China’s State Council approved the construction of eight new nuclear reactor units on July 31, 2026, during an executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang. The projects, spanning four provinces, represent a total investment exceeding 170 billion yuan (approximately $25 billion) and continue the country’s aggressive expansion of nuclear capacity as a cornerstone of its […]
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Electricité de France (EDF) has shut down the Golfech-2 nuclear reactor in southern France as a blistering heatwave drives temperatures toward 40°C across parts of Europe. This is the latest in a record number of heat-related outages hitting France’s nuclear fleet this summer, curbing output from what remains the backbone of Europe’s electricity system. EDF […]
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German companies are delaying investments and increasingly eyeing production moves abroad as stubbornly high energy costs erode competitiveness, according to the latest survey from the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). The findings, highlighted in a July 27, 2026 Bloomberg report drawing on the DIHK’s Energiewende Barometer 2026, underscore deepening structural pressures from Germany’s […]
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Wind and solar are key, but not in existing grid deployments. This article was first run on the Energy News Beat Substack. Global electricity generation is set for a massive expansion. According to OPEC’s World Oil Outlook (matching the chart data for 2025–2050), total generation rises from about 32,017 TWh in 2025 to roughly 59,500 […]
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On Wednesday, July 22, 2026, extreme Texas heat drove air-conditioning demand that pushed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid past 91 gigawatts for the first time. Unofficial real-time figures from ERCOT’s website showed a peak around 91,300 megawatts near 5 p.m. CT, with system-wide demand data indicating highs near 91,089 MW. This shattered […]
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A wildly fun podcast with Grace Vanderhei and Alina Voss. In this Energy Newsbeat podcast episode, host Stu Turley sits down with nuclear experts Grace Vanderheide (nuclear fuels engineer and former Miss America) and Alina Voss (NX Atomics) to explore the nuclear industry’s pivotal moment. As the U.S. restarts decommissioned reactors and deploys advanced reactor […]
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Recent data confirms that fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) still supply 57% of global electricity generation. Wind and solar together reached about 17% of electricity in 2025, according to Ember’s Global Electricity Review. This marks progress from a decade ago, yet it tells only part of the story. Electricity represents a minority slice […]
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The explosive growth of data centers, driven primarily by artificial intelligence, is reshaping America’s electricity landscape. High-end projections now show data centers potentially consuming up to 20% of total U.S. electricity by 2035 in aggressive scenarios—roughly a four- to five-fold increase from today’s ~4-5% share. Even as AI model developers announce efficiency gains, the underlying […]
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Europe is facing a perfect storm in the summer of 2026: record early heatwaves clashing with the structural weaknesses of aggressive Net Zero policies. The EU and UK have systematically dismantled reliable baseload power from coal, nuclear, and natural gas, replacing it with intermittent wind and solar—without sufficient storage or flexible backup. The result? Some […]
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Yasir Arafat, Co-Founder, CTO, & President, stops by the Energy News Beat podcast On July 4th, 2024—America’s 250th birthday—something extraordinary happened that most people missed. Allo Atomics turned on a brand new advanced nuclear reactor for the first time in 50 years. But here’s what makes this truly revolutionary: they designed, built, and achieved criticality […]
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