The U.S. grid is entering its industrial phase. Washington is rediscovering nuclear as the ultimate baseload play, FERC is testing how far federal reach can go before it burns state turf, and SEIA says America can now build an entire solar project without leaving its borders. From the White House to Westinghouse, from Tri-State to PJM, the energy transition is no longer an aspiration—it’s a power struggle.

$80B Partnership with Westinghouse, Cameco, and Brookfield

The U.S. government has inked an $80 billion partnership with Westinghouse, Cameco, and Brookfield to deploy AP1000 reactors nationwide, a deal Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick calls “historic” for both national security and AI-era infrastructure. Beyond the headlines, the structure itself is novel—profit-sharing across public and private players, effectively making citizens shareholders in the next generation of baseload power. Westinghouse’s technology, already deployed abroad, will now anchor what could be America’s first large-scale nuclear renaissance in decades. After years of drift and decommissioning, nuclear energy is suddenly bipartisan again—reliable, dispatchable, and perfectly timed for the data-driven decade.

FERC Rejects Load Tariff

While Washington builds, it’s also drawing lines. This week, FERC rejected Tri-State G&T’s “High Impact Load” tariff, ruling it strayed into retail territory reserved for the states. The decision lands as the Department of Energy presses FERC to assert jurisdiction over massive new loads—data centers, crypto, industrial hubs—connected directly to the transmission grid. The subtext is clear: who controls interconnection in the AI century? Meanwhile, Kentucky utilities are suing over DOE’s emergency orders that socialize plant-keeping costs across PJM. FERC won’t touch retail pricing, but it’s inching toward federalizing the front door of transmission. The bureaucracy is stirring, and it wants a bigger map.

Onshored Solar Supply Chain?

The U.S. just quietly crossed a milestone: it can now manufacture every major solar component domestically. With Corning’s new Michigan ingot and wafer plant online, SEIA says the full solar supply chain—from silicon to module—is now onshore. Capacity has exploded: modules up 37% since last year, cells tripled, inverters up 50%, and battery cell production closing in on 100 GWh. In less than two years, America has gone from lagging to leading in solar hardware. The next challenge: staying competitive. Labor, energy, and compliance costs will test whether “Made in America” can mean both secure and affordable as the Inflation Reduction Act’s manufacturing incentives phase toward real market economics.

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Conversation Starters

• Axios — Nvidia’s Flex Data Center: Nvidia and Digital Realty are piloting a Virginia data center that shifts AI workloads in real time to smooth grid demand—a software fix to an infrastructure problem. If it scales, flexible computing could buy the grid precious time.

• PBS — How Loads Lower Prices: A Brattle Group study finds that new large loads like data centers can lower rates when they spread fixed grid costs across more users. Growth, paradoxically, can make power cheaper.

• NYT — Trump’s Nuclear Bet: The administration’s $80 billion nuclear pact makes one thing clear: the politics of clean energy have inverted. AI has turned nuclear from a relic into a necessity.

Today’s Chart

The U.S. can now make every major solar component domestically. Since 2020, module manufacturing capacity has jumped over 700%, hitting 57.5 GW in 2025. What was once a trade-exposed weakness is fast becoming America’s strongest industrial supply chain story.

Good Bet: Betting on U.S.-made hardware—transformers, inverters, and racking—just got smarter. Domestic capacity is up, tax credits are flowing, and supply chains finally make sense. The near-term winners will be firms that can deliver equipment, not just policy dreams.

Bad Bet: Banking on bespoke big-load tariffs to grease data center deals. FERC just drew blood in the Tri-State case, reminding everyone that retail authority still belongs to the states. Ignore that boundary at your financial peril.

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