It's Friday. The Army has spent a century keeping its bases lit when everything else fails. Its newest answer needs a fuel supply chain that does not exist yet.
In today's edition:
⚛️ Big Story: Five microreactor developers get Army contracts
⚡ Quick Hits: superhot drilling tools, a wave energy first
💰 Capital: Emerald AI's $150 million round
📋 Policy Watch: a grid equipment emergency
📊 Chart of the Day: 378 GW of gas
Build energy apps with AI without exposing critical data.
Turn your operational data (SCADA, OMS, PI, etc.) into validated, audit-ready apps. Analysts ship in weeks without complicated IT workflows.
100% CIP and cybersecurity safe.
The Big Story
Army picks five developers to put microreactors on five bases
The US Army said Wednesday it picked five companies to deploy 1 MW to 20 MW microreactors at five installations, backed by roughly $2.2 billion in federal funding across fiscal 2027 through 2031. Antares Nuclear and Radiant Industries drew multi-reactor awards at Fort Bragg and Fort Benning; BWX Technologies, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems and Westinghouse Government Services each took one. The units stay contractor owned, run grid connected, and island if service drops. One should be running by Sept. 30, 2028.
"The Janus Program will be a complete success when and only when we have assisted multiple nuclear companies in developing truly reliable and affordable nuclear microreactors which they can sell to other buyers beyond just the military." Jeff Waksman, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army, via Utility Dive, August 27, 2026
The Defense Innovation Unit is using other transaction authority agreements with fixed-price, milestone payments, modeled partly on NASA's deal with SpaceX, officials said.
Waksman said private capital should total "billions of dollars" and cover most of the investment, though the Army gave no figure because companies are still raising.
All five designs use encapsulated fuel, likely TRISO, and need high-assay low-enriched uranium DOE would supply at first by downblending stockpiles. More than 20 units could strain it.
Source: Utility Dive
Reach 3,000+ energy professionals. Partner with Grid Innovation Hub.
No filler audience. Every subscriber opted in for the latest in grid innovation.
To talk placements, dates, and pricing, contact Lucas Cheney at [email protected].
Quick Hits
Technology milestones from across the grid
Five deployments, from a drill bit for superhot rock to a hybrid exporting at 10pm.
Hephae is building downhole tools rated for the superhot rock that destroys conventional drilling hardware, a gating constraint on next-generation geothermal. Canary Media
SMA America launched grid-forming conversion and storage architectures to let AI data centers add capacity while stuck in interconnection queues. pv magazine USA
PacWave South opened off Oregon as the continental US's first grid-connected wave energy test site, after roughly $150 million of DOE money since 2016, with no devices yet installed. Associated Press
TC Energy appointed Worley to advance its 1 GW, 11 GWh Ontario Pumped Storage Project at Meaford, among North America's largest long-duration proposals. Energy-Storage.news
Quorn Park is exporting into Australia's National Electricity Market at 10pm in midwinter, the NEM's first hybrid to shift solar that far past sunset. RenewEconomy
The Capital Stack
Emerald AI raises $150 million to make data centers bend for the grid
Emerald AI closed an oversubscribed $150 million Series A at roughly a $1.05 billion valuation, co-led by Energize Capital and DCVC, with Nvidia an earlier backer, according to Data Center Dynamics. The software flexes a data center's power draw against grid conditions without halting workloads, handing headroom back instead of waiting on an interconnection upgrade.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Also in the capital stack:
Certain Energy, an Imperial College spinout once called RFC Power, raised £10 million led by the British Business Bank, with Centrica and Ceres Power joining, for a manganese flow battery it says undercuts vanadium. Solar Power Portal
Policy Watch
Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 26 declaring a national emergency over the bulk power system, directing DOE to write rules within 120 days barring some foreign-made transformers, batteries, inverters and their software, with conditions possible on installed equipment. NEMA and EEI said it needs clarification, especially on software country of origin. Utility Dive
Duke Energy Florida filed the first large-load tariff under Florida's new SB 484, which makes big customers cover their full cost of service, and Public Service Commission members questioned whether it complies. WUSF
EPA moved to repeal the rule requiring states to publicize and take comment on industrial air permit applications, a category covering data centers and the gas plants serving them, per New York Times reporting. Heatmap News
Chart of the Day
The US gas pipeline hits 378 GW, and most of it may never get built.
US gas-fired capacity in development reached 378.3 GW, nearly triple China's 131.8 GW, with 189 GW tied to on-site data centers, roughly double year-end 2025. Construction rose 76% to 52 GW, though Global Energy Monitor notes announced and pre-construction projects are 86% of the total.
Source: Axios · Data: Global Energy Monitor · August 26, 2026
Like our newsletter?
Or forward this link: {{rp_refer_url}}
You currently have {{rp_num_referrals}} referrals. We're building out rewards for our most active subscribers, including merch and exclusive content!
Who We Follow
And you should too!
Loved it? Forward it.
And reply back with some news and stories we should include tomorrow!