It's Tuesday. Voters pick their utility regulators today. On the Texas Gulf Coast, a chemical maker just got one permit closer to building its own reactors.
In today's edition:
📅 Event: Grid Innovation Hub coffee meetup at 9Zero, San Francisco, Nov. 12
⚛️ Big Story: Dow's four-reactor X-energy plant finishes its NRC safety review
⚡ Quick Hits: a 1.24 GWh battery live in 20 days, a new reactor pour in Shandong, smart-device customers who show up, a court test for xAI's turbines
💰 Capital Stack: solar corporate funding up 45% through Q3
📋 Policy Watch: Pennsylvania reins in data centers, and a $10 parcel turns into $10 million
But first…
📅 Event Announcement: Grid Innovation Coffee Meetup (In-Person)
Presented by Grid Innovation Hub
Thursday, November 12 · In person at 9Zero Climate Innovation Hub, 350 California St, 4th floor, San Francisco · Hosted by Adam Shaw - 9 AM PST
Join fellow grid professionals for an in-person coffee chat on advanced technology strategies and implementations on the power grid. The conversation spans generation, transmission and distribution, grid modernization, project development, operations and compliance, and venture capital, and it runs on crowd-sourced problems rather than slides. No presentations. No sales.
Grid Innovation Hub subscribers are encouraged to register for the next session.
The Big Story
NRC finishes safety review for Dow's four-reactor X-energy plant
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released its Final Safety Evaluation Report on Oct. 30 for the Long Mott Generating Station, the four-unit X-energy Xe-100 plant that Dow plans at its Seadrift Operations in Texas, World Nuclear News reported. With an environmental assessment and a finding of no significant impact issued in May, both primary NRC reviews are complete, and the agency has signaled a construction permit announcement is coming soon, without giving a date.
"Licensing a new reactor is earned through the quality of the application and the rigor of the regulator's review."
The four high-temperature gas-cooled reactors total 800 MWt, or 320 MWe, and would supply both electricity and process steam to Dow's Seadrift site, with excess power exported to the grid.
The applicant is Long Mott Energy, a wholly owned Dow subsidiary, which filed the construction permit application in March 2025.
No construction permit has been issued yet; the project remains in licensing.
Source: World Nuclear News
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Quick Hits
Small bites from across the grid.
A battery that went live in 20 days, concrete in Shandong, and customers who actually answer the grid's call.
BW ESS brought its 350 MW / 1.24 GWh Hams Hall battery in England's West Midlands into commercial operation on Nov. 2, about 20 days after energization, which ESS News says makes it Europe's largest operational battery by energy; EDF optimizes it under a 10-year floor agreement. ESS News
SPIC started main construction of Haiyang unit 5 in Shandong with a first nuclear-island pour of about 6,626 cubic meters beginning Oct. 31, the first of two more CAP1000 units approved in April 2025. World Nuclear News
Octopus Energy US sees 50 to 60% of its customers with a smart device take part in flexibility programs, said Nick Chaset, who now leads both Octopus Energy US and Uplight, against a historical 5 to 10% benchmark for utility demand response. Renewable Energy World
xAI lost its motion to dismiss an NAACP Clean Air Act suit alleging it ran at least 35 gas turbines at its Colossus data center near Memphis without air permits, so the case proceeds, a live test for unpermitted onsite gas at AI campuses. TechCrunch
The Capital Stack
Solar corporate funding climbs 45% to $25.1 billion through Q3
Corporate funding for the solar sector reached $25.1 billion across 170 deals in the first three quarters of 2026, up from $17.3 billion across 127 deals a year earlier, according to Mercom Capital Group. Debt carried the year at $20.4 billion, up 61%, while venture capital fell 31% to $2.0 billion and 34.4 GW of projects changed hands.
Source: pv magazine USA
Also in the capital stack:
Neoen secured A$1.8 billion from 13 lenders, including the CEFC, KfW IPEX, HSBC and Bank of America, to finance a 1.2 GW Australian portfolio that includes the Culcairn solar farm and its 215 MW / 963 MWh battery, Hornsdale Power Reserve and two wind projects. PV Tech
Policy Watch
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who launched a permit fast track that drew data centers in 2024, signed an August executive order removing them from it and tying early state permit review to his GRID standards, which call for 32% "clean firm" power by 2035 and developers paying "all costs" of upgrades, Inside Climate News reported. Hyperscale load in the state now comes with clean-power and cost conditions. Inside Climate News
Taylor, Texas is confronting a data center boom after land that had been sold to a parks foundation for $10 was resold by the city's economic development corporation to a data center developer for $10 million, Inside Climate News reported. Local land deals are becoming a flashpoint for where AI load gets built. Inside Climate News
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