Energy Update | Week 4 – Oct 2025: Nuclear Revival, UAE Solar Boom & China’s Battery Surge

In this week’s Energy Update, I take a look at some of the biggest developments shaping the global energy landscape — from a nuclear revival in South Carolina to solar and battery breakthroughs overseas.

South Carolina’s Santee Cooper has selected Brookfield as its partner to restart the long-abandoned 2.3 GW V.C. Summer nuclear plant, signaling renewed U.S. interest in large-scale baseload power. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has begun building a $6 billion, 5.2 GW solar + 19 GWh battery hybrid project — the largest of its kind — designed to deliver a full gigawatt of continuous renewable energy.

Back in New York, The Mobility House and Itron are teaming up to support fleet electrification using smart-charging systems that respond to grid capacity in real time. Redwood Materials has raised $350 million to grow its energy-storage and recycling operations, and in China, CATL now operates more than 700 battery-swap stations while Mingyang Smart Energy unveils a twin-rotor 50 MW floating wind turbine.

I wrap up this week’s update with news that the BP / JERA joint venture has canceled its 2.4 GW Beacon Wind project off Massachusetts — a reminder of the challenges still facing U.S. offshore wind.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I've got your energy stories for this, the fourth
week of October, and for ourHalloween story, a
half-constructed defunct nuclearplant may now be back from the
dead.
South Carolina'sgovernment-owned power company,
Santi Cooper, announced that ithad selected Canadian private
equity firm Brookfield as itspartner in resuming construction
of the abandoned 2200 megawattVC summer nuclear plant.

(00:22):
The twin reactors were to havebeen commissioned in 2017, but
after massive cost overruns,delays, and$10 billion spent,
the project was eventuallyscrapped.
One of the bidders in theselection process, the nuclear
company, strongly protested theproceeding and withdrew its
proposal at the last minute,alleging that Santi Cooper's
bidding process, quote, may havebeen fundamentally compromised

(00:45):
by the evaluation of bidsoutside the established
framework by parties previouslyinvolved in the VC Summer
project and with access toinformation that the other
parties did not have, unquote.
For its part, Brookfield iscommitted to paying off$2.7
billion of the$3.6 billionobligation that Santee Cooper
had incurred in the project, aswell as sharing 25% of ownership

(01:06):
and output.
Brookfield is a majority ownerof Westinghouse, which owns the
underlying AP1000 reactortechnology.
Now the parties have six weeksfor an initial feasibility
period in which to select aproject manager and review
potential builders, with theeventual goal of arriving at an
MOU.
The United Arab Emirates hasstarted building a$6 billion

(01:28):
5,200 megawatt solar PV plantjoined with a 19,000
megawatt-hour battery storagesystem that aims to provide
1,000 megawatts of continuousrenewable baseload power at
competitive rates.
This will be the world's largestsolar storage hybrid.
And in New York State, theMobility House, a company that

(01:48):
offers smart charging and energymanagement systems, and iTron,
the smart meter company, haveannounced an initiative to
accelerate fleet electrificationusing flexible service
connections that will takedistribution capacity into
account to prevent delays infleet charging.
The project will integrateiTron's distributed energy
resource management systemsolution with the automated load

(02:09):
management from Mobility House.
This will enable fleets toelectrify while minimizing needs
for infrastructure upgrades inthe distribution system.
This will be done by managingcharging capacity limits at
specific times based on existinglimitations.
An interconnection of fleetcharging systems with
distribution grids has long beena problem, so this approach may

(02:30):
help.
Phase one will see thetechnology deployed with five
chargers at a school bus site inStaten Island, while phase two
will see ten additional chargersdeployed at designated sites
elsewhere in New York State.
Redwood Materials, the batteryrecycling and cathode production
company, has raised another$350million, with funds to be used

(02:51):
to support the company's growingenergy storage business and
expand its refining andmaterials production capacity.
Redwood recently initiated anenergy storage business using
its enormous supply of used EVbatteries, which still have
considerable life left in them,largely to help data centers and
industrial customers.
It combines used batteries withrenewables to create off-grid

(03:12):
power systems.
Redwood covers over 70% of allused or discarded EV battery
packs in North America, and asof June, the company had over
1,000 megawatt hours worth ofbatteries on site.
It eventually plans to deploy20,000 megawatt hours of grid
scale storage by 2028.

(03:32):
Well, last week we reported onall of Chinese EV maker NEO's
millions of battery swaps.
That company's not alone.
Global Chinese market leaderCATL just announced it has
deployed 700 battery replacementstations in 39 cities across
China, and it's on target to hita thousand stations by year's
end.
Most of the swap stations arefor cars, but well over 100

(03:55):
serve heavy-duty vehicles.
And by 2026, CATL plans tooperate over 2,500 swap stations
in more than 120 Chinese cities.
In those initial 39 cities,drivers should find it possible
to reach a swap station within10 minutes and exchange the
battery within 100 seconds.

(04:16):
So take that gas stationexperience.
Also in China, offshore windmanufacturer Minyang Smart
Energy just rolled out plans fora twin-headed 50 megawatt,
that's right, 50 megawattfloating offshore wind turbine,
supported by a V-shaped towerwith twin 290-meter rotors.

(04:36):
So China continues to forgeahead with offshore wind, while
in this country we've done astrong 180.
The JV between BP and JIRA justcalled a quits on its 2,430
megawatt beacon wind project offthe coast of Massachusetts and
laid off all staff team members.
That JV was launched lastAugust, and it still has a
potential generating capacityworldwide of 13,000 megawatts.

(05:00):
But the Beacon Wind project,which phase one involved 1230
megawatts, that's done.
It had already secured a 25 yearenergy off take agreement with
New York State, but the approvalfrom the feds of the
construction and operation planwas still pending, and we know
where that was likely headed.
Well, that's all for this week.
Thanks for watching, and we'llsee you again soon.