The world’s third-busiest airport is weighing an SMR to reach energy independence and become “the greenest airport in the world”
Technology companies compete with each other in a lot of ways but they all want to achieve the goal of being able to run operations and data centers using 24/7 carbon-free energy. They've done about as much as they can trying to buy, build and/or get credits from wind and solar plants and it hasn't been sufficient. With its announcement, Google acknowledges that they "need a broader portfolio of advanced clean electricity technologies" to be able to fully decarbonize their energy consumption.
The announcement lists the following as "advanced clean electricity technologies": next-generation geothermal, advanced nuclear, clean hydrogen and long-duration energy storage. This is an astounding announcement because it makes it clear that the tech companies are now moving their focus away from wind and solar, which are just too inconsistent and unreliable, to better, more reliable options.
The initiative aims to aggregate their demand for better types of clean energy to increase their buying power, their lobby power (we have to believe) and diversify the risks of investing in first-of-a-kind (FOAK) plants, whose costs are always higher than "Nth" of a kind plants. They recognize that there are a bevy of developers looking to build next-generation nuclear (and probably also geothermal) plants and they want to be able to help these ventures build those FOAK units, without each individually and solely having to take on risk. This is a tremendously important initiative and concept, it will definitely help accelerate the timelines for companies seeking to get plants built.
THe announcement comes just a few weeks after Amazon announced their purchase of Talen's nuclear-power Cumulous Data Center, which will enable Amazon Web Services to achieve their very ambitious decarbonization goal by 2025. But there aren't many nuclear power plants with spare generating capacity. In order to get access to sufficient quantities of 24/7 clean nuclear power, the U.S. will need to start building next-generation plants, many of which will be Gen IV designs.
Read more at Google's The Keyword: "A new initiative with Microsoft and Nucor to accelerate advanced clean electricity technologies," by Maud Texler, Global Director, Clean Energy and Decarbonization Development March 19, 2024.
Also see the IEA Report, Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, cited by Google for its support of the need for advanced energy technologies, revised October 2021.
Published by Nucleation Capital in 100% Renewables, Advanced Nuclear, Advanced Nuclear Customers, Carbon emissions, Corporate decarbonization, Corporate purpose, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Private companies, Public companies, Solving climate, US competitiveness, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy
Dow Chemical CEO, Jim Fitterling appeared in a CEO interview segment with Sara Eisen on CNBC on May 12 and proceeded to discuss Dow's plan to build X-energy's advanced nuclear power plant at a Dow site in Texas. In what can only be described as a perfect 4-minute "New Nuclear 101” class geared for Wall Street, he produced possibly the best infomercial one could imagine for choosing advanced nuclear. Even if he didn't answer Sara's questions.
CNBC hosts CEO Interviews live on air and posts them almost immediately to their website. This one can be found here.
Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Advanced Nuclear Customers, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Construction costs, Corporate decarbonization, Corporate purpose, Future of Energy, History Timeline, History-making, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Public companies, Solving climate, US competitiveness, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy
Grist writes: "US support for nuclear power soars to highest level in a decade: As the country looks to decarbonize, nuclear’s popularity continues to climb." This is what Akielly Hu, Grist's News and Politics Fellow, reports following the release by Gallup of a survey that found that 55 percent of US adults support the use of nuclear power. This total is up four percentage points in a year, and "reflects the highest level of public support for nuclear energy use in electricity since 2012."
Among other findings, the survey found that Republicans are more likely to favor nuclear energy than Democrats, which partisan divide is particularly visible at the state level, with more pro-nuclear policies adopted in Republican-controlled states than left-leaning ones. Nevertheless, support for nuclear energy by Democratic is also on the rise, in part due to advances in nuclear technologies and new federal climate laws that clarify the fact that nuclear power is carbon-free energy and can help in efforts to solve climate change.
The Biden administration has identified nuclear energy as a key climate solution to achieve grid stability in a net-zero future. The administration is pushing for the deployment of advanced nuclear reactor models that improve on the safety and efficiency of traditional reactor designs. These designs will all be far more consistent and reliable than wind and solar energy, which vary depending on the weather. The broader shift in public opinion and, in particular, Democratic opinion toward nuclear energy, is at least partially a function of strong pronuclear leadership coming from the Biden Administration and the DOE under Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Read more at Grist, US support for nuclear power soars to highest level in a decade, by Akielly Hu, May 9, 2023.
Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear Customers, Brilliant thinkers, Capital reallocation, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate policy, Construction costs, Corporate purpose, Energy abundance, Environmental support for nuclear, Extreme weather, Future of Energy, Government support, Investor activity, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, Nuclear-inclusive energy policy, Nucleation communications, Politicians supporting nuclear, Private companies, Solving climate, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy
RTO Insider has reported on the discussion at the NARUC meeting in mid-February, in which the Tennessee Valley Authority CEO, Jeff Lyash, made the case for his need for nuclear energy to achieve his goals of 80% carbon-free generation by 2035 and net-zero by 2050.
The TVA already has an early has an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build its first SMR at Clinch River. But Lyash is not interested in building one reactor. “In order for us to be successful, TVA needs something on the order of 20 reactors over that period of time," Lyash remarked to those gathered at the National Associate of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Winter Policy summit in Washington, D.C.
TVA, a federally-owned utility, will still need a construction permit for the 300 MW GE Hitachi MWRX-300 SMR that it is planning to build but what Lyash really needs is for the construction to reach "nth-of-a-kind costs, supply chain, workforce, project execution" to make constructing a portfolio of 20 or more reactors and slam dunk.
The rising need for nuclear power as a critical technology to enable full decarbonization was a major theme of the NARUC conference. As such, the formation of a new initiative, the Advanced Nuclear State Collaborative, to bring together members of NARUC and the National Association of State Energy Officials was announced by David Wright, an NRC commissioner, and Tricia Pridemore, chair of the Georgia Public Service Commission. The initiative, sponsored by the Department of Energy, will provide technical assistance and expertise for states deploying or considering new nuclear projects, Commissioner Pridemore said.
The new collaborative is the response to growing interest in nuclear by energy insiders. In at least 20 states, “public service commissions and state energy offices are engaged in feasibility studies for advanced nuclear reactor site selection, strategies to reduce regulatory and policy barriers to new nuclear, and other activities to pave the way for advanced reactors,” Commissioner Pridemore said.
With the two new AP1000 reactors at Vogtle just starting to come online, one might think that the troubled Southern Co. experience of building them at more than double the original cost and six years delayed might put a damper on interest in building more nuclear. In fact, Lyash and LPO Director, Jigar Shah, agreed that Vogtle showed that "America is deciding to do big things."
As a result of completing these AP1000s, there are now 13,000 trained men and women with experience in building new power plants. They will next be deployed in building the next AP1000s in Poland, which selected the Westinghouse AP1000 in part because the Vogtle plant got done, produced valuable lessons, and there is current knowhow for building it.
Now, this experience is available to benefit all new buyers, de-risk new builds and improve the financial and public trust in the technology. If more customers step up, whether for the AP1000 or other new designs, the valuable lessons learned can actually benefit the U.S., other nations and our decarbonization efforts and help keep nuclear power competitive in general.
In fact, according to Lyash, nuclear power plants are "highly competitive." And he should know because nuclear generates 42% of TVA's power supply. So while nuclear plants require large up-front capital expenditure, "they have a tremendously long and beneficial life," per Lyash. "They also deliver all the attributes to a power system that you need—voltage, frequency and maneuverability." The key need going forward: Buidling them on time and on budget.
Read more at RTO Insider, Making the Case for Nuclear at NARUC, by K. Kaufman, Feb 15, 2023.
Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Brilliant thinkers, Capital reallocation, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate policy, Construction costs, Corporate purpose, Distributed grids, Energy abundance, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear-inclusive energy policy, Politicians supporting nuclear, Private companies, Solving climate, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy
anksgiving isn't typically a time for making investment decisions . . . but it should be. Americans honor our country's beauty and bounty in many ways—most notably through the national holiday actually called "Thanksgiving," which celebrates the abundance of the land we inherited centuries ago. We feast on turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries and other delicious indigenous foods that sustained early pilgrims. Now, that abundance and beauty is at risk—as are all societal systems and traditions—as we now know that our lifestyles are simply not sustainable in their present configuration.
If we want the Thanksgiving tradition to survive, we cannot afford to ignore the forced heating impacts that the CO2 waste from our high-energy lives is having on the climate. So, in addition to celebrating Thanksgiving, we should take the opportunity to focus on the intergenerational threat we face, which we can do by acknowledging that fossil fuels are the wrong energy for the 21st century and investing in energy solutions that eliminate new emissions and also repair the damage already done by removing emissions previously released. This would be the best way to honor what we've enjoyed for so long, give thanks and do our part in leaving the world with a sustainable climate for our childrento enjoy.
There are many challenges for humanity. The heating we've caused our planet is something we must urgently address but doing so isn't as easy as it seems. People love to celebrate happy holidays and gather over delicious feasts and feel good. It is another thing altogether to ask people to focus on negative issues, things that worry and stress us out, such as acknowledging that our dumping of fossil fuel waste into the atmosphere has dramatically disrupted the natural ecosystems which have long supported us. This is contrary to our nature, as we prefer celebrations to crises. But if we build into the Thanksgiving tradition the practice of honoring the bounties of nature that we have enjoyed and objectively assessing how much damage we have done to them and then finding ways to remedy that damage, we stand a better chance of reversing the damage by accelerating climate solutions.
Given the scale of the climate problem, it is not sufficient to try to address it with personal actions such as turning down the heat, recyling, composting or even buying an electric car. These things are good to do but will not solve the problem. The only way to do that is to reduce and then eliminate fossil fuels emissions, which are still being released in the gigatons. We are running out of time to act, so rather than take modest personal actions, we must seek to find things that we can do that provide greater leverage. It turns out that our greatest point of leverage is in nvesting into the innovations that can disrupt demand for fossil fuels. Why innovation? Because to date, there hasn't been a form of clean energy that competes head to head with fossil fuels. If we want to have a hope of eliminating our need for coal, oil, petroleum and natural gas, we need a clean, carbon-free and highly reliable replacement for it that the market can adopt super quickly.
Increasingly, people are recognizing that this future energy will come in a form of nuclear power. Only nuclear has the ability to address our growing demand for energy at scale and not force humanity to go cold turkey on highly reliable power (as would wind and solar, which are intermittent sources) or the quality of life that we have enjoyed as a result of the abundance of high-density fossil fuels. Fortunately, nuclear is a far better option! But several decades of languishing by the industry has caused 21st century nuclear to be delayed. We now need to invest in hastening the release of Gen IV designs and the supply and support services necessary to enable it to scale to replace all fossil fuels usage.
This is what Nucleation Capital is doing. Providing an investment vehicle that invests in advanced nuclear and related deep decarbonization innovations that allows more investors to invest in some of the most exciting, most competitive clean energy alternatives coming out of the advanced nuclear sector. These designs will compete directly with fossil fuels and, because of the urgency of our climate situation, as soon as they are available, the world will begin to replace their use of fossil fuels with this superior type of clean, reliable, dense energy and ecologically friendly energy. Which is why, for those looking for impactful investments that are off the beaten path and which, by their nature, can produce extraordinary returns, nothing can beat nuclear energy innovation.
So, if you'd like to do far more than just give thanks with your turkey, consider investing in the innovations that would allow us to end our dependence on fossil fuels. We expect that, over the next decade, the nations of the world will begin deploying any number of advanced designs to power cities, factories, campuses, ships, industry and homes without emissions, thereby maintaining energy security and grid reliability without needing fossil fuels. We'll even use nuclear to generate synthetic hydrocarbons (for where liquid fuels are still needed) and power CO2 and atmospheric carbon drawdown to begin to reverse the level of forced heating causing global warming.
Yes, investing in advanced nuclear is high risk. Yet not solving climate change poses the greatest risks of all, in that everyone risks losing everything we hold dear. Our property, our nest eggs, our children's happiness and comfort, and our traditions. Which is why more investors are considering allocating a portion of their investible capital to investments that can meaningfully reduce demand for fossil fuels. Whether they can invest a lot or little doesn't matter so much: they will still get the satisfaction of knowing that they are using their money to make a difference in the final years that we have to rescue our future.
* The "Th" image above is the period table symbol for the element Thorium, and comes curtesy of the Thorium Energy Alliance, which advocates for the use of thorium along with uranium as a fuel for nuclear energy.
Published by Valerie Gardner in Advanced Nuclear, Asset manager support, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Carbon negative, Climate change, Climate innovation fund, Climate mayhem, Climate policy, Construction costs, Corporate purpose, Energy abundance, Environmental support for nuclear, Extreme weather, Fund sustainability, Future of Energy, International support for nuclear, Investor activity, Land Use by Energy, NEWS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, Nuclear-inclusive energy policy, Philanthropic support for nuclear, Politicians supporting nuclear, Pro-nuclear campaign, Scientific debate, Solving climate, Solving nuclear waste, US competitiveness, Venture capital support for nuclear, Zero emission energy
This corporate PR news made zero headlines in the press but we could not be more excited about it. Yet, this unassuming group of executives pursuing their own corporate objectives, could well have an enormous impact on the future of the whole planet. The agreement they reached and announced in a joint press release, involving the planned procurement by Microsoft of Clean Energy Credits (CECs) from OPG, may be the first-ever voluntary corporate purchase of a carbon-credit from nuclear energy.
This auspicious moment deserves more attention than it received, as it marks the inclusion of nuclear energy for the first time as a source of carbon credits. Up until now, for no reason other than possibly concerns about public perception, carbon credit purchases (which are an entirely voluntary type of corporate greenwashing) have come solely from purchasing rights to claim credit for new renewable energy generation and activities like reforestation or rainforest preservation. As far as we know, no company has elected to purchase clean energy credits from nuclear energy.
This ground-breaking agreement could well serve as a model for many other companies seeking truly meaningful ways to reduce their actual and ongoing carbon impacts and the team involved in the deal is clearly aware that they are setting a new precedent. The press release included the following three quotes from Ken Hartwick, President and CEO of OPG, Chris Barry, President of Microsoft Canada, and Todd Smith, Canada's Minister or Energy:
“This innovative partnership will not only spur economic development in Ontario, but also serve as a model for other companies and jurisdictions to encourage use of clean hydro and nuclear power,” said Ken Hartwick, OPG President and CEO. “As part of OPG’s Climate Change Plan, we committed to achieving net zero as a company by 2040, and to act as a catalyst for efficient economy-wide decarbonization. Ensuring industry has access to clean energy to offset emissions assists in meeting that goal.”
“We can only address climate change by tackling the challenge collectively. Agreements like this one with OPG will help Microsoft move closer to achieving our sustainability commitments, including our goal of having 100 percent of our electricity consumption, 100 percent of the time, matched by zero carbon energy purchases by 2030.” said Chris Barry, President, Microsoft Canada. “Working closely with like-minded organizations like OPG, will help us move toward a more sustainable future, while continuing to power innovation in Ontario.”
“As environmental goals increasingly influence corporate decisions on where to invest and grow, this partnership between OPG and Microsoft illustrates the potential for Ontario’s Clean Energy Credit registry to draw businesses from across the world to our province,” said Todd Smith, Minister of Energy. “This voluntary registry will incentivize investments in new clean energy generation and technological innovation while reducing costs for ratepayers.”
Read more at Microsoft News Centre Canada: OPT and Microsoft announce strategic partnership to power a Net-Zero future for Ontario, published September 26, 2022.
Published by Nucleation Capital in Capital reallocation, Carbon emissions, Carbon markets, Climate change, Corporate decarbonization, Corporate purpose, Energy abundance, Future of Energy, History Timeline, History-making, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear-inclusive energy policy, Public companies, Solving climate, Zero emission energy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QsN8hPHY4
Rod Adams explains why the lack of recent construction experience in the U.S. and the massive size of the Gen III nuclear power plant design, contributed to the excess costs and delays in building these types nuclear power plants. In contrast, Gen IV designs will be smaller with pre-fabricated components and allow for more rapid builds and learning through repetition.
Published by Valerie Gardner in Construction costs, Corporate purpose, Future of Energy, Investor activity, NEWS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear maritime propulsion, US competitiveness, US technological leadership
Nucleation Capital founder and managing partner, Valerie Gardner, joined an impressive roster of virtual speakers at the 2021 New Nuclear Capital conference, December 8-9, 2021, focused on the financing necessary for setting the foundation for the deployment of the next generation of advanced reactors.
Speaking on a panel entitled, "Perspectives on Private Financing: Emerging Financing Arrangements and the Role of Financial Institutions," Ms. Gardner represented the voice of the first venture capital fund and its LP investors focused on investing in the advanced nuclear sector, which represents a major paradigm shift for the nuclear industry.
Ms. Gardner spoke of the "reframing" that becomes possible when, rather than trying to finance large, grid-scale projects, a bevy of small, private ventures are raising capital in order to design small, manufacturable, modular reactors. The fact that these ventures are developing technologies that will be meeting a huge need in the market from which they will generate profits, opens up financing mechanisms that were otherwise not possible, specifically venture capital, which invests in the equity of private, high-growth enterprises, which have set their sights set on meeting the demand of a huge and growing market for clean energy.
The fact that Climate Change is barreling down on the planet and forcing the widescale transition away from dirty sources of energy plays an important, critical part of the reason investors, especially climate investors, believe the future market for Advanced Nuclear is huge.
While it is not entirely clear that the nuclear community understands just how much of a paradigm shift this is for the future of the nuclear industry, investors are searching high and low for clean tech options. Experts have made it clear: we need nuclear to solve the energy problems, and nuclear may be the "greenest" investment there is. These factors together fundamentally shift nuclear's relationship to venture capital, as investors will accept risks in order to achieve both climate solutions and returns. This forces the industry to look past "Alpha Particles to Alpha Generation."
Generating "Alpha" is the term investors use for generating investment returns that beat the market. Venture capital seeks this type of outperformance. Given nuclear's dense, always on clean energy, venture capitalists are taking note of the ability of top ventures to achieve alpha, particularly in light of the extraordinary risks.
Yes, every venture capitalist is wrong more than they are right and some 80% of returns are generally produced by a mere 5% of invested assets, which is why VCs must be very picky as to whcih ventures they invest in, and only select those they believe could be homeruns.
Once the exclusive purview of institutional investors and the wealthiest investors, disruption within the venture industry itself has made venture capital accessible to a much broader class of accredited investors.
Online investment platforms, such as that used by Nucleation Capital, now enables accredited investors to access and elect to support a much broader range of fund managers and fund types, invest at lower levels and see decreased costs and risks. This enables those who really understand the value proposition of nuclear to be able to invest in this next generation of private ventures. The demographic of potential investors has been effectively increased by these platforms, translating into nearly 15 million more investors and nearly a trillion dollars of private capital that can flow into worthy ventures.
Ms. Gardner noted that these combined trends—private ventures seeking to deploy smaller, manufactured systems, climate change and the democratization of venture—have important implications for Advanced Nuclear ventures and bodes well for the sector's future ability to follow the more standard venture capital pathways for financing growth with equity fundraising rounds, and scaling their future deployments with access to the regular public markets and standard capital stack financing channels.
ROSTER OF SPEAKERS
NNC SPONSORS
Published by Valerie Gardner in Advanced Nuclear, Brilliant thinkers, Capital reallocation, Climate change, Construction costs, Corporate decarbonization, Corporate purpose, Energy abundance, Land Use by Energy, NEWS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Private companies, Public companies, Solving climate, US competitiveness, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy
An initiative organized by the Aspen Institute helped Amazon, Ikea, Unilever, Michelin and Patagoniz to pledge that they won't use shipping companies which allow emissions by 2040. Shipping the world's products around produce about 3 percent of human emissions each year, an amount similar to what Germany's annual emissions are, as the sixth largest emitter in the world.
In signing the pledge, the companies hoped to signal their determination to decarbonize this part of their supply chains and inspire "a surge in investment by ocean freight carriers and producers of zero-carbon shipping fuels," their announcement read. They also urged government officials to "to set ambitious marine fuel goals, implement regulations and market-based measures to encourage the rapid development of new fuels and technology, and to allow zero-carbon shipping fuels to “become competitive with fossil fuels as soon as possible.”
Read more in The Washington Post, Amazon, Ikea and other big companies commit to zero-emission shipping by 2040, by Hamza Shaban, published October 19, 2021
Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Corporate purpose, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear maritime propulsion, Private companies, Solving climate
Sign up to receive Nucleation Insights
For New Investors
For Donors & Advocates
For Current Investors
(Note: Must be logged in at AngelList)
Nucleation Direct Messages
Nucleation (Fund I) Posts
Your Portfolio Dashboard
Your Funding Page
How to Contact Us
© 2026 Nucleation Capital | Terms & Policies
