By industry
What energy owners and operators have put into production, what it cost and what went wrong.
This page covers the power grid and the plants behind it: AI and software on the grid, batteries, transmission, and the new nuclear and fusion machines being licensed and tested.
Software is being aimed at the grid's slowest steps. In Phoenix, Emerald AI's software cut a 256-GPU cluster's power 25% for three hours during two utility peaks, according to a preprint that hasn't been peer-reviewed. [1] PJM, which runs what it calls the nation's largest electrical grid, signed a multiyear deal with Google and Tapestry to apply AI to interconnection reviews, with 67 GW of transition-phase projects still waiting. [2] AWS says AI agents built with Duke Energy cut some study data-preparation tasks from two weeks to hours, a vendor claim. [3]
Hardware is moving too. The U.S. added a record 15 GW of utility-scale batteries in 2025, the EIA reported. [4] Sensors on 175 miles of Great River Energy's lines found up to 63% more capacity at peak, though other equipment capped what one line could use. [5]
Nuclear restarts can stall. Holtec began loading fuel at Michigan's Palisades plant on Aug. 30, 2026, then paused when one fuel assembly tilted. On Oct. 21 it said it had recovered the assembly after the NRC approved its method; Holtec gave no restart date. [6]
Each case below covers what was deployed, what it cost where disclosed, and what went wrong.
© 2026 Real World Wire. Written October 29, 2026.
Holtec began refuelling the Michigan reactor on Aug. 30, 2026. One fuel assembly tipped after placement, and loading stopped while Holtec worked out how to retrieve it.
The NRC cleared the Tennessee Valley Authority to build one 300-MW GE Vernova Hitachi reactor at Clinch River. TVA hasn't set a start date or settled who shares the cost.
Amazon's new Agentic Grid Planning program puts AI agents on top of utilities' existing simulation tools. The only results so far are Duke's, as reported by AWS.
Antares, Valar, Deployable and Aalo hit zero-power criticality between June and July 4, 2026, beating DOE's goal of three. None of them makes electricity yet.
The 339-mile Champlain Hudson Power Express reached commercial operation on May 13, 2026, and can deliver 1,250 MW, up to 20% of the city's needs. Market restrictions limited how it sold power at first.
About 3,650 MW of New Mexico wind and a 550-mile HVDC line to Arizona are now delivering power to the western grid, Pattern Energy says. Its builders don't give a total cost.
The NRC let a TerraPower subsidiary build a 345-MWe sodium-cooled reactor near a coal plant in Kemmerer. It can't run without a separate operating licence.
EIA data show battery storage is now the second-largest slice of planned 2026 U.S. capacity. 2025 still fell short of what developers planned.
The Energy Department backed Constellation's plan to bring the 835-megawatt Pennsylvania reactor back. The money is a loan, capped at 80% of eligible costs, and the plant isn't running yet.
Great River Energy's year-long dynamic line rating trial with Heimdall Power projects $3.175 million in avoided congestion costs over five years. Other connected equipment capped what the wires could deliver.
The NRC approved the licensing actions that let Holtec load fuel at the Michigan plant, which shut in May 2022. Approval is not a restart, and more reviews remain.
The startup began site work in Malaga, Washington, and later won a county permit for the generator building. It still hasn't made electricity from fusion.
The startup's 3.5-MWh pilot in Colorado runs without fans, pumps or liquid cooling. Nine utilities and power producers are watching the data. The cells came from China.
Redwood Materials wired 805 retired EV packs to a solar array to run a Crusoe modular data center off-grid. The companies call it the largest second-life battery deployment yet.
The solid-state battery developer moved a new ceramic-separator process into baseline production, the first of its 2025 goals. The speed figures are the company's own.
The US460 design can now be referenced in applications to build plants. The NRC says its review came in early and under budget. Nobody has applied to build one yet in these sources.
Germany's stellarator held a record triple product for 43 seconds, refuelled by a U.S.-built pellet injector. Unpublished results from the UK's JET tie it.
The 250-MW Ontario project, co-owned with First Nations partners, cost about C$700 million against an C$800 million estimate. It holds a 20-year contract with the grid operator.
Emerald AI's software throttled a 256-GPU cluster during two utility peaks in May 2025 with no hardware changes, according to a preprint that hasn't been peer-reviewed.
Canada's nuclear regulator let Ontario Power Generation build one 300-MWe reactor in Clarington, Ontario, with hold points along the way. It isn't licensed to operate yet.
Livermore's laser facility got more than four times the energy it fired into a fuel capsule, thanks largely to a better diamond capsule. It has since had to turn its maximum shot energy down for repairs.
The largest U.S. grid operator signed a multiyear deal to use AI on its slowest job: reviewing requests to connect new power plants. Tapestry's speed results are its own.
CEA kept a hydrogen plasma going for 1,337 seconds on 2 MW of heating, 25% longer than China's EAST weeks earlier. CEA itself says fusion is unlikely to matter much for net zero by 2050.
The NRC issued two construction permits for twin 35-megawatt-thermal test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, about 16 months after Kairos applied. Kairos still needs an operating licence.