National Audit Office says failure to implement £70bn modernisation would also hold back economic growth
Consumers will pay higher energy bills unless the UK government speeds up work on a vast programme of upgrades to the electricity grid to enable the switch to renewables, the public spending watchdog has warned.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said that without faster action the extra costs associated with managing the ageing power network, which are ultimately passed on to the public, could reach £7.8bn a year by 2030.
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© Photograph: Alan Majchrowicz/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alan Majchrowicz/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alan Majchrowicz/Getty Images
RTX Ventures has invested in laser fusion company Xcimer Energy to develop pulsed-laser technology for potential use in US military directed-energy systems.
The collaboration brings together two applications that share a fundamental engineering challenge: building powerful lasers that can fire repeatedly, reliably and affordably.
Xcimer is developing excimer laser technology for its fusion power system. The company says the same approach could provide the performance and scalability needed for directed-energy weapons, potentially offering longer-range capability than existing systems.
RTX’s investment is also intended to support Xcimer’s fusion program. In June, the US Department of Energy approved Xcimer’s fusion pilot power plant design under its Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program.
Laser fusion works by using intense laser pulses to compress and heat fuel until it reaches conditions where nuclear fusion can occur. The challenge is developing lasers that can deliver these pulses repeatedly while keeping energy consumption, maintenance, and operating costs under control.
Those same requirements matter for military laser systems. A directed-energy weapon must deliver enough energy to engage a target while remaining efficient and reliable enough for repeated use. Xcimer says its excimer-based system is designed around those requirements.
“As the United States accelerates the development of next-generation air defense, the need for affordable and scalable directed energy systems has never been more urgent,” said Conner Galloway, co-founder, CEO and Chief Science Officer at Xcimer. “Our excimer-based laser technology offers the performance, speed and inherent scalability needed at a fraction of the cost and complexity of today’s systems.”
The partnership will now examine how the laser technology could be integrated and containerized into RTX defense systems.
That could be important because one of the challenges facing directed-energy weapons is making them practical outside laboratory environments. Systems must fit into deployable platforms while generating enough power to engage threats.
RTX brings experience in sensing, command and control, and air-defense systems to the partnership. The company says those capabilities could help integrate Xcimer’s laser technology into future defense platforms.
“We believe Xcimer’s pulsed-laser technology lines up perfectly with our expertise in areas like advanced sensing, command and control and air defense,” said RTX Chief Technology Officer Juan de Bedout. “Together we will explore how we can best integrate these technologies into advanced, scalable defense systems able to defeat a range of new and evolving threats.”
Xcimer is pursuing commercial fusion power alongside the defense work. The company expects its fusion technology to begin delivering electricity to the grid by the mid-2030s.
The dual-use development could give the laser technology two potential markets: commercial fusion energy and military directed-energy systems.
For now, the RTX-Xcimer agreement is focused on exploring integration and development rather than announcing an operational weapon. The companies will need to demonstrate that the laser can meet the demanding requirements of a deployable defense system while maintaining the efficiency, reliability, and scalability needed for repeated operation.
A geothermal drilling rig just finished working on one of the least forgiving places for heavy equipment, a live construction site in downtown Boston.
Dig Energy completed its first paid commercial installation at 100MAG, Suffolk’s AI and innovation hub near the construction firm’s headquarters. The Massachusetts startup used its compact drilling platform to install geothermal heating and cooling infrastructure for the building.
The drilling operation started in early August and finished in about two weeks. Workers carried out the work while construction continued around them, giving Dig a real test of its approach in a crowded commercial setting.
Geothermal heating and cooling has relied on mature technology for decades. The difficult part has often been getting the drilling done without driving up project costs.
Traditional drilling equipment can demand substantial space and labor. That creates a particular problem on urban construction sites, where available space can be scarce.
Dig built its drilling system around those constraints. The company says its rig needs only a fraction of the footprint and crew used by conventional drilling equipment.
At 100MAG, the active drilling area occupied only a few parking spaces at any given time. That allowed the geothermal work to fit into an operating construction site without taking over a large section of the property.
“Suffolk has led some of the most complex and sophisticated construction projects in the country,” said Dulcie Madden, co-founder and CEO of Dig Energy.
Madden said the 100MAG site tested the technology under tight spatial constraints and a demanding schedule. She added that Dig’s equipment could integrate into Suffolk’s construction workflow.
That matters because geothermal projects can require drilling before a building can use the system. A smaller drilling platform could make that step easier to accommodate alongside other construction activity.
The installation also gives Suffolk a chance to judge geothermal technology through an actual project rather than a demonstration. Suffolk Technologies, the construction firm’s venture arm, invested in Dig through its BOOST 6 accelerator. The program brings emerging construction technologies onto Suffolk projects for real-world deployment.
Parker Mundt, a partner at Suffolk Technologies, said the project showed how Dig’s compact platform could reduce the cost and complexity of geothermal installations. Suffolk now has direct experience with the drilling process at a commercial property. That experience could help the contractor assess geothermal systems for future projects across its portfolio.
The opportunity extends beyond conventional office construction. Suffolk works with customers investing in geothermal and on-site energy infrastructure, including education facilities and data centers.
Dig plans to put its drilling system through several more New England projects in the coming months. The planned sites include a grocery store, a utility headquarters and a small campus.
Those deployments will put the compact rig against different site conditions and building requirements. They could also show whether the space and labor savings seen at 100MAG hold up across a wider range of commercial projects.
Louisiana could add 5 GW of new power through a three-project plan combining natural gas, battery storage and advanced nuclear reactors.
The portfolio is designed to serve growing electricity demand from data centers, advanced manufacturing and other industrial users. Rather than relying on one generation source, the plan spreads the capacity across three projects with different roles and development timelines.
Project Cayman would provide the largest share, with 2.88 GW of natural-gas generation and battery storage. The project could also include a data-center technology campus, giving large customers access to dispatchable power close to their operations.
Project Barracuda would add another 1.2 GW of natural-gas generation, along with 300 MW/1.2 GWh of battery storage. The planned energy park could support up to 1 GW of critical data-center IT capacity, creating a dedicated power and computing hub.
Project Amberjack takes a different route. It is being developed as a standalone small modular reactor campus targeting up to 1 GW of advanced nuclear generation.
The projects are intended to address different parts of the power challenge. Gas generation would provide dispatchable electricity, batteries would help manage demand and storage, and nuclear power would provide a longer-term source of steady generation.
Cayman has already secured site control through a binding letter of intent. Its development would proceed in phases based on customer demand, fuel availability, utility requirements, environmental reviews, permitting, and financing.
Barracuda is also being planned in stages. Its generation, storage, and data-center components could be expanded as customer demand develops.
Amberjack is at an earlier stage. The project has site control, but the company still needs to conduct technical and environmental studies before determining the reactor technology and final plant configuration.
“The Louisiana trilogy offers three distinct, complementary solutions to answer America’s soaring power demand,” said Richard Taylor, CEO of ONE Nuclear. “Cayman delivers scale, Barracuda connects dedicated power with digital infrastructure, and Amberjack creates a disciplined path toward advanced nuclear power.”
The combined planning targets amount to approximately 4.08 GW of natural-gas generation from Cayman and Barracuda, plus up to 1 GW of nuclear capacity from Amberjack.
Those numbers are not yet guaranteed generation capacity. The projects still depend on final engineering, grid interconnection, permits, customer agreements, financing, and other development decisions.
Amberjack is the most technically ambitious part of the portfolio. The proposed campus would use multiple small modular reactors, but the company has not yet selected a specific reactor technology.
Planned work includes geotechnical and environmental studies, cooling-water and logistics assessments, transmission analysis and discussions with potential technology vendors. The company also plans continued engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and local communities.
“The Louisiana Portfolio is ambitious because Louisiana’s opportunity is extraordinary,” said Chris Hansmeyer, Chief Development Officer of ONE Nuclear. “These projects are complementary, but they are not dependent on one another. We can advance proven dispatchable generation and storage for near-term demand, purpose-built infrastructure for digital and industrial customers, and a rigorous, site-specific pathway for advanced nuclear power.”
The approach reflects a broader push to build power infrastructure around rapidly expanding data-center demand while keeping nuclear power in the mix as a longer-term option.
ONE Nuclear plans to hold a public information meeting in October 2026 to explain the projects, discuss environmental and infrastructure work, and gather community feedback. The three projects remain at different stages of development, and no commercial power generation has begun.
R3 Lithium has started producing lithium carbonate from recycled battery materials at its facility in Covington, Georgia.
The 154,000-square-foot plant is designed to recover lithium at commercial scale. R3 also raised $15 million in Series A funding to upgrade the operation.
The company expects the Georgia facility to produce more than half of US lithium carbonate output in 2027. Its existing production line can make 2,500 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually.
The facility can shred as much as 30,000 metric tons of battery material each year. That feedstock includes manufacturing scrap and batteries reaching the end of their useful lives.
Shredding produces black mass, which contains the valuable materials left inside lithium-ion batteries. R3 processes that material at the same site to recover lithium and produce lithium carbonate.
The process combines calciner-based crystallization with water-based precipitation. Keeping those steps together eliminates the need to ship lithium-bearing material elsewhere for refining.
The facility previously produced 99%-pure lithium carbonate using entirely recycled material. R3 acquired the site in July after its previous owner invested about $150 million into the operation.
A second 2,500-metric-ton production line could eventually double the site’s lithium carbonate capacity. R3 has also secured roughly $1 billion in offtake agreements with customers.
Trafigura is among the buyers supporting those agreements. Tim Wood-Dow, a battery metals trader at Trafigura, said domestic lithium supplies remain limited.
The approach could give US battery manufacturers another source of domestically processed lithium. Much of the world’s battery production and processing capacity remains overseas.
Developing new lithium mines also takes considerable time. Projects can spend seven to 10 years navigating permitting before production begins.
Recycling existing batteries offers a different route to supply. R3 can source lithium from material already circulating through the battery economy.
Demand for lithium carbonate is also expanding as battery storage grows. Global battery storage installations surpassed 300 gigawatt-hours during 2025.
Data center construction has added another source of demand for large energy storage systems. Each gigawatt-hour of grid-scale storage requires about 880 tons of lithium carbonate.
R3 plans to build additional facilities across North America and Europe. Each site would use modular production units capable of processing 5,000 metric tons annually.
The company plans to secure customer offtake agreements before deploying those units. That strategy would let R3 expand capacity in stages as demand develops.
The Covington facility also recovers materials beyond lithium. Its process produces concentrated metal oxide containing nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite.
R3 can sell those materials separately after extracting the lithium. That creates additional value from the same recycled battery feedstock.
Keeping the process on one site also reduces the number of locations involved in moving battery materials through the recycling chain. Scrap and spent batteries can enter the facility and emerge as refined lithium carbonate.
R3 now wants to replicate that model across additional sites. If its expansion targets hold, recycled batteries could become a larger source of domestically produced lithium carbonate in the US.
Deep Fission has successfully lowered a 20-foot reactor canister 100 feet underground and retrieved it using commercial drilling equipment, testing a key part of its plan to bury small nuclear reactors a mile below the surface.
The demonstration took place on September 3, when a commercial drilling and rigging crew lowered the full-size canister into a 34-inch-wide borehole. The crew aligned the canister at depth before bringing it back to the surface.
The test focused on whether the large reactor canister can be handled underground using equipment already available to drilling contractors. Deep Fission said the demonstration did not require equipment invented, custom-built, or adapted for nuclear service.
The canister was a full-size, non-nuclear replica of the vessel designed to house the company’s Gravity reactor core. It contained no nuclear fuel, so the test was aimed at validating the physical deployment and retrieval process rather than reactor operation.
“The most important thing about this demonstration is what we did not have to do,” said Liz Muller, CEO and Co-Founder of Deep Fission. “We did not have to develop new technology. We used a rig and rigging that is commercially available in the field today, and our reactor uses pressurized water technology that has been operating in the nuclear industry for decades.”
Deep Fission’s reactor concept combines established pressurized water reactor technology with an underground deployment system. The Gravity reactor would use standard low-enriched uranium fuel, while the company’s main change is to place the reactor deep underground.
The proposed reactor would sit in a water-filled borehole approximately one mile below the surface. Deep Fission says the water column and surrounding rock could provide containment, operating pressure, heat transfer, and emergency cooling.
That configuration could reduce the surface infrastructure normally associated with nuclear plants. Instead of constructing a large reactor facility above ground, the company’s model would shift much of the system underground.
The company believes this could simplify construction, reduce costs, and shorten deployment schedules while providing additional safety margins.
The latest test does not demonstrate that a commercial reactor can operate underground. Deep Fission still has to validate the broader system, including drilling, reactor integration, regulatory requirements, and eventual commercial operation.
The company recently received approval from the US Department of Energy for its Nuclear Safety Design Agreement for the Gravity reactor. It is advancing the project under the DOE Reactor Pilot Program and is developing its first reactor project in Parsons, Kansas.
The underground approach is also intended to support deployment closer to customers that need reliable electricity. Deep Fission is targeting utilities, industrial customers, and data centers seeking low-carbon baseload power.
“Our innovation is in how we put proven pieces together, not in inventing something that has never been built. That is the difference between a science project and something you can deploy,” Muller said.
The company now needs to move from a mechanical demonstration to the much harder task of proving that its underground reactor design can meet engineering, safety, licensing, and commercial requirements.
The Trump administration is reshaping regulations to make data centers — and the fossil-fuel power fueling them — easier to build. Critics say the changes could increase pollution and reduce public input.
Colorado air pollution regulators are drafting tougher limits for Suncor in Commerce City, the state’s only oil refinery and a frequent emissions violator.
Democracts and Republicans scramble to denounce the facilities as outcry against them grows.
© Ahmad Mulia Panjaitan/Associated Press
Rocket Lab, the aerospace leader, announced the production release of Inverted Metamorphic (IMM) Apex, its newest space-grade solar cell. It is entirely germanium-free.
IMM Apex delivers a 31.5 percent Beginning-of-Life conversion efficiency alongside a 40 percent reduction in cell mass. In orbit, weight is everything. Lighter cells mean lower launch costs, bigger payloads, and better specific power (watts per kilogram).
And compared to conventional solar cells used for the past 30 years, IMM Apex operates without germanium substrates, which mitigates rising costs and supply chain issues for critical minerals.
“Rocket Lab is excited to bring this cutting-edge solar solution to market. IMM Apex delivers exceptional performance while addressing real-world challenges like rising material costs and supply chain constraints,” said Brad Clevenger, President of Rocket Lab USA.
The global supply chain for germanium is fragile due to extreme market concentration, complex extraction processes, and geopolitical trade controls.
China controls most of the global supply and strictly limits exports. This concentration creates major supply risks for space programs.
To make matters worse, germanium is only a byproduct of zinc mining, so refineries cannot easily boost production. High purity requirements further constrain the market. As a result, major importers like the United States face severe cost spikes and potential shortages.
But these new solar cells could solve the issue. As per the company, the IMM Apex solar cell offers satellite builders instant compatibility without requiring system redesigns. It acts as a drop-in replacement, so companies avoid expensive retooling costs.
The underlying platform has already proved its worth on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter and powers over 1,100 satellites in orbit today. Upgraded facilities are currently churning out multi-100-kilowatt volumes to keep pace with booming global demand.
“In addition to being free from germanium supply constraints, optimized manufacturing processes and targeted capital investments have enabled efficient manufacturing in multi-100-kilowatt volumes to meet growing demand,” the company stated.
Backed by over a decade of rigorous testing, IMM Apex is ready now for diverse mission needs, with future upgrades already underway.
Standard solar cells are grown right-side up on a thick germanium base. IMM cells are grown upside down on a temporary substrate, which is later etched away. This process creates flexible, ultra-thin, radiation-hardened cells made of layers like Gallium Arsenide and Indium Gallium Phosphide.
Germanium forms the vital foundation of high-efficiency space solar panels and infrared satellite optics. Spacecraft solar panels avoid standard silicon in favor of multi-junction III-V solar cells. These cells use layers like Gallium Arsenide grown on a germanium base. The germanium substrate supplies structural support and absorbs infrared light.
Wall Street reacted positively to the release, sending RKLB stock up as market analysts recognized the commercial potential of overcoming germanium challenges.
“With IMM Apex, customers gain access to a high-efficiency, lightweight, germanium-free product that combines proven reliability with faster production times. IMM Apex is designed to more cost-effectively power the most ambitious missions without compromising performance,” Clevenger added.
As constellations expand and interplanetary ambitions grow, power remains the ultimate challenge. Rocket Lab pairs a lighter cell weight with supply chain independence. This achievement moves the company beyond better solar technology and clears a direct runway for the next era of commercial spaceflight.
A sweeping yet vaguely worded national emergency declaration targeting Chinese grid tech could put gigawatts of grid battery projects on uncertain legal ground.
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