POWERnews

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.” […]

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.

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.

Global investment firm Strategic Value Partners (SVP) said its SVP Funds group is acquiring a minority equity interest in the 1,182-MW South Field Energy natural gas-fired power plant in Columbiana County, Ohio.

The pace of change in energy markets has never been faster. Price signals that once evolved over days now shift within settlement windows. Geopolitical shocks that once took weeks to propagate through commodity markets now ripple across interconnected European power grids and global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chains in hours. And amid this acceleration, […]

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 […]

A federal appeals court has upheld the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) use of a generic environmental analysis for nuclear plant license renewals, rejecting claims that the agency failed to adequately consider how aging components and climate change could affect the risk of severe reactor accidents. The July 21 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

A major operator of power plants in the U.S. has a new name. IHI Power Services Corp. (IPSC) will now be known as Kyuden Energy Partners Corp. after the company finalized its acquisition by Japan-headquartered Kyuden International.

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.

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 […]

The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) computing is, for most utilities, a problem to be absorbed: gigawatts of new data-center demand arriving faster than transmission can be planned or built. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Genesis Mission does not dispute that framing. But buried in the national research portfolio it unveiled July 22 is […]

Renewable energy developer Avantus said its Aratina 1 solar-plus-storage project has entered commercial operation in California. The 200-MW/500-MWh installation in Kern County has long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) and Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE), a pair of community choice aggregators.

Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing have helped electrical utilities modernize how they model, forecast, and manage grid operations. These tools already play a central role in maintaining reliability, balancing supply and demand, and planning new infrastructure. But as electrical grids become more distributed, data-intensive, and renewable-heavy, some of the most complex decision-making problems are becoming […]

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. […]

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 […]

For years, utility wildfire liability was largely framed around a straightforward question: who caused the fire? That question still matters, but it is no longer the only one that matters.

A micro-modular nuclear reactor developer with global headquarters in Italy and a U.S. corporate office in Pennsylvania said it has been selected to deploy its equipment for data center infrastructure in Latin America and Brazil.

POWER Magazine   Jobs   White Papers  Webinars   Events   Store   July 16, 2026 Siemens Energy Will Shed the Siemens Name, Rebrand as Omterra The Siemens name is coming off one of the power industry’s largest equipment and service suppliers. Siemens Energy announced July 14 that it has begun preparing the transition to […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has directed the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to file one or more new or modified mandatory reliability standards governing the integration of computational loads—a category defined broadly enough to cover generative-AI data centers, cryptocurrency mines, and other information-technology facilities—by Dec. 31, 2026. FERC’s order, issued on July […]

California-headquartered Pacific Fusion announced that a pulsed-power prototype designed and built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has surpassed 3,000 shots under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the company. Pacific Fusion on July 16 said this marks a key milestone in the development of high-gain fusion, and provides a practical example of government-industry […]

The Siemens name is coming off one of the power industry’s largest equipment and service suppliers. Siemens Energy announced July 14 that it has begun preparing the transition to an independent corporate brand, with Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy to be united under a single new name: Omterra. The rebranding process is scheduled […]

Why AI Data Centers Can No Longer Be Treated as Passive Customers For decades, even very large electric customers fit inside a familiar planning model. A factory, refinery, industrial campus, hospital complex, hospital system, or manufacturing facility requested service. The utility studied the load, identified required facilities, assigned costs, and folded the demand into its […]

Tom Linebarger, the new CEO at Mainspring Energy who spent 30 years at Cummins, where he also served as CEO, provides POWER with insight about Mainspring and why the time is right for adoption of Mainspring’s linear generator technology.

Qcells, a provider of complete energy solutions and in the U.S. solar manufacturing market, said the company has taken a lead role in delivering the Atlas V (237 MWdc) and Atlas VI (135 MWdc) solar projects in La Paz County, Arizona. These two phases, totaling 372 MWdc, are part of the broader Atlas Energy Park, […]

Argo Infrastructure Partners LP, an independent mid-market infrastructure investment manager, said it has acquired a commercial and industrial (C&I) solar portfolio from NuGen Capital Management, LLC. The deal announced July 9 includes a portfolio consisting of eight sites, with six in Massachusetts and two in New Jersey. The acquisition of this established, operational solar portfolio […]

Leeward Renewable Energy (LRE), a major U.S. renewable energy developer, provided details about its 725-MW solar power fleet in Oklahoma during a recent celebration, including the company’s support of Google’s operations in the state.

Renewable energy developer Avantus said the company has secured more than $525 million in construction financing for the Aratina 2 Solar and Storage Project in California.

The U.S. Department of Energy has closed a loan of up to $3.26 billion to AEP Texas to finance a portfolio of nearly 100 transmission projects, the agency’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) said on July 8. The financing will fund the rebuilding, reconductoring, and new construction of roughly 2,800 miles of transmission lines across […]

A Canada-based consortium is moving forward with plans for a major natural gas-fired power plant project in Alberta. The Greenlight Electricity Centre (GLEC) is a proposed $3.2-billion 932-MW gas-fired combined cycle power generation facility that will serve a major data center development.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed a major rewrite of its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules, opening yet another front in the agency’s fast-moving campaign to modernize as directed by a series of recent executive orders, statutory NEPA amendments, and a Supreme Court precedent. The rule proposed on July 7, “Implementation of the […]