critical technical barrier in their joint effort to decarbonize dispatchable power. The test was conducted at IHI’s Large-Scale Combustion […]

  • Striking a Balance When It Comes to Power

    Customized power solutions that provide reliability, resiliency, and energy autonomy no longer are a “nice to have,” but rather a “must have” for many businesses, not just for critical sites such as hospitals and military bases but also for other enterprises.

  • The Real Barriers to Power Sector Carbon Capture

    Despite growing technical maturity, post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects for power generation continue to face decisive hurdles. Integration complexity, financing structures, and risk

  • 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 […]

  • Water Strategy Is Power Strategy in the New Economy

    New research reveals artificial intelligence (AI)-driven water demand is set to surge nearly 130% over the next 25 years. Power generation consumes about half of that, turning water into a potential constraint on future capacity—and a catalyst for achieving a lasting transition to greater water security. Power producers are facing a new challenge: deliver more […]