The Renewable Vitality Smackdown Is Failing, Bigly

September 3, 2025

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The “American Vitality Dominance” plan of US President Donald Trump left an enormous, gaping gap the place wind and photo voltaic power must be. Nevertheless, business stakeholders aren’t taking the smackdown mendacity down. A working example is the North American department of the main international power agency ENGIE, which has simply inked a brand new cope with the information heart agency Prometheus Hyperscale aimed toward deploying the huge renewable power assets of Texas.

Renewable Vitality & Texas

It’s no shock to see the renewable power connection come up in Texas. Prometheus established its flagship 1.2-gigawatt (and rising) knowledge heart in Wyoming on account of the supply of renewable power. The agency has additionally branched out to renewables-rich Colorado and Arizona, and Texas is subsequent in its sights.

Texas rocketed into the renewable power revolution of the twenty first century on the power of its wind assets, and its photo voltaic power stakeholders have additionally cranked on top of things. Going by knowledge from the Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation, Texas is at the moment the #2 state in put in photo voltaic capability, topping 43.5 gigawatts. SEIA additionally initiatives that Texas will add greater than 40.8 gigawatts over the following 5 years, vaulting it into the #1 slot for photo voltaic capability additions.

The info heart development growth has been contributing to the rapid-fire tempo of renewable power growth in Texas, and that’s the place ENGIE has noticed a brand new alternative to place its North American portfolio to make use of.

ENGIE introduced the hookup with Prometheus on September 2, calling it a “shared strategy to discovering revolutionary approaches to growing, constructing and working initiatives.” The settlement requires the 2 firms to co-locate knowledge facilities at ENGIE’s renewable power and battery storage websites alongside the I-35 hall in Texas, in and across the Dallas space.

“Beneath the unique settlement, Prometheus will deploy its high-efficiency, liquid-cooled knowledge heart infrastructure alongside ENGIE’s renewable and battery storage property,” the 2 firms defined in a press assertion. If all goes in line with plan, the primary co-location initiatives might be up and working in 2026, with further websites to be constructed out starting in 2027.

Knowledge Facilities & Vitality Innovation

ENGIE has been constructing its renewable power and storage portfolio in Texas hand over fist, one latest instance being a brand new 2.4-gigawatt battery storage finance deal with the main international actual property developer CBRE, overlaying 31 initiatives break up between Texas and California.

I’ve reached out to ENGIE for extra specifics on the variety of initiatives involving new Prometheus knowledge facilities in Texas, so keep tuned for an replace. Within the meantime, don’t get too excited in regards to the potential for a 100% renewable power situation simply but. Prometheus additionally makes room for pure fuel with carbon seize in its power closet, which the brand new settlement accommodates. Prometheus plans to work with the distributed fuel energy era specialist Conduit Energy on an as-needed foundation, both for backup energy or as a short lived answer.

Fuel apart, the renewable power a part of the settlement with ENGIE represents one other angle on the affect that knowledge heart innovators are making on the US power profile. The large sucking of power happening throughout the US grid has offered clear tech stakeholders with loads of alternatives to point out off their work in power effectivity in addition to renewables.

There may be even speak of capturing knowledge facilities out into area to preserve terrestrial power assets in favor of of 24/7 photo voltaic power in orbit. Nevertheless, real-world options are a lot nearer at hand.Prometheus, for instance, deploys geothermal power to run its water-free, power environment friendly cooling methods.” This not solely conserves helpful assets but additionally lowers operational prices for our purchasers,” the corporate states.

Earlier this 12 months Prometheus additionally partnered with the circulation battery startup XL Batteries. Circulation batteries present lengthy period storage past the potential of typical lithium-ion battery arrays, increasing alternatives to sock away extra wind and photo voltaic power. “We want batteries that supply efficiency at or above lithium, with out threat of overheating to deploy at our knowledge halls,” explains Prometheus founder and CEO Trenton Thornock in a press assertion in Might.

“XL Batteries’ natural circulation battery expertise affords a scalable, long-duration, non-toxic power storage answer that can assist us to ship the following era of AI knowledge facilities,” he added.

Renewable Vitality & Cryptocurrency

On its half, ENGIE has additionally been exploring methods for benefiting from the intermittent nature of renewable power, particularly within the case of wind energy. The thought is to hook up with off-takers that may use the output of wind farms at evening, when wind situations are sometimes optimum however electrical energy demand drops.

In Might, ENGIE dropped phrase of a preliminary settlement enabling the crypto mining agency Cipher Mining to tug as much as 300 megawatts from an ENGIE wind farm.

“The brand new association would leverage the wind challenge’s renewable power era to energy the co-located knowledge heart, serving to to alleviate an already congested transmission space,” ENGIE defined. “This helps offset foundation threat and mitigate curtailment challenges particularly in areas like West Texas, the place wind and photo voltaic assets are plentiful however usually face constraints because of transmission bottlenecks and curtailment.”

Extra Nuclear Vitality For Texas, Too

One other attention-grabbing merchandise within the Prometheus portfolio is a a strategic partnership with the startup Oklo, which is growing scalable, self-stabilizing, waste-recycling fission energy crops.

Prometheus goals to deploy the expertise for the primary time at its Wyoming facility. Although fission appears like an answer finest reserved for areas the place renewable power is just not available, Oklo has additionally attracted the curiosity of the oil and fuel producer Diamondback Vitality, which is exploring the potential for utilizing Oklo’s expertise to energy its oil and fuel operations within the Permian Foundation, in Texas.

Texas lawmakers on the Republican aspect of the aisle are already jockeying to tip the scales in favor of nuclear power. Earlier this 12 months, Republican State Consultant Cody Harris launched HB 14, a invoice that might put taxpayers on the hook for $2 billion in monetary help to draw extra nuclear initiatives into the state.

If that doesn’t sound truthful, it isn’t. Nevertheless, it’s of a bit with different goings-on within the state legislature. In any case, Republican lawmakers in Texas have spent the previous a number of years attempting to burden (although largely failing) renewable power stakeholders with new necessities, whereas giving oil and fuel a go.

Picture (cropped): The worldwide agency ENGIE is becoming a member of its renewable power portfolio in Texas with the next-generation knowledge heart startup Prometheus Hyperscale (courtesy of ENGIE).

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