It's Friday. The hardware that actually moves power around the grid has barely changed in fifty years, by its own manufacturers' account. A warehouse south of San Jose is about to test whether that is physics or just habit.
In today's edition:
🔌 Big Story: Heron Power sites its first solid-state transformer factory
⚡ Quick Hits: AI line ratings, Texas gas-to-nuclear, sodium-ion at ESS
💰 Capital: Form Energy's $750M iron-air raise
📋 Policy Watch: Ireland's self-supply mandate, a $280M MISO do-over
📊 Chart of the Day: US gas production hits another record
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.
The Big Story
Heron Power turns a California warehouse into a solid-state transformer plant.
Heron Power, founded in 2024 by former Tesla executive Drew Baglino, has picked Morgan Hill, California for its first large-scale factory, converting a 286,000 square foot distribution warehouse south of San Jose. The plant will build the Heron Link, a 5 MW medium-voltage power conversion system aimed at data centers and large energy projects. Mass production is slated for late 2027.
"The equipment running the grid hasn't changed in fifty years. Heron Factory One in Morgan Hill is how we fix that."
At full rate the factory is expected to produce up to 10,000 Heron Links a year, which the company puts at 40 GW of annual capacity.
The decision follows a $140 million Series B earlier this year, bringing total funding to $183 million.
Heron signed a letter of intent with Crusoe in June to supply converter technology for the Stargate campus in Texas.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Quick Hits
Technology milestones from across the grid
Six stories from across the stack.
OATI is seeking DOE SPARK funding for PowerNow, combining software dynamic line ratings, interregional coordination and AI dispatch to unlock what it says is up to 20% more bulk capacity, backed by CAISO, NYISO, SPP and Duke. Utility Dive
Blue Energy and GE Vernova Hitachi signed an August 13 agreement moving their proposed 2.5 GW gas-then-nuclear complex in Victoria, Texas into licensing and safety analysis, an early test of the gas-bridge route to new nuclear. POWER
ESS Tech reported a $15.6 million quarterly loss, up 41% year over year, while steering toward sodium-ion and its Alsym partnership, a notable pivot for an iron flow company. Energy-Storage.news
Module-integrated buck converters raised rooftop PV yield by up to 20% under partial shading versus conventional module-level electronics, according to newly published testing. pv magazine
ClearPath published modeling finding that pairing advanced reconductoring with greenfield transmission cuts both the mileage and the capital an expansion requires. RTO Insider
Public Storage now hosts 10 operating community solar arrays on its Illinois self-storage roofs out of 60 planned, an unglamorous answer to distributed solar's siting problem. Canary Media
The Capital Stack
Form Energy raises $750M to scale 100-hour iron-air batteries.
Form Energy closed a $750 million Series G led by T. Rowe Price, with Sequoia, Franklin Templeton, Janus Henderson and PEAK6 joining, pushing the company past $2 billion raised. The money expands its Weirton, West Virginia plant against a reported 80 GWh backlog, much of it tied to data center load. Iron-air trades round-trip efficiency for cheap materials, a bargain that pays only at durations where lithium stops working.
Source: TechCrunch
Also in the capital stack:
Federal geothermal acreage drew a record $701 per acre bid at June's New Mexico BLM sale, and Enverus finds transmission proximity now drives acreage value ahead of Utah's August 18 sale. Utility Dive
Tax credit marketplaces are trying to make sub-scale transferable clean energy credits sellable, since small deals cost nearly as much to close as large ones. Latitude Media
Policy Watch
Ireland will require data centers above 10 MW to self-supply 80% of demand from new onsite renewables and storage, making generation a permitting precondition. pv magazine
FERC allowed MISO to correct a $280 million capacity auction error through backdated repricing, after an input mistake that ran eight years, a reminder that capacity revenue assumptions carry real model risk. RTO Insider
California's SB 905 would curb utility returns on wildfire costs and test performance-based metrics against heavy utility opposition, shaping what grid hardening capital earns in California. Canary Media
Chart of the Day
US gas production heads for another record.
EIA forecasts US marketed gas production will average 122.5 Bcf/d in 2026, above the 118.5 Bcf/d record set in 2025. First-half output averaged 121.3 Bcf/d, 4% above last year, concentrated in the Permian and Haynesville.
Source: EIA Today in Energy · August 12, 2026
Who We Follow
And you should too!
Loved it? Forward it.
And reply back with some news and stories we should include tomorrow!