It's Monday. One Southern California factory campus has decided that waiting for the utility is the expensive option, so its first 25 MW will arrive on an 18-month bridge.
In today's edition:
⚡ Big Story: Critical Loop bridges a 25 MW grid delay with batteries
🔋 Quick Hits: a five-hour Hallett battery, Esbjerg's heat pump report card, Lumai's optical inference, Brazil storage
💰 Capital Stack: Duke holds its $103B course
📋 Policy Watch: today's BAAJA cloture vote, an SF6 pledge, COP31's geothermal goal
📊 Chart of the Day: America's solar supply chain, wins and weak spots
But first…
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
Critical Loop bridges a 25 MW grid gap with batteries
Critical Loop is deploying a 25 MW hybrid microgrid at an SRG COMMERCIAL manufacturing campus in Southern California so an advanced-manufacturing tenant can start operating in early 2027, ahead of the utility's grid upgrade, Microgrid Knowledge reported. The system layers a 12 MW / 60 MWh battery, onsite generation and 3.5 MW of emergency backup on top of about 7 MW of firm utility service and 2 MW of flexible service, and is meant to run for 18 months until the permanent upgrade arrives.
"A completed building sitting idle due to grid delays is stranded capital."
Critical Loop is targeting the full 25 MW within nine months of contract execution on its CLB-5100 Power System and Cygnus controller, which the company says is UL 3141 and IEEE 2030.5 certified.
The battery does most of the work; the onsite generation's fuel type and size were not disclosed.
SRG named Critical Loop its preferred microgrid partner across Southern California for two years; this is the first public deployment of Critical Loop's model for developers.
Source: Microgrid Knowledge, Critical Loop
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
A five-hour battery, a heat pump report card, light-based inference and Brazil's storage bump.
EnergyAustralia installed the final battery packs at its 50 MW / 245 MWh Hallett battery in South Australia, a five-hour system built beside its Hallett gas plant to reuse the existing grid connection, with commercial operation expected in mid-2027. RenewEconomy
Esbjerg's 70 MW seawater heat pumps turned 19.9 MW of power into 55.2 MW of 90°C district heat in a two-hour winter test, a COP of 2.8 that analyst Michael Barnard says fell short of expectations. CleanTechnica
Lumai is deploying its Iris Nova optical inference servers at the UK's ARIA-backed Scaling Inference Lab, the lab's first optical inference platform, with no power figures disclosed yet. Data Center Knowledge
Brazil added 1.2 GWh of new battery storage contracts in 2026, up about 50% from 820 MWh, consultancy Greener found. ESS News
The Capital Stack
Duke Energy holds course on a $103 billion build
Duke Energy CEO Harry Sideris said the utility's growth plan is unchanged after last week's election, Utility Dive reported. The $103 billion capital plan targets about 16 GW of new generation and storage by 2031, including 4.8 GW of batteries and more than 10 GW of gas, against a 15.4 GW large-load pipeline with 7.8 GW under signed agreements. Duke plans a $10 billion equity raise, about one-third already secured.
Source: Utility Dive
Also in the capital stack:
Harbinger raised a $240 million Series D led by Tiger Global, Capricorn Investment Group and Ridgeline as the electric truck maker moves into battery storage. Crunchbase News
Policy Watch
The Senate holds a 60-vote cloture vote today on the BAAJA permitting bill after a weekend manager's amendment, Heatmap reported. The new text keeps FERC's interregional planning and siting backstop but adds a year of state review first, preserves rights of first refusal, and opens the backstop to advanced-conductor lines under 230 kV. Heatmap
Germany launched a voluntary Global SF6 Pledge at a UNEP meeting in Kigali to monitor and cut leaks of the potent greenhouse gas from high-voltage equipment, with the EU and UK signed on first. Switchgear buyers in pledging markets should expect more pressure to go SF6-free. Inside Climate News
COP31's Turkish presidency and IRENA launch a voluntary Global Geothermal Ambition 2050 on Nov. 10, a twelvefold goal. IRENA's pathway, 15.6 GW to 193 GW, needs about 7 GW a year against recent additions of 200 to 400 MW. ThinkGeoEnergy
Chart of the Day
US solar module output could jump 83% as cell supply trails
US module production could grow about 83% if announced and under-construction factories are finished, while cell production would reach up to 19.5 GW a year against 47.9 GW (DC) of solar installed last year, Canary Media reported.
Source: Canary Media · Nov. 6, 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!
