Technology
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Fusion
Fuse Touts ‘Highest’ Neutron Yield by Any Fusion Company
A California-based fusion energy company announced it has reached an industry milestone. Fuse Energy Technologies Corp. on August 10 published a report noting the company set a record for the highest fusion neutron yield—1.27×10¹² in a single shot—by any commercial fusion company.
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Commentary
Alarm Bells Are Sounding for the Grid: Answering Them Takes More Than Megawatts
When federal emergency powers become routine operating procedure, the system is not holding up. It is operating at its ceiling. And the customers who kept their lights on paid triple for the privilege, which means the event that operations survived is one that affordability did not.
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Data Centers
More Data Center Operators Commit to Abbott’s Texas Standards as Power Companies Endorse ERCOT Batch Framework
A growing group of data center operators—including Dallas-based Skybox Datacenters, Austin-headquartered bitcoin miner and hyperscale developer Mara, and global colocation giant Digital Realty—have publicly committed to comply with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s data center standards and the state’s active audit of projects in the Texas grid operator’s interconnection queue. They join QTS Data Centers, Blackstone’s […]
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Technology
Rugged Switchgear–A Reliable Data Center’s Bedrock
Ruggedly engineered and manufactured switchgear provides safe, redundant power while also delivering the resilience and continuous operation expected in large-scale data center environments. As demand for cloud services, large-scale data processing, and artificial intelligence continues to grow, hyperscale data centers have expanded dramatically in size. It is now typical for a single campus to encompass […]
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Nuclear
Curio, NuScale, Framatome Join to Support Fuel Solution for Advanced Reactors
Three companies at the forefront of nuclear energy technology have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to evaluate fuel technologies to support advancement of next-generation nuclear power.
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Nuclear
DOE Approves Safety Design of Deep Fission’s Underground SMR
California-based Deep Fission said the DOE signed off on the Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (NSDA) for its Gravity Nuclear Reactor. The group called it a major regulatory milestone that confirms Deep Fission’s reactor design warrants advancement under the DOE Reactor Pilot Program.
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Trends
Oklo’s Groves Becomes Fifth DOE Pilot Reactor to Reach Criticality, First on Private Land
Oklo’s Groves Isotope Test Reactor in Lockhart, Texas, has become the fifth reactor to achieve criticality under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program (RPP), and the first under the program to do so on private land. The low-power test reactor reached criticality at 9:19 p.m. ET Aug. 5, achieving a controlled, self-sustaining nuclear […]
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Data Centers
AI’s Obstacle: Why the Grid Can’t Keep Pace With the Data Center Boom
Growth in artificial intelligence (AI) is outpacing the world’s ability to generate enough power to sustain it. As AI adoption accelerates worldwide, it’s colliding with a power system that wasn’t built for its level of demand. Vittorio Pierangeli, senior vice president PowerGen at Rolls-Royce Power Systems (Figure 1), explains why electricity, not chips or algorithms, […]
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Smart Grid
Resilience and Digital Transformation Spearhead the Energy Infrastructure Transition
The transition to sustainable energy infrastructure has been experiencing steady progress in recent years across the globe, while simultaneously undergoing constant fluctuation. Actual progress is influenced by a wide variety of factors, such as the drivers behind participants’ motivations and the technologies enabling the transition, as well as the status of supply chains and geopolitical […]
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Commentary
The Power Sector’s New Constraint Isn’t Demand—It’s Everything Else
For most of the last two decades, the anxiety in power planning was about demand: would consumption grow fast enough to justify new capacity, and how would an aging fleet keep pace? That question has inverted. Demand is no longer the uncertain variable—it is the one thing forecasters are confident about. The uncertainty now sits […]
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Cybersecurity
Minutes to Exploit—Months to Recover
Critical infrastructure operators should view recent incidents where artificial intelligence (AI) agents escaped containment from test environments and executed successful cyberattacks on a relatively sophisticated production infrastructure as near-misses. This challenge is urgent precisely because AI moves fast and infrastructure moves slow. All indications suggest these were not malicious uses of AI for targeted attacks. […]
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Trends
Scalable, Grid-Ready Storage: How Connector Design Is Shaping the Next Generation of Energy Systems
As utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) scale from megawatts to gigawatts, the engineering complexity grows exponentially. Higher-voltage architectures and denser rack configurations are pushing the limits of conventional component design and exposing gaps that can compromise system performance and site safety. For the electrical engineers and systems integrators building these projects, the cells, fire […]
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Gas
A Pioneering Approach to Building New Generation Resources
A North Dakota–based membership cooperative teamed with a major infrastructure engineering and construction group to build a new natural gas–fired power station, supporting an urgent need for power generation capacity in the region.
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Gas
Innovation Powers a Country’s Energy Transition
Vietnam’s growing economy and need for more electricity is being served by the country’s first power plant to be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Nhon Trach 3 and 4 expansion project is a finalist for a POWER Top Plant award for gas-fired generation.
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Energy Security
World’s Largest Energy Lender Steers Federal Financing Toward Baseload, Transmission, and Nuclear
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) closed a loan of up to $3.26 billion to American Electric Power (AEP) Texas on July 8, the office’s third utility
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Electrification
Safety at Speed: Modern Grids Demand a Different Approach
At 4:30 a.m., before the sun is up, a lineworker steps onto a site that did not exist six months ago. By mid-morning, crews from three different contractors will be working in parallel: civil teams finishing trenching, electricians pulling cable, another crew preparing for energization. The schedule is tight. The handoffs are constant. On paper, […]
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Smart Grid
Enabling Modern Grid Flexibility With Coordinated, Location-Specific Optimization
Integrate high-load data centers and renewable energy without compromising grid reliability. Grid reliability hinges on the flexibility identified, managed, and optimized by operational technology (OT). The
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Energy Storage
The BESS Connection to the Grid—Ensuring Flexibility and Reliability
When designed to interface directly with a utility’s medium-voltage infrastructure, battery energy storage systems (BESS) must meet stringent performance, protection, and reliability requirements that extend
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Waste to Energy
Unlocking Waste-to-Energy for Energy Security and Regional Growth
Waste-to-energy technologies, long viewed mainly for waste management, are finding renewed relevance.
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Nuclear
The Two-Component Future: Fast Reactors Step Out of the Shadows at FR26
Nuclear power is experiencing yet another boom. This time it may genuinely lead to a sharp expansion of the global reactor fleet. Several drivers are at work: decarbonization requirements, growing energy
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Technology
Rediscovering Digital Twins for a New Power Era
Modern power challenges—from renewables and microgrids to artificial intelligence factories—are driving renewed adoption of digital twins as flexible, high-fidelity environments for zero-risk
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Data Centers
Aalo, Crusoe Plan 2027 INL Demonstration Pairing Nuclear Power and AI Data Center Load
Advanced nuclear firm Aalo Atomics has formed a strategic partnership with energy-first AI infrastructure company Crusoe to develop a nuclear-powered “AI Factory” data center in a project that will combine Aalo’s advanced reactor development program at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) with Crusoe’s modular AI data center platform. The companies said on July 30 that under […]
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Trends
Holtec Targets 2036 for 1.36-GW SMR-300 Project at Oyster Creek
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved the License Termination Plan (LTP) for the Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey, a regulatory milestone that clears the final phase of decommissioning and sets the stage for Holtec International to pursue construction of four SMR-300 small modular reactor units at the Lacey Township, New Jersey, […]
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Fusion
Commonwealth Fusion Systems Raises Another $1 Billion as Work on Commercial Power Plant Continues
A varied group of investors has provided Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) with another $1 billion in equity financing, with the company on July 30 saying the funding supports the group’s continuing work toward operating a commercial fusion energy power plant.
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Commentary
Your Battery Doesn’t Know What an Hour Is
Lithium-ion forklift battery life is measured in cycles, not hours. Here’s why hours-based promises mislead, and a simple formula to calculate real battery lifetime for your operation. The average human life expectancy in the U.S. is about 687,000 hours. That number is accurate, but it is also completely useless for estimating your individual lifetime. Car […]
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Nuclear
Microsoft’s $60 Million Genesis Mission Commitment Puts Nuclear AI at the Center
Last week, Microsoft announced a $60 million, multiyear commitment to the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Genesis Mission, the national initiative to embed artificial intelligence (AI) across the country’s 17 national laboratories. The company’s stated goal, echoing DOE’s own framing, is to help “double the productivity and impact of American research and innovation within a decade.” […]
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Energy Storage
Viridi BESS Installed at Oak Ridge Lab as Part of Grid Technology Research
Battery storage developer Viridi has announced a strategic partnership with the Dept. of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee to support research into next-generation utility grid technologies that advance grid resilience and reliability.
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Press Releases
Energy Vault Breaks Ground on AI Campus in Texas for Crusoe Spark Modular Data Centers
Energy Vault, a global energy infrastructure company that supports power grid reliability and next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing infrastructure, on July 27 announced that construction has commenced at its powered AI infrastructure campus in Snyder, Texas, for Crusoe Cloud.
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Solar
Caelux Signs Partnership Deals With Leading India Solar Module Makers
A California-based solar power equipment group said it has signed two separate five-year, 5-GW commercialization partnerships with a pair of India’s leading solar module manufacturers.
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Commentary
Your Customers Are Asking AI About You. Do You Know What It’s Saying?
Why Generative Engine Optimization Is the Next Reputation Management Secret Weapon for Energy Brands Energy has become a kitchen-table issue. Bills are climbing. Data centers are being built at a breakneck pace, and new technologies are being launched faster than ever before, often facing NIMBY concerns. As customers and stakeholders look for answers, they may […]