It's Friday. The fastest power plant to build in PJM right now may be one nobody can see from the road. Google just signed up for a gigawatt of it, scattered across other companies' batteries.
In today's edition:
🔋 Big Story: Google's gigawatt VPP
⚡ Quick Hits: Sonnen files, GaN for 800 VDC racks, Snowy 2.0's new price tag
💰 Capital: GM leads Peak Energy's $108M
📋 Policy Watch: utility AI audits, solar import blocks
📊 Chart of the Day: geothermal lease bids hit a record
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The Big Story
Google signs up for a gigawatt of virtual power plant capacity
Google signed an expanded "bring your own capacity" contract with Voltus for a 1,070 MW virtual power plant in PJM, Latitude Media reported. The VPP will offset load from multiple Google data centers in the region, and batteries are expected to play a significant role.
"We're actually creating a market where they don't need to take merchant risk anymore because we have the longer-term contract here."
The contract runs through 2040, Guernsey confirmed. Other terms are not public.
It builds on the more than 100 MW Voltus developed for Google in PJM this summer, which Guernsey said was "over-subscribed."
Behind-the-meter commercial and industrial batteries will make up "a chunk" of the portfolio, alongside some residential batteries through partners like Sunrun.
Most VPP deployments to date have been in the hundreds of megawatts, according to Latitude Media.
Source: Latitude Media
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Quick Hits
Technology milestones from across the grid
From a home-battery pioneer's insolvency to robots on solar sites.
Sonnen, the German home-battery and VPP pioneer Shell sold to family office Tiven this summer, filed for insolvency, ESS News reported, citing Handelsblatt. Service for its 150,000-plus customers is set to continue. ESS News
Infineon and Nvidia will develop gallium nitride converters switching at up to 1 MHz to step 800 VDC rack power down to 50, 12 and 6 volts for AI servers, the companies announced at GTC Berlin. Data Center Dynamics
Gritt Robotics will install about six million panels, roughly 2.8 GW, over two years with three top-10 EPCs using its AI-assisted robots, as the industry faces a cited 53,000-worker shortfall. pv magazine USA
Snowy Hydro raised the target cost of the 2.2 GW, 350 GWh Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project to A$22.2 billion, with a A$25 billion scenario, up from A$12 billion in 2023, and pushed completion to the end of 2029. RenewEconomy
Dogger Bank A, the first phase of the world's largest offshore wind farm, pushed the start of its contract for difference to mid-2027 because of turbine repairs. reNEWS
The Capital Stack
GM leads a $108 million bet on sodium-ion grid storage
Peak Energy closed a $108 million Series B led by General Motors Ventures, with Maverick Silicon, Eclipse, Infinite Capital, Xora Innovation and LG Technology Ventures joining, Energy Monitor reported. The startup makes passively cooled sodium-ion storage for grid and data center use and says the money will expand US manufacturing and help fill more than $1 billion in existing customer orders. Its planned 4 GWh factory in Sacramento is slated to begin production in the first quarter of 2027.
Source: Power Technology
Also in the capital stack:
DOE selected 63 tribal energy projects across 16 states for more than $125 million, the largest round in the Office of Indian Energy's history, including electrifying 150 homes without power. The projects are selected for award negotiation. U.S. Department of Energy
Policy Watch
New York regulators have ordered utilities to file inventories of how they use AI, and Connecticut has petitioned for a similar review. Guardrail found 70% of energy and utility filers name AI as a cyber risk, but only 23% of utilities document a process to manage it, so AI tools for load planning now face audit trails. Utility Dive
The Commerce Department has blocked about 60 solar importers in recent weeks while approved importers grew from about 200 to more than 400, according to Roth analyst Philip Shen, Heatmap reported. The 120-day runway before Section 232 polysilicon tariffs ends Dec. 3, and utility-scale carveouts are "not being worked on," which leaves developers sourcing 2027 modules little room. Heatmap
Chart of the Day
Federal geothermal lease bids head for a record
The average winning bid for US federal geothermal leases is on track for about $112 per acre in 2026, up from $50.74 in 2025 and $5.57 in 2020, according to ThinkGeoEnergy's analysis of GAO and BLM data.
Source: ThinkGeoEnergy · October 22, 2026
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