It's Wednesday. The biggest solar-and-battery project the country has ever broken ground on already has a single customer lined up for everything it will ever make.
In today's edition:
⚡ The largest US solar-plus-storage project finds one buyer for all of it
🔋 A non-lithium battery, hydrogen for data centers, and cheaper cells ahead
💰 A $6 billion bet on around-the-clock solar, and ABB backs a grid-software startup
🏛️ Texas tells big loads to hang on, and the UK reins in the hyperscalers
🌟 Community Spotlight: NodeSpan comes out of stealth for BESS contracts
But first…
📅 Event Announcement: Energy Tech GTM Forum
Grid Innovation Hub, presented with INNOVIT
Wednesday, July 22, 5:00 to 8:00 PM · INNOVIT, 710 Sansome St, San Francisco
Selling technology into US energy is where good products go to wait: the average deal takes 12 to 24 months, and most of that time is spent in the buying process. On July 22, host Adam Shaw is bringing together 50 founders and go-to-market, product, and security leaders from energy-tech companies, alongside operators who have built and sold to utilities, IPPs, and co-ops. The program covers how to find buyers who are ready to buy, how to move a pilot into production, who really controls the budget, and how the best vendors shorten the sales cycle, followed by a fireside chat, a GTM tactics panel, and an energy-tech happy hour.
This is an invite-only gathering, and registration is approval-based, so space is limited, but Grid Innovation Hub subscribers are encouraged to register.
The Big Story
Google buys all the power from the largest US solar-plus-storage project
Google has signed a virtual power purchase agreement for 100% of the initial output from the Steel River Energy Center in Arkansas, the largest solar-plus-storage project of its kind to break ground in the United States. Developed by Cypress Creek Energy, Steel River will start with 1.6 GW of solar paired with 2 GWh of battery storage, enough to power roughly 315,000 homes, and scale to 2.5 GW of solar and 2.9 GWh of storage at full build. The deal leans heavily on a domestic supply chain, with First Solar modules, Arkansas-sourced structural steel, and batteries from LG's plant in Phoenix, Arizona, a facility built to comply with Foreign Entity of Concern rules that now restrict low-cost imported cells.
"The investment supplies the grid at large, and passes along the benefits from the local power plant to all customers in Arkansas."
Steel River begins with 1.6 GW of solar and 2 GWh of storage and is planned to reach 2.5 GW of solar and 2.9 GWh of storage at full completion.
Google pays a fixed price for the plant's clean output to offset grid-based emissions, which rose 37% in 2025 as its AI workloads expanded; financial terms were not disclosed.
First Solar supplies the modules, the steel is sourced in Arkansas, and the batteries are built at LG's Phoenix, Arizona facility, keeping the project inside domestic-content rules.
Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft together accounted for 49% of all corporate clean-power deals signed last year, according to BloombergNEF.
Source: pv magazine USA
Quick Hits
Small bites from across the grid.
Nuclear restart accelerates, a pipeline hits wires, and the build-out keeps getting more expensive.
CMBlu Energy is moving its SolidFlow battery, which it calls the first commercial-scale organic flow system with no lithium, cobalt, or Foreign Entity of Concern exposure, toward US production, targeting a Phoenix-area factory within 12 to 18 months while a 5 MW/50 MWh pilot deploys at Arizona's Salt River Project. Tech Times
ECL and PowerCell agreed to deploy hydrogen fuel-cell power across US data centers, with ECL placing a firm order for PowerCell PS190 systems plus an agreement for roughly 300 MW more of fuel-cell capacity. Data Center Dynamics
Bright Saver opened pre-orders in 47 states for plug-in "balcony" solar kits sold at wholesale cost, about $285 for a 180-watt kit and $414 for 360 watts, aiming to seed a US market after nine state legislatures passed enabling laws in 2026. Canary Media
Intertek CEA said wider adoption of 587Ah battery cells could keep pushing storage-container costs down through 2027 even as lithium carbonate prices roughly tripled, because the larger format lifts module-level energy density 60% to 80% and cuts balance-of-system components. pv magazine USA
Thailand moved to open its power market to energy storage, with the energy ministry detailing direct-PPA reforms and a draft national plan targeting 26 GWh of battery storage by 2037, up from just two small pilot projects today. Energy-Storage.news
The Capital Stack
Masdar closes financing on the world's first gigascale 24/7 clean-power plant
Masdar reached financial close on a $6.1 billion project it calls the world's first gigascale round-the-clock renewable plant, pairing 5.2 GW of solar with 19 GWh of battery storage in Abu Dhabi to deliver 1 GW of continuous baseload clean power. A consortium of 13 local and international banks provided $5.1 billion in debt, with Masdar adding $1 billion of its own equity. The plant broke ground in October 2025 and targets operations in 2027; executives point to the UAE's AI-research ambitions as the demand driver, though no formal offtake agreement has been announced.
Source: PV Tech
Also in the capital stack:
Gridcog raised $10 million in Series A funding led by industrial giant ABB, with Axpo, DNV Ventures, Verbund X Ventures, Albion VC and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation joining, to scale software that models the business case for flexible, renewable-heavy energy projects across markets. FinSMEs
Policy Watch
The Texas PUC unanimously approved "ride-through" rules requiring large computing loads to stay connected and stable through grid disturbances rather than tripping offline, after ERCOT logged 28 large-load trip events since 2023 that stressed the system. Utility Dive
The UK Treasury moved to designate Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle as "Critical Third Parties," bringing the hyperscalers under direct financial-regulator oversight as systemically important infrastructure, a first that could shape how their power-hungry cloud operations are governed. Data Center Dynamics
Grid Hub Community Spotlight
NodeSpan comes out of stealth to untangle the contracts behind every battery
A battery storage project is a 20-year asset wrapped in a stack of contracts: the offtake, EPC, LTSA, warranty, and O&M, and the data about what the asset is actually doing usually lives somewhere the contracts do not. NodeSpan, which launched this week, is an AI-native platform that ties those contract terms to real equipment performance across a project's full life. Its first product, Contract & Equipment Intelligence, points at a data room, maps every obligation across the offtake, EPC, LTSA, warranty, and O&M, and flags the exposure hiding in the gaps: coverage that is missing, double-promised, or left with no backstop, before a lender, an insurer, or a failure finds it first. The founding team has worked every side of the storage table: Michael Bennett (Powin, PA Consulting), Jake Berlin (Stem, ICF), Matthew Hoza (FactSet, BTU Analytics), and Sam Beck (Plus Power, Powin).
If you are weighing a hard storage decision, they want to hear what you are working on. See the launch on LinkedIn.
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