BEVERLY — The city has secured a new electricity supply contract for a program that provides 100% renewable energy to Beverly residents.
Participants in the Beverly Community Electric program, launched in 2024, will see new, near-level electricity prices when the program’s new electricity buying contract kicks in next month, the city said in a prepared statement.
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
While it may seem like a new buzzword generating debate across the nation, data centers are nothing new.
The large facilities, some of which can house millions of servers, have been around for decades. Construction is booming across the country, largely due to the growth of artificial intelligence.
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) -This year’s U.N. climate change summit ended with a tenuous compromise for a deal that skipped over most countries’ key demands but for one: committing wealthy countries to triple their spending to help others adapt to global warming.
Here are some of the takeaways from the COP30 climate summit held in Brazil’s Amazon city of Belem:
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had launched the summit calling for countries to agree on a “roadmap” for advancing a COP28 pledge to shift away from fossil fuels.
But it was a road to nowhere at this summit, as oil-rich Arab nations and others dependent on fossil fuels blocked any mention of the issue. Instead, the COP30 presidency created a voluntary plan that countries could sign on to – or not.
The result was similar to Egypt’s COP27 and Azerbaijan’s COP29, where countries agreed to spend more money to address climate dangers while ignoring their primary cause.
Nearly three-fourths of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 2020 have come from coal, oil and gas. Demand for these fuels is likely to rise through 2050, the International Energy Agency said in a report midway through the COP30 summit that reversed expectations of a rapid shift to clean energy.
GLOBAL CLIMATE UNITY ON THE BRINK
The need to show global unity in climate talks was the main thing countries agreed, along with the idea that long-polluting wealthy countries should do most to tackle the problem.
But to get to a final deal, they ditched nearly all ambitions they’d brought – including mandatory tightening targets for reducing climate-warming emissions.
Brazil’s COP30 presidency lamented the United States’ snubbing of the talks. The absence of the world’s biggest economy – and biggest historical polluter – emboldened countries with fossil fuel interests.
Rumbling concerns about a process that allows only a few to effectively veto collective deals grew louder, stoking calls for reform.
After Brazil had promised a ‘COP of Truth’ that would set countries on course for action, the omission of any agreed implementation plans was glaring.
China played a leading role at the summit – but from behind the scenes.
President Xi Jinping skipped the talks as he typically does. But his delegation carried a strong message that China was prepared to deliver the clean energy technology the world needs to cut emissions.
Executives from Chinese solar, battery and electric vehicle companies were featured at the country’s exhibit pavilion – one of the first things delegates saw on entering the sprawling venue.
China was not the only fast-developing nation in focus this year. The Indian delegation flexed more muscle in the negotiations, while South Africa rolled out a climate-linked agenda for its own November 22-23 G20 summit.
FRAUGHT FUTURE FOR FORESTS AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
Holding the summit in an Amazon forest city, Brazil touted the importance of the world’s remaining canopy for fighting climate change – along with the roughly half-billion Indigenous people seen as stewards of natural lands.
Many who attended from across the Amazon and the world felt frustrated they weren’t being heard. They staged several protests, and even stormed the COP30 compound gates – clashing with security before being pushed back out.
Countries announced about $9.5 billion in forest funding – including almost $7 billion for Brazil’s flagship tropical forest fund and another $2.5 billion for an initiative for Congo.
But the summit ended on a sour note for many, as negotiators dropped efforts for a roadmap to meet the 2030 zero-deforestation pledge and gave no recognition for the protection of their lands.
ATTACKS ON CLIMATE SCIENCE
While Lula and other world leaders had railed against misinformation and denial, COP30 talks didn’t help much in countering this year’s U.S. government assault on climate science.
The summit also chipped away at global consensus around climate science by no longer recognizing the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as the “best available science” to guide policy on climate change and its impacts.
Instead, the final deal notes the importance of IPCC outputs along with “those produced in developing countries and relevant reports from regional groups and institutions.”
And by sidelining fossil fuels and emissions targets, COP30 ignored the alarm bells being rung by scientists.
Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electric utility, has asked state regulators for an increase of $355.5 million to its rate base, which would boost the average residential electric bill by nearly 10% per month.
Xcel filed the proposal Friday with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which will take testimony from the company and various intervening parties and hold a public hearing. If approved, the increase would take effect in September 2026.
Xcel Energy-Colorado President Robert Kenney said the utility’s last increase to the rate base was in 2022. The average residential bill rose by 3.2%, according to an Xcel statement after an agreement was reached with all the parties
The rate base is a utility’s investments to provide services and on which it’s allowed to earn a regulated rate of return.
“This rate case is to recover costs associated with investments that we’ve made over the last three years,” Kenney said.
The Utility Consumer Advocate, or UCA, which represents the public before state regulators, said the proposed increase is “too big of an increase.”
“It’s an especially large increase given the context of the economic times,” said Joseph Pereira, UCA deputy director.
The increase is largely related to Xcel’s expanded capital spending on distribution, transmission and generation, Pereira said.
“It’s unclear to parties in the UCA that the company is prioritizing investments that are the biggest bang for the buck, that increase reliability and that adopt an intelligent approach to how they’re using the grid,” Pereira said. “It still appears that the company is using a crude blanket approach to replacing and investing in new infrastructure.”
Kenney said Xcel has invested in safety, reliability, making the system more resilient, electrifying transportation and buildings, meeting increased demands from growth and taking steps to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
Xcel has said it has reduced carbon emissions by 57%. The state’s target is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 2005 levels by 2030.
Xcel is upgrading its electric grid with a $1.7 billion transmission project. The Colorado Power Pathway includes transmission lines, power substations and other equipment stretching over 12 counties, mostly in eastern Colorado.
“We’ve added a tremendous amount of renewable energy over the last several years,” Kenney said. “And we’ve done all of this while keeping bills as low as possible.”
Xcel has faced criticism from the Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate, or UCA, which represents the public before state regulators, and customers over the past few years for what the UCA has called “a pancaking of rate increases.”
The criticism of Xcel and other regulated utilities heated up in 2023 after a cold winter and high natural gas prices sent costs soaring statewide. A legislative committee held hearings and approved a bill intended to protect customers against future price shocks and level what some see as a playing field tilted in the utilities’ favor.
Kenney said Xcel Energy’s rates have been well below state and national averages for approximately the last 10 years. But, he added, the company recognizes that some customers face challenges to paying their bills. He said Xcel is expanding its programs to help people struggling to pay their bills and adding $10 million in assistance. People can also call 800-895-4999.
In the past, Xcel required people to show proof of income to apply for help, but now will accept their statements of need. And those receiving other aid, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will be automatically eligible.
Under Xcel’s proposed rate hike, the average monthly residential bill would rise 9.9%; small commercial bills would go up 9.3%-9.4% per month; and large commercial monthly bills would increase 7.3%-8.6%.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The E3 countries, European Union leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, Japan and Canada will discuss Washington’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine on Saturday afternoon on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, sources familiar with the matter said.
The E3 is an informal security alliance of France, Britain and Germany.
(Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
BOSTON — House Democrats are walking back a controversial proposal to ease the state’s climate change mandates following pushback and threats of legal action from environmental groups opposed to the changes.
Legislation pending before the House Ways & Means Committee would make the state’s benchmark goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared with 1990 levels by 2030 “advisory in nature and unenforceable” and slash funding for the budget for Mass Save — the state’s primary energy efficiency program.
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
At a time when families and businesses across Long Island are facing rising costs in nearly every area of life, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) is doing its part to keep electricity rates affordable. With our proposed 2026 budget, we’re keeping spending stable, resulting in a projected decrease in the average residential customer bill, while continuing to invest in a cleaner, more reliable electric grid.
LIPA’s mission is to provide reliable, affordable, and clean energy to our customers across Long Island and the Rockaways. As a nonprofit public utility, every dollar we spend and every dollar we save goes directly toward improving electric service and controlling costs for our customers.
Each year, our team builds a budget based on priorities that matter most to the 3 million people we serve and funds PSEG Long Island operations to enhance reliability, improve customer service, and plan for the energy transition ahead. And, most importantly, LIPA makes these investments with a focus on affordability.
While many utilities nationwide are raising rates to keep pace with commodity volatility, rising wholesale energy prices and load-driven infrastructure demands, Long Island’s average residential bills remain stable and below the rate of inflation.
In fact, according to the Energy Information Administration, electric bills in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have increased nearly 22% since 2022. However, with LIPA’s fiscally disciplined approach, customers will continue to be protected from the regional affordability challenges that have consistently plagued other utilities.
For 2026, we propose that total utility operating spending remain relatively flat, and customers will see no increase in their electric bills.
This outcome reflects LIPA’s thoughtful financial planning and careful management of operating costs, as well as its innovative use of financing tools, such as the Utility Debt Securitization Authority (UDSA). Through UDSA refinancing, competitive power-purchase agreements, and federal and state grant opportunities, LIPA saves customers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Equally important, these savings don’t come at the expense of reliability. We continue to invest in grid modernization, energy storage, offshore wind and distributed energy resources to prepare for the grid of the future.
In 2025, LIPA’s electric grid delivered exceptional reliability performance, with customers experiencing fewer than one outage per year on average–equivalent to 99.99% service availability. This performance ranks among the best in the nation for similarly sized utilities and has outperformed all New York State overhead electric utilities over the past five years.
This demonstrates the value of our record investments in storm hardening, vegetation management, technology modernization and more–totaling $9.4 billion over the past decade.
One of the most significant milestones shaping this year’s plan is the recently extended contract between LIPA and PSEG Long Island. The new agreement strengthens oversight, enhances cost controls and reduces management fees–producing an estimated $17 million in savings over the life of the extension. It also maintains rigorous performance metrics, linking compensation directly to results and introduces new transparency measures. These improvements reinforce a shared culture of accountability, ensuring that customers benefit from disciplined financial management and measurable performance metrics.
Looking ahead, 2026 will be a year in which LIPA refocuses on long-term strategic planning–a process that defines the priorities and investments needed to ensure Long Island’s grid remains resilient, flexible, and cost-effective as both energy technologies and customer needs evolve. Balancing reliability, sustainability and affordability will be at the heart of that plan.
By holding the line on spending today, we create the stability necessary to plan for the grid of tomorrow. And, perhaps most importantly, in an era of consistently rising costs, LIPA’s disciplined and transparent financial approach serves as a case study, demonstrating that reliability, affordability and clean energy can go hand in hand.
LIPA will hold public comment hearings on the proposed budget on Nov. 18 and Nov. 24. For information on how to attend these hearings and to read our full budget proposal, visit lipower.org.
Carrie Meek Gallagher serves as CEO of LIPA. She brings more than two decades of leadership experience in public utilities, environmental protection, regional planning and sustainability, most of it in service to the Long Island region.
LIPA‘s proposed 2026 budget projects a 3.3% drop in electric bills.
Plan includes $4.4B in operations and $1B in capital spending.
Budget supports offshore wind, battery storage, and grid upgrades.
Three public hearings planned before final board vote on Dec. 17.
At a time when costs for most everything else continue to rise, electric bills could be slightly lower for Long Island homeowners under the newly proposed Long Island Power Authority 2026 budget.
Following a meeting of its Board of Trustees on Thursday, LIPA announced that its proposed 2026 budget is projected to decrease the average residential customer electric bill by $6.53 or 3.3% compared with 2025 rates.
The proposed $4.4 billion operating and $1 billion capital plan is the first budget developed under LIPA’s five-year contract extension with PSEG Long Island, which “strengthens oversight, enhances cost controls, and reduces management fees by an estimated $17 million over the life of the agreement,” according to a LIPA statement.
“This budget lays the foundation for success in future years under our extended contract with PSEG Long Island,” Carrie Meek Gallagher, LIPA’s newly minted CEO, said in the statement. “By focusing on reliability, affordability, and increasingly clean energy, we’re maintaining a financially disciplined approach to operations while positioning LIPA to meet the challenges of the next decade with a stronger, more resilient grid.”
The proposed budget supports New York State’s energy goals, featuring offshore wind, battery energy storage and transmission upgrades; all of which are expected to deliver thousands of megawatts of carbon-free power. It also budgets for energy commodities, such as electricity, natural gas and fuel oil, projecting a $219 million decrease in power supply costs, according to the statement.
“Affordability remains central to LIPA’s mission,” LIPA Board Chair Tracey Edwards said in the statement. “While utilities across the nation are raising rates, LIPA continues to be an outlier – protecting ratepayers by holding the line on costs, maintaining reliability, and investing in a clean energy future for Long Island.”
David Lyons, interim president and COO of PSEG Long Island said: “PSEG Long Island is proud to be in partnership with LIPA to deliver cost savings to ratepayers while continuing to be the #1 overhead electric service provider in customer satisfaction and reliability in New York State.”
The LIPA board also approved “a temporary pause on disenrollments from its Household Assistance Rate Program” in which some 39,000 customers are enrolled and temporarily suspended service disconnections for low- to moderate-income customers affected by the ongoing federal government shutdown.
LIPA will hold three public hearings on the proposed budget: At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at the Rockaway YMCA in Arverne; at 10 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 24 at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge; and at 6 p.m. the same day at LIPA headquarters at 333 Earle Ovington Blvd. in Uniondale.
More information on the proposed 2026 budget is available at lipa.org. The LIPA board will vote on a final budget on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
A large wind turbine blade detached and fell into a cranberry bog in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Friday afternoon. Plymouth Fire Chief Neil Foley says they received a call from a concerned neighbor around 1:52 p.m. who noticed one of the three blades on the 300-foot-tall wind turbine was missing.Firefighters located the detached blade several hundred feet away from the base, resting in an open cranberry bog. Sister station WCVB’s Sky5 was over the scene of the broken blade, which is between 75 to 100 feet long. We did not see any additional detached blades in the area.There were no injuries, and there is no threat to the public.The maintenance company responsible for the wind turbine responded to the scene and said the turbine automatically entered a fail-safe mode, shutting down immediately after the blade detached.They’re still conducting inspections to determine the cause of the failure, according to fire officials.“We were fortunate that this turbine is located out in the middle of the cranberry bogs and not in a residential area,” said Chief Foley. “Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the turbine automatically shut itself down as designed. As we continue to investigate, MassDEP and Inspectional Services will now do their due diligence to ensure this incident is addressed appropriately and the impacted area is cleaned up safely.”The maintenance company has cordoned off the area and is arranging for contractors to clean up the scene.
PLYMOUTH, Mass. —
A large wind turbine blade detached and fell into a cranberry bog in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Friday afternoon.
Plymouth Fire Chief Neil Foley says they received a call from a concerned neighbor around 1:52 p.m. who noticed one of the three blades on the 300-foot-tall wind turbine was missing.
Firefighters located the detached blade several hundred feet away from the base, resting in an open cranberry bog.
Sister station WCVB’s Sky5 was over the scene of the broken blade, which is between 75 to 100 feet long. We did not see any additional detached blades in the area.
There were no injuries, and there is no threat to the public.
The maintenance company responsible for the wind turbine responded to the scene and said the turbine automatically entered a fail-safe mode, shutting down immediately after the blade detached.
They’re still conducting inspections to determine the cause of the failure, according to fire officials.
“We were fortunate that this turbine is located out in the middle of the cranberry bogs and not in a residential area,” said Chief Foley. “Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the turbine automatically shut itself down as designed. As we continue to investigate, MassDEP and Inspectional Services will now do their due diligence to ensure this incident is addressed appropriately and the impacted area is cleaned up safely.”
The maintenance company has cordoned off the area and is arranging for contractors to clean up the scene.
Envinity Solar employees Josh Fisher, left, TJ Barnhart, Matt Hansen and John Delahanty install solar panels on the roof of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Robert Inglis/The Daily Item
Solar power is surging across the U.S. as costs plummet and companies ramp up large-scale commercial projects, but experts say the green industry faces an uncertain future as the Trump administration scraps federal subsidies that have helped foster growth of the clean energy sector.
Last year, more than 90% of all new U.S. electrical generating capacity came from renewable sources, with solar power accounting for more than 81% — the largest single-year increase from any energy source in two decades, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
CNHI News Service
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
From left, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin smile after posing for a photo with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the background after a news conference at the Pump Station 1 on Monday, June 2, 2025, located near Deadhorse, Alaska, on the state’s prodigious North Slope. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Envinity Solar employees Josh Fisher, left, TJ Barnhart, Matt Hansen and John Delahanty install solar panels on the roof of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Solar power is surging across the U.S. as costs plummet and companies ramp up large-scale commercial projects, but experts say the green industry faces an uncertain future as the Trump administration scraps federal subsidies that have helped foster growth of the clean energy sector.
Last year, more than 90% of all new U.S. electrical generating capacity came from renewable sources, with solar power accounting for more than 81% — the largest single-year increase from any energy source in two decades, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
CNHI News Service
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
From left, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin smile after posing for a photo with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the background after a news conference at the Pump Station 1 on Monday, June 2, 2025, located near Deadhorse, Alaska, on the state’s prodigious North Slope. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Envinity Solar employees Josh Fisher, left, TJ Barnhart, Matt Hansen and John Delahanty install solar panels on the roof of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
(Reuters) -U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff to probe the potential harms of offshore wind farms, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to scrutinize offshore wind development, which Trump himself has repeatedly criticized.
In late summer, the Department of Health and Human Services, headed by Kennedy, instructed CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, to prepare research about wind farms’ impact on fishing businesses, the report said.
Kennedy has met NIOSH director John Howard about the issue and listed particular experts for Howard’s team to contact, Bloomberg reported.
The report added that the office of the U.S. surgeon general has also been involved in the initiative, which the HHS, prior to the ongoing government shutdown, aimed to have completed within a couple of months.
The HHS did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Anusha Shah, Siddhi Mahatole and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler and Alan Barona)
BEIJING (Reuters) -China has called on its neighbours Japan, South Korea, and ASEAN countries to make greater efforts in science and technology, including carrying out joint scientific and technological research, according to the official Xinhua.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang pointed to opportunities in artificial intelligence, robotics, and biomedicine, brought about by scientific and technological revolution and an industrial transformation.
In remarks at a leaders’ meeting with ASEAN, Japan, and South Korea in Malaysia and published by Xinhua late on Monday, Li said China is willing to continue to cooperating in the digital economy, electric vehicles and clean energy.
“We must persist in properly resolving differences through dialogue and consultation, oppose external interference, and avoid artificially creating tension and conflict,” he said in a speech at the meeting.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Michael Perry)
BOSTON — Attorney General Andrea Campbell has joined about two dozen other Democrats in suing the Trump administration over its decision to pull the plug on a $7 billion solar energy program for low-income households.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleges that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated federal law and the Administrative Procedures Act when it terminated the Solar for All program, approved by Congress in 2023 as part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
This page requires Javascript.
Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Energy said Thursday it has finalized a $1.6 billion loan guarantee to a subsidiary of one of the nation’s largest power companies to upgrade nearly 5,000 miles of transmission lines across five states, mostly in the Midwest, for largely fossil fuel-run energy.
AEP Transmission will upgrade power lines in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia, primarily to enhance enhance grid reliability and capacity, the Energy Department said. The project by AEP Transmission, a subsidiary of Ohio-based American Electric Power, is meant to help meet surging electricity demand from data centers and artificial intelligence.
AEP primarily produces electricity from coal, natural gas and nuclear power, along with renewable resources such as wind and hydroelectric power.
Thursday’s announcement deepens the Trump administration’s commitment to traditional, polluting energy sources even as it works to discourage the U.S. from clean energy use.
The move comes as the Trump administration has moved to cancel $7.6 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election. A total of 223 projects were terminated after a review determined they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable, the Energy Department said.
The cancellations include up to $1.2 billion for California’s hydrogen hub aimed at producing clean-burning hydrogen fuels to power ships and heavy-duty trucks. A hydrogen project costing up to $1 billion in the Pacific Northwest also was cancelled.
The loan guarantee finalized Thursday is the first offered by the Trump administration under the recently renamed Energy Dominance Financing program created by the massive tax-and-spending law approved this summer by congressional Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump. Electric utilities that receive loans through the program must provide assurances to the government that financial benefits from the financing will be passed on to customers, the Energy Department said.
The project and others being considered will help ensure that Americans “will have access to affordable, reliable and secure energy for decades to come,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.
“The president has been clear: America must reverse course from the energy subtraction agenda of past administrations and strengthen our electrical grid,” Wright said, adding that modernizing the grid and expanding transmission capacity “will help position the United States to win the AI race and grow our manufacturing base.”
The upgrades supported by the federal financing will replace existing transmission lines in existing rights-of-way with new lines capable of carrying more energy, the power company said.
More than 2,000 miles of transmission lines in Ohio serving 1.5 million people will be replaced, along with more than 1,400 miles in Indiana and Michigan serving 600,000 customers, the company said. An additional 1,400 miles in Oklahoma, serving about 1.2 million people and 26 miles in West Virginia, serving 460,000 people, will be replaced.
The projects will create about 1,100 construction jobs, the company said.
The loan guarantee will save customers money and improve reliability while supporting economic growth in the five states, said Bill Fehrman, AEP’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “The funds we will save through this program enable us to make additional investments to enhance service for our customers,” he added.
Wright, in a conference call with reporters, distinguished the AEP loan guarantee from a $4.9 billion federal loan guarantee the department cancelled in July. That money would have boosted the planned Grain Belt Express, a new high-voltage transmission line set to deliver solar and wind-generated electricity from the Midwest to eastern states.
The Energy Department said at the time it was “not critical for the federal government to have a role” in the first phase of the $11 billion project planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The department also questioned whether the project could meet strict financial conditions required, a claim Wright repeated Thursday.
“Ultimately that is a commercial enterprise that needs private developers,” Wright said. The company has indicated the Grain Belt project will go forward.
Trump and Wright have repeatedly derided wind and solar energy as unreliable and opposed efforts to combat climate change by moving away from fossil fuels. Wright said the Grain Belt Express loan was among billions of dollars worth of commitments “rushed out the doors” by former President Joe Biden’s administration after the 2024 election.
Colorado has a new law declaring nuclear power a source of clean energy. The Denver airport might explore building a small nuclear reactor to meet the rising demand for electricity. Local business, civic and labor leaders see nuclear energy as the fuel of choice when Xcel Energy stops burning coal at its power plants in Pueblo County,
Is nuclear power becoming cool in Colorado?
The state has had only one nuclear power plant, Fort St. Vrain near Platteville. And it was converted to natural gas in 1989 after 10 years of technical problems. The former Rocky Flats weapons plant, which produced plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs, drew thousands of protesters for years to the site north of Denver, including such prominent activists as Daniel Ellsberg and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
Worry about the demand for electricity outstripping capacity and concerns about progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions led state Rep. Alex Valdez, a Denver Democrat, to back legislation this year that defines nuclear power as “clean.” He sponsored House Bill 25-1040, which added nuclear to the energy sources that utilities can use to meet state clean energy targets.
“As a kid, I grew up in the ’80s when a lot of talk about nuclear was in relation to the weaponry that was pointed at each other between the Soviet Union and the United States,” Valdez said. “I think I just kind of lumped nuclear into the same conversations as most people do: around its negative uses, less desirable uses.”
With some forecasts showing electricity demand rising dramatically, Valdez said the U.S. will have to add “a tremendous amount of energy” to the grid if it’s going to compete in quantum computing and other advanced technology.
A boom in data center construction driven by increasing the use of artificial intelligence is expected to escalate the need for more electricity generation.
Valdez, who spent most of his career in the renewable energy field, said the legislation he sponsored recognizes that the power generated by nuclear energy is carbon-free. “As we move toward our path to zero-carbon (energy), it can be included in the mix to get us there.”
Not ready for prime time
A lot of the current interest in nuclear power revolves around a new technology: small modular nuclear reactors, about one-tenth to one quarter the size of a conventional reactor. They’re billed as potentially less expensive, safer, easier to build and adaptable because modules can be added as more power is needed.
The technology is also still in the development and demonstration stage. Just a few are operating in China and Russia. No small modular reactors –SMRs– are in commercial use in the U.S.
“SMRs aren’t ready for prime time,” said Dennis Wamsted, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “You will hear from developers and others about the advantages. The advantages right now are all on paper.”
The institute focuses on research into the economics of expanding the use of renewable energy.
“We are not fans of nuclear power because it costs too much and that cost has been consistently high over the years. We see no track record of it declining,” Wamsted said. “We certainly don’t see that happening with a new class of reactor that nobody’s built before and nobody’s run before.”
Noah Rott, a spokesman for the western region of the Sierra Club, said the environmental group feels that discussion around nuclear energy “is largely a distraction as utilities work to address electric load growth in the next decade.”
“Cleaner sources like wind, solar, demand response, energy efficiency and storage are the answer here,” Rott said in an email.
The airport put the study on hold after complaints that city officials hadn’t talked to area residents first. The airport determined that a broader scope will best serve its interests and needs and will issue a request for information later this fall on multiple clean energy solutions, including reactors, after first receiving ideas and input from the community, spokeswoman Courtney Law said in an email Wednesday.
Nuclear power generation is the top choice of a local advisory committee for replacing coal at Xcel Energy’s Comanche power plants near Pueblo. Xcel has proposed tapping renewable energy, battery storage and natural gas when it stops burning coal by 2031.
But the Pueblo Innovative Energy Solutions Advisory Committee, established by Xcel and community members, said renewable energy facilities wouldn’t provide the same number of jobs and tax revenue for local governments that nuclear or gas facilities would. The committee is promoting installing SMRs.
Xcel Energy operates nuclear facilities in Minnesota and has said they’re not off the table for Colorado, but the new type of reactors likely won’t be commercially available when the utility has to replace its coal plants.
The Western Governors Association, WGA, held workshops in September at the Idaho National Laboratory, which focuses largely on nuclear energy.
The workshops were part of an initiative by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called “Energy Superabundance: Unlocking Prosperity in the West.” Cox, the WGA’s chairman this year, said the country is looking to the West for ways to meet the surge in need for more electricity.
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Some community leaders want to see nuclear power replace coal-fired power when Xcel Energy quits burning coal at the Comanche power plant in Pueblo County. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Idaho Gov. Brad Little said during a workshop that the U.S. won’t meet its energy needs “with our legacy energy.”
“We’re going to have to have scalable, safe nuclear energy,” Little said.
While it could be five to 10 years before small reactors are up and running in the U.S., Mark Jensen, a chemistry professor at the Colorado School of Mines, said the federal government is more involved in promoting nuclear energy than in the recent past. He noted that the Department of Energy has opened federal sites to allow companies to test prototypes and that could help streamline development.
President Donald Trump has issued executive orders intended to invigorate the nuclear power industry and streamline regulations.
Jensen, director of the nuclear science and engineering program at the School of Mines, said more private money is flowing into nuclear projects than he has seen over the past 35 years.
Wind, solar the ‘workhorses’
Jack Waldorf, WGA executive director, said in an email that advancements in nuclear energy provide the opportunity to expand clean, reliable generation of electricity, but achieving true energy abundance will require a comprehensive approach.
Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement that Colorado has a history as an innovator and nuclear energy should be no different. ” As projects become cost competitive and safer, we should view nuclear energy not as a competing energy source to wind and solar, but as a complementary solution for better overall reliability and lower costs.”
Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, agreed. He said as Colorado moves to more deeply cut emissions, other technologies will be needed and nuclear energy should certainly be in the mix.
“It’s pretty clear that wind and solar will be the workhorses of the grid just looking at the cost modeling,” Toor said. “You can build them relatively quickly and they’re so much cheaper than other resources.”
He expects nuclear power to be in a group of what he calls “clean, firm” energy sources: ones that emit low or no greenhouse gases and provide round-the-clock power. Toor said geothermal energy is likely the furthest along among those sources.
“The challenge with nuclear is really still the same challenge that it has been for utilities, which is the cost, how long it takes to build and the uncertainties of federal permitting,” Toor said.
He added that he would be surprised if Colorado utilities moved ahead with conventional nuclear or “to be first in line for the first-of-its-kind” small modular reactor.
“[The clutch] is like 1950s technology—it’s really boring,” Westerman said (“boring,” for grid operators, is the highest form of praise). “The marginal cost of putting this in is like nothing compared to the cost of the plant.”
A company called SSS has built these clutches for decades. One is nearly operational in the state of Queensland at the Townsville gas-fired plant, which Siemens Energy is converting into what it calls a “hybrid rotating grid stabilizer.” Siemens says this project is the world’s first such conversion of a gas turbine of this size.
That particular retrofit took about 18 months and involved some relocating of auxiliary components at Townsville to make room for the new clutch. So it’s not instantaneous, but far easier than building a new synchronous condenser from scratch, and about half the cost, per Siemens.
Some novel long-duration storage techniques also provide their own spinning mass. Canadian startup Hydrostor expects to break ground early next year on a fully permitted and contracted project in Broken Hill, a city deep in the Outback of New South Wales.
Broken Hill lent its name to BHP, which started there as a silver mine in 1885 and has grown to one of the largest global mining companies. More recently, the desert landscape played host to the postapocalyptic car chases of Mad Max 2. Now, roughly 18,000 people live there, at the end of one long line connecting to the broader grid.
Hydrostor will shore up local power by excavating an underground cavity and compressing air into it; releasing the compressed air turns a turbine to regenerate up to 200 megawatts for up to eight hours, serving the community if the grid connection goes down and otherwise shipping clean power to the broader grid.
But unlike batteries, Hydrostor’s technology uses old-school generators, and its compressors contribute additional spinning metal.
“We have a clutch spec’d in for New South Wales, because they need the inertia,” Hydrostor CEO Jon Norman said. “It’s so simple; it’s like the same clutches on your standard car.”
Transmission grid operator Transgrid ran a competitive process to determine the best way to provide system security to Broken Hill in the event it had to operate apart from the grid, Norman said. That analysis chose Hydrostor’s bid to simply insert a clutch when it installs its machinery.
The project still needs to get built, but if up-and-coming clean storage technologies could step in to provide that grid security, it wouldn’t all have to come from ghostly gas plants lingering on the system.
“It’s a different feeling [in Australia]—there’s a can do, go get ’em, ‘put me in coach’ attitude,” said Audrey Zibelman, the American grid expert who ran AEMO before Westerman. “When you’re determined to say how best to go about this, as opposed to why it’s hard or why it doesn’t work, the solutions appear.”
“From the outset, the Global Gateway has been described as the European Union’s attempt to rival the Belt and Road Initiative’s overseas infrastructure investment funds. At €300 billion through 2027, however, it is a David-versus-Goliath-style undertaking,” says Gabriele Rosana, an associate fellow at the Institute of International Affairs in Rome. China has already been investing heavily in clean energy in Africa, and with far fewer constraints. “The Union is operating in a system of precise rules, stakes, and constraints unknown to Chinese centralism,” Rosana says.
According to a study from Griffith University in Australia, energy-related investments under the Belt and Road Initiative in the first half of 2025 were the highest they’ve been since 2013, when the initiative was launched—and it was Africa, with $39 billion, that had the highest-value contracts in this sector. A recent report from the energy think tank Ember revealed that China exported 15GW of solar panels to Africa in the year leading up to June 2025, a 60 percent year-on-year increase of such imports. It is not certain that all of these devices will be installed—some could be a trade triangulation to circumvent tariffs—but in any case, Beijing is positioning itself to take advantage of the continent’s green transition.
Europe, though, is committed to grasping this opportunity as well. “Over the past two years, competitiveness has gradually, but with increasing conviction, become the key word on the European policy agenda, along with defense,” says Rosana. “International cooperation has also been reinvented with a view to strategic autonomy, and put at the service of the Union’s global projection, at a time when, with the massive reorganization of trade balances due to the America-China challenge, Europe must rapidly diversify its supply chains and trade.”
The EU hasn’t been alone in feeling the need to respond to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Before President Donald Trump’s second term, the US had also felt compelled to act. In 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration announced an international infrastructure program, the Build Back Better World, which the following year was expanded to the G7 and renamed the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI). Among the PGI’s main areas of focus were energy and Africa: indeed, two solar power plants in Angola, a wind energy and storage system in Kenya, and a nickel processing plant for batteries in Tanzania appeared on the list of early US projects.
But perhaps the most important infrastructure project the West is pursuing in Africa is the Lobito Corridor, a railway line that will connect Zambia’s copper deposits and the DRC’s cobalt mines to the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola. Copper is the metal of electrification; lithium, a key ingredient in batteries—both are essential raw materials for the green transition, and China currently dominates the supply of both.
The African continent, then, is now a battleground between superpowers interested, first and foremost, in its resources. But with a young and growing population—in the sub-Saharan region, the population will grow by an estimated 79 percent over the next three decades—and an energy system dominated by fossil fuels, Africa’s decarbonization will be essential to the success of net zero. “The choices Africa makes today,” said Von der Leyen during the September announcement, “are shaping the future of the entire world.”
This story originally appeared onWIRED Italiaand has been translated from Italian.
A new report paints a dire picture of the future in which electricity demand is surging and the transition to clean energy is still decades away.
The global risk management provider DNV forecasts that global emissions will reach net zero only after 2090, and anticipates a temperature increase of roughly 2.2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by 2100, although they caution it could be higher than that. Furthermore, AI data centers are expected to consume about 12 percent of all electricity in North America as soon as 2040.
“A casual observer might conclude that the energy transition is stalled or in reverse. That is most definitely not the case,” the report states. “Some aspects of the transition are supercharged and progressing rapidly, while other aspects of the transition have hit turbulence and are delayed.”
There are, however, some caveats and reasons for optimism. DNV’s report notes, for example, that as soon as about 2060, carbon dioxide emissions are expected to fall by about 63 percent, with fossil fuels all but exiting the global energy mix. It also states that upheaval in U.S. policy will likely slow the clean energy transition, but not entirely derail it, largely because of China’s leadership in technological development and renewables buildout.
As far as AI, the report anticipates data centers will account for an outsized chunk of electricity in North America—consuming some 16 percent overall, with that aforementioned 12 percent coming strictly from AI. Globally, however, data centers are expected to surge to consume some 5 percent of electricity by 2040 with 3 percent attributable to AI, specifically. The report, however, anticipates that initial exponential growth in power demand from AI will become linear in time, even as the “cognitive services” it provides grow exponentially. The energy efficiency of “leading [machine learning] hardware” has improved about 40 percent year-over-year, according to the report.
During NYC Climate Week in late September, Nvidia’s head of sustainability Josh Parker joined panels to discuss AI and sustainability. On one, he argued it’s worth it to bring new energy online to fuel AI, if artificial intelligence is applied to accelerate innovation in sustainability, emissions reduction, and clean energy.
“AI really can be—and will be if we use it properly—a fantastic solution to some of the biggest challenges that we’ve had in sustainability,” he said on a separate panel on the same subject. “AI is not only providing more performance per watt of energy, but it’s also more performance per liter of water. It’s more performance per ton of steel, more performance per chip, and across every metric you can think of.”
Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries has agreed to acquire ReNew Sun Bright, the solar energy unit of ReNew Energy Global, for approximately S$246m ($190.02m).
This acquisition aims to enhance Sembcorp’s renewable energy portfolio in India.
ReNew Sun Bright operates a 300MW solar power plant situated in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The plant began commercial operations in November 2021.
The facility operates under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the local electricity company.
Upon closing of the transaction, Sembcorp’s total renewable energy capacity in India will reach 6.9GW, encompassing both installed and under-development projects.
The transaction comes at a time when India aims to increase its renewable energy capacity to 500GW by 2030, which is currently at 165GW, reported Reuters.
Last year, Sembcorp Industries received a letter of award for a 300MW interstate transmission system wind-solar hybrid power project.
The project was awarded to Sembcorp’s subsidiary Sembcorp Green Infra by India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), as part of a larger 1.2GW bid.
The award stipulates that the power generated by the project would be sold to NTPC under a 25-year PPA.
This deal comes days after India’s Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy ordered domestic clean energy agencies to cancel and reissue solar project tenders that were hurriedly floated to bypass certain regulatory requirements.
Most domestic developers rely on low-cost Chinese solar cells. However, India’s clean energy policy allows only locally manufactured modules and cells be used in government-backed projects.
“Sembcorp to acquire ReNew’s solar energy business for $190m ” was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
