Energy Update | Week 5 – Oct 2025: Nuclear Revival, Offshore Wind Setbacks & AI Grid Innovation

In this Week 5 – October 2025 Energy Update, I take a look at another eventful week in U.S. energy — one defined by offshore wind setbacks, renewed nuclear ambitions, and AI-driven grid innovation.

I start with Shell’s withdrawal from Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, which leaves EDF Renewables as the sole developer after a key EPA permit was pulled. I then discuss the Trump administration’s $80 billion nuclear partnership with Brookfield and Westinghouse, signaling a strong policy shift toward new reactor development.

I also cover FERC’s efforts to streamline large-load interconnections, Nvidia and Emerald AI’s new Aurora data center that demonstrates flexible energy use, and WattCarbon’s Repowering California initiative focused on virtual power plants.

To wrap up, I share updates on Ford’s production pause, Corning’s new wafer plant, and Form Energy’s first 100-hour iron-air battery deployment.

It’s a week that highlights both the challenges and the momentum driving America’s evolving energy transition.

Chapters

• 0:00 Shell Quits Atlantic Shores
• 0:39 U.S. Turns To Nuclear Investment
• 2:16 Fast-Tracking Large Load Interconnections
• 3:00 AI Data Centers And Flexible Power
• 3:52 Virtual Power Plants And New Markets
• 4:24 EV, Solar Supply Chain, And Long-Duration Storage
• 6:43 Closing And Look Ahead

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I've got your energy stories for this, the fifth week of October 2025. And in the first one, Shell New Energies US has voluntarily withdrawn from Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind LLC and is assigning its 50% interest to its JV partner EDFRE offshore development. Atlantic Shores was intended to develop over 5,000 megawatts of offshore projects 10 to 20 miles off New Jersey, with its first phase of 1,510 megawatts awarded a contract in 2021 to deliver energy to New Jersey. In March, the EPA withdrew its fully executed clean air permit, at least temporarily crippling that project. Well, the U.S. may be intent on severely maiming offshore wind, but it's going all in on nukes. Last week, the Trump administration signed a deal with Brookfield Asset Management and Camico, owners of Westinghouse, to develop at least$80 billion in nuclear reactors. The U.S. government will arrange financing and assists with permitting while receiving a 20% share of future profits after initial payment of$17.5 billion to both of those parties. That profit could then be converted into an equity stake of up to 20%, making all of us taxpayers part owners. Who knew? Some estimates suggest that the project could support six to ten large reactors. But if the cost of the vaudle plant at$34 billion for its two reactors and a Westinghouse bankruptcy to boot, or the$10 billion spent for the two reactors at the FC Summer plant, which were abandoned after being less than half completed, if those suggest anything, they suggest that this is going to be harder and more costly than it appears, especially as the skill sets and industrial capability no longer exist in the United States. Only a few companies, for example, make the reactor vessels, and the U.S. is not one of them. And during his Asian tour, President Trump announced major projects to advance Japan's previously announced$550 billion investment commitment to strengthen U.S. industrial base. Up to$332 billion will support critical energy infrastructure, including construction of AP 1000 and small modular reactors, the first in partnership with Westinghouse and the construction of the SMRs in collaboration with GE Fernova and Hitachi. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to initiate a rulemaking to, quote, rapidly accelerate, unquote, the interconnection of large loads over 20 megawatts to the grid. The proposed rule would standardize interconnection requests and allow proponents to file joint, co-located, and generation interconnection requests. The FERC jurisdiction would extend only to direct interconnections to transmission facilities as it tries to avoid stepping on states' jurisdictional authorities. The DOE would also like to see expedited approvals for facilities that agree in advance to have supply curtailed, an approach already being used to expedite interconnections in areas such as the Southwest Power Pool. Leading AI chip manufacturer Nvidia is using software developed by Emerald AI at a new data center in Virginia named Aurora that will allow the new data center to use electricity in a more flexible fashion. Aurora will be built to a new certification related to flexible power that's being co-developed by Emerald and NVIDIA, along with grid operator PJM and the Electric Power Research Institute. The new data center will deploy Emerald AI to shift energy and compute intensive tasks to other times and also to other less stressed locations. Specific reduction goals have not yet been published, but an initial test demonstrated that AI power consumption could be cut by up to 25% over a three-hour period. So while that doesn't eliminate the challenge of connecting new large loads to the grid and the need to build up new capacity and both transmission and generation infrastructure, it does lower the bar somewhat. But there may be another way to get that needed capacity by buying it from other customers in the form of virtual power plants. Energy measurement platform Wattcarbon last week launched a program called Repower in California that will incentivize large users to buy capacity from these VPPs, including numerous distributed energy resources such as water heaters, batteries, EV chargers, etc. Wattcarbon would then certify and offer certificates attesting to the amount of flexibility and extra capacity those VPPs add to the grid. Well, one company that may benefit from such an approach is Solar Edge Technologies. It also provides distributed energy resources and VPPs, and it is now announced that it's enrolled over 500 megawatt hours of residential battery storage into virtual power plant programs across 16 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Over 40% of solar edge sites that have batteries in the U.S. participate in utility or grid operator incentive programs. In other news, Ford has stopped production of its F-150 Lightning Electric Truck at its Rouge EV Center in Michigan after a fire at an aluminum supplier's factory. Production will cease for an unspecified duration while Ford focuses its attention on its more profitable gas and hybrid F-Series trucks. Also in Michigan, glassmaker Corning says its new silicon ingot and wafer factory has come online, the first such factory to do so in over a decade. The plant is located on Corning's Hemlock semiconductor campus, with Hemlock providing the polysilicon that will feed the wafer factory, and it will produce over 1 million wafers daily. Corning notes that it has a strong future market with 80% of its polysilicon and wafer capacity already contracted over the next five years. It plans to grow the solar business to generate$2.5 billion annually by 2020. And finally, Form Energy, the startup making 100-hour ironair batteries, has finally begun deploying its first commercial batteries at Great River Energy's 1.5 megawatt, 1500 megawatt-hour project in Cambridge, Minnesota. That project was announced five years ago, and it's expected to be fully operational at last next year. CEO Mateo Jaramillo noted in a recent conversation that the AI explosion is driving his business to expand quickly, noting that it has more near-term demand than anticipated through 2030. Form already has over 200 megawatts and 20,000 megawatt hours under contract, but it may need to raise more capital to further extend its manufacturing facility. Well, that's all for this week. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you again soon.