Technology

Akshai Baskaran is VP and GM, Energy Management, for Gravity, a San Francisco, California-based company that helps enterprises and their supply chain partners manage their carbon footprint. Baskaran provided POWER with his take on the challenges and opportunities for distributed energy resources in the current regulatory landscape.

The race to lead when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more about securing the power necessary for data centers and other AI infrastructure. In this POWER Interview, Andrejka Bernatova, founder, chairman, and CEO of Dynamix Capital Partners, discusses Dynamix’s belief that the energy and infrastructure industry is in the early phases of a decades-long transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future.

Nuclear energy company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) said it would collaborate with chipmaker NVIDIA and energy technology group Siemens to develop a digital twin of its SPARC fusion machine. The companies said their work will apply artificial intelligence (AI) and data and project management tools to accelerate commercial fusion.

A North Carolina-headquartered developer of small modular nuclear power plants announced it has an agreement with the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) for an initiative to build and operate a molten salt reactor.

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (HASI), a leading investor in sustainable infrastructure assets, and Sunrun, a provider of home battery storage, solar, and home-to-grid power plants, announced the closing of an innovative joint venture to finance distributed energy assets. The partnership announced January 6 is expected to ultimately finance more than 300 MW of capacity across […]

Two Colorado-based groups are partnering to develop power generation solutions for data centers. Liberty Energy, the Denver-based oil and gas company founded by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Vantage Data Centers (also headquartered in Denver) on January 5 announced a partnership to “develop and deliver utility-scale, high-efficiency power solutions,” presumably natural gas-fired units, for Vantage’s continued expansion of its North American portfolio.

Japanese officials announced the start of commercial operation of a 16.8-MW floating offshore wind farm, a first for that country. The project partners, a consortium that includes some of the biggest names in Japanese energy, on January 5 said the Goto Floating Wind Farm also represents the first commercial application of a hybrid SPAR-type floater technology.

A major independent power producer in Vietnam said its 1.6-GW Nhon Trach 3&4 Power Plant has entered commercial operation. PetroVietnam Power Corp., a subsidiary of the state-owned PetroVietnam (PVN) Group, on January 5 said the facility is the first in the country to be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

From artificial intelligence-driven efficiency to transmission bottlenecks, power industry insiders share their perspectives on the opportunities and obstacles shaping 2026 and beyond. The power generation

Distributed energy resources (DERs) have become a major part of the power generation landscape, particularly in support of a more reliable and resilient grid. Generating electricity from a variety of sources, including fossil fuels and renewables, using smaller-scale installations is now a key element of demand response and energy efficiency.

The power industry’s ambitious expansion plans for 2026 face an unexpected obstacle that has nothing to do with technology, regulations, or capital: there simply aren’t enough skilled workers to build and

Critical plant control systems can be vulnerable to both physical and remote attacks. Marnie and Maya demonstrate some of these vulnerabilities as they become white-hat hackers at a biomass power plant. The

Centralized remote monitoring is reshaping power plant operations, enabling specialized teams to oversee multiple facilities from a single location. This discussion examines the technology, benefits, and

Chicken Switch Hitter CBS ArcSafe, a leading manufacturer of remote racking and switching solutions for low- and medium-voltage switchgear, introduced the RSK-CSH-W Chicken Switch Hitter (Figure 1), a wireless

In reliability engineering, few indicators are as consistently revealing as the particles that infiltrate a lubrication system. Long before vibration, temperature, or performance changes become measurable

Electricity management is undergoing a fundamental shift. The traditional model of one-way power flows is giving way to a dynamic system shaped by distributed assets and active consumer participation. Renewables are proliferating, distributed energy resource (DER) adoption is accelerating and assets are emerging at the grid edge.

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 […]

The power sector is grappling with a fundamental mismatch: hyperscale data centers demand electricity at unprecedented speed and scale, while the infrastructure to serve them operates on timelines measured in years, not months. According to Stephen Empedocles, PhD, founder and CEO of Clark Street Associates (CSA), an advisory firm specializing in government funding for technology […]

[Ed. update 1/6/2026: This article has been updated to include additional context about the scope and methodology of the E3 study referenced herein.] As electricity demand from data centers continues to surge, a persistent question has dogged the industry: Are residential ratepayers footing the bill for massive tech infrastructure? According to Amazon Web Services (AWS) […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the “Genesis Mission,” a national effort to build an integrated artificial intelligence (AI) platform across its 17 national laboratories. According to The White House, the initiative will “accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen national security, secure energy dominance, enhance workforce productivity, and multiply the return on taxpayer investment into […]

The hydropower industry stands at a critical juncture where traditional operation and maintenance are quickly becoming obsolete. As global energy demand surges and grid systems become increasingly dynamic, hydropower operators face unprecedented challenges in maintaining optimal machine performance under variable operating conditions while at the same time managing aging infrastructure and reduced staffing levels. Not […]

The fusion industry just achieved a major milestone—and this time, it’s not about science.

Data centers are already among the world’s hungriest power users, and artificial intelligence (AI) is pushing their energy consumption to new heights. The International Energy Agency expects data centers’ electricity use to more than double by 2030, reaching roughly 1,000 TWh. That’s a growth rate four times faster than the overall grid. In some scenarios, AI-optimized facilities could […]

Small modular reactor (SMR) developer X-energy has secured a binding reservation agreement with South Korean power-generation equipment giant Doosan Enerbility to manufacture main power system steel components for 16 Xe-100 SMRs. As part of the decisive move to industrialize the supply chain for advanced nuclear energy, Doosan has also committed to building a new dedicated SMR […]

The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) is merging with a California-based company focused on development of nuclear fusion in a $6-billion deal. The all-stock transaction announced December 18 would create one of the first publicly traded fusion companies.

A Colorado-based company focused on utility-scale battery energy storage has partnered with global technology group Wärtsilä and others for construction of a 500-MWh project near the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, the latest of several major battery energy storage installations being built in the state.

Three advanced nuclear developers—Radiant, Last Energy, and ARC Clean Technology—announced the closing of major private funding rounds in mid-December 2025, signaling renewed investor momentum behind microreactors and small modular reactors (SMRs) as the companies move from design and licensing into pilot deployment and early commercialization. The announcements—which span a new $300-million-plus round at Radiant, an […]

As AI demand accelerates, the race is on to bend the power curve before it bends the grid. The first electric refrigerators were mechanical curiosities—loud, bulky appliances that consumed staggering amounts of electricity. But they spread anyway, because the productivity gains were too great to ignore. Daily habits shifted. Food systems reshaped. Household labor changed […]

Vema Hydrogen, developer of a sustainable hydrogen production technology, said it has entered a hydrogen purchase and sale agreement with Verne, a provider of on-site power and cooling solutions. Verne will leverage Vema’s clean energy, known as Engineered Mineral Hydrogen (EMH), to provide low-emission power for its data center customers.

Fusion technology company Thea Energy said it has completed its preconceptual fusion power plant design. The company, founded in 2022 as a spin-out of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University, is advancing the stellarator as part of its Helios system.