Google, Gates & the Energy Tech Revolution: Fusion, Fission, and the Future
1.) Google signs power purchase agreement PPA with start-up fusion company Commonwealth Fusion Systems for at least 200 MW of energy from Commonwealth’s planned fusion generating station in Virginia. Terms were not disclosed.
2.) Bill Gates- backed modular nuclear reactor company TerraPower raises additional $650 million, with support from Nvidia’s venture capital arm, NVentures. TerraPower is working on an advanced 345MW sodium-cooled reactor, paired with a molten salt-based energy storage system that can boost total output up to as much as 500MW for over five hours.
3.) Modular nuclear start-up X-energy says the NRC could approve construction of its first commercial small modular plant by the end of next year. The first four-reactor, 320-MW plant would deliver both heat and power to Dow’s Seadrift petrochemical facility on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
4.) Arizona state-owned utility Salt River Project comments that projected data center demand is responsible for 60% of its peak load growth and 70% of total energy sales over the coming decade.
5.) Norway’s government said it may impose a temporary ban on new crypto data as early as this fall, to ensure sufficient electricity for other industries.
6.) The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) rolls out a rebranded energy storage initiative to promote development of 2 GW of energy storage that state is mandated by law to procure by 2030.
7.) ENGIE North America will trial a new precycling provision in PPAs calling for end-of-life recycling of solar panel and project component at four mid-Western projects totaling 375 MW. The initiative should divert almost 48 million pounds of material from landfills.