Your 1 Stop Shop for all things solar! We specialize in residential solar panel installation, troubleshooting, maintenance, and cleaning, plus RV and off-grid solar systems. Reliable, efficient, and built to last. Power Wattz Solar has you covered!
For decades, commercial nuclear fusion has been right around the corner. Harnessing the process that fuels the sun is tantalizing for obvious reasons, like near-infinite carbon-free power, but for practical ones, like manufacturing materials that can consistently withstand such intense heat and radiation, the technology has remained comfortably out of arm’s reach- perpetually ten years away. Until now.
PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid operator, recently greenlit 715 power projects in the first batch of submissions into its new first-ready, first-served generation queue. Much of it is gas, with some nuclear and solar and storage accounting for most of the advertised nameplate capacity. But tucked away in the 500 megawatts (MW) or so of “other” fuel-type submissions, among biomass, methane, and coal, lies an eye-catcher: a 425 MW nuclear fusion project in Chesterfield County, Virginia (Dominion Energy territory) targeting an in-service date of 1/1/2032. That’s like five-ish years away!
Its developer is listed as “4th Power LLC” (not to be confused with thermal battery company Fourth Power) but can be traced to Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), which celebrated the submission of its application in April, the first time a fusion power company has ever requested to join a major grid operator.
Right now, CFS is collaborating with MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center to build SPARC, a fusion device that produces plasmas that generate more energy than they consume. If everything goes as planned, it would be the world’s first net-energy fusion machine. Following a successful SPARC demonstration, CFS will construct ARC, the first fusion power plant capable of producing net electricity. That premier plant, now named the Fall Line Fusion Power Station, is the project PJM deemed qualified for study in its Cycle 1. Pretty cool stuff.
If CFS or one of its contemporaries somehow pulls this off, and history would strongly suggest that it will not, the implications are absolutely game-changing for… well, everything. Fusion has long been considered the holy grail of power generation. If we can scale the process of colliding hydrogen isotopes with special magnets (and witchcraft?) to produce vastly more energy than we can with nuclear fission, the way we think about our energy systems will be turned upside down.
On the flip side, can you imagine how funny it would be if a virtually limitless source of clean energy gets stuck in PJM’s queue behind gas projects and coal plant life extensions? Those articles will write themselves!
Welcome to the Factor This Brief, a weekly collection of energy industry finance and development updates, delivered straight to your inbox on Monday mornings and hosted in a not-so-brief fashion here on Factor This, featuring the people, projects, and technology driving our electric future.
Thanks for checking it out. If you like what you see or want to recommend a story for next week, drop me a line. And when quittin’ time gets here, give her my best.
All Your Base Are Belong to Us
Austin, Texas-headquartered energy company Base Power is reimagining how we think about home batteries, and investors are shoveling money behind the concept. Last week, Base Power announced a massive $1 billion Series D financing round and the launch of a new product with nearly three times the capacity of a Tesla Powerwall.
The Series D, at a $13B post-money valuation, was led by Ribbit, Addition, Valor Equity Partners, and JPMorganChase’s Strategic Investment Group, part of the firm’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, with participation from Altimeter, D1 Capital Partners, Sands Capital, Coatue, Layer Global, and Energy Impact Partners. Base’s major existing investors are also re-investing, including Thrive Capital, a16z, Lightspeed, Trust Ventures, CapitalG, and more.
Base Core, a home battery designed from the ground up to support the grid, is now in production at Base Factory 1 in Austin, which is churning out thousands of made-in-America systems per month. It is one of the largest home batteries on the market, coming in at a robust 39.2 kilowatt-hours (kWh) / 78.4 kWh, dwarfing the ever-popular Powerwall’s 13.5 kWh offering. Base Core has been engineered for rapid deployment at scale, according to the company.
The Base Core, a new home battery offering 39.2 kWh / 78.4 kWh of storage. Courtesy: Base Power
“We brought together the best hardware and software engineers in the world to build Core – a battery designed to protect American homes while supporting the grid,” said Zach Dell, CEO and co-founder of Base Power. “It installs in under an hour, switches over seamlessly, is built to handle extreme weather, and delivers extended outage protection at a price Americans can afford.”
Base Power, now available to homeowners in parts of Texas and Illinois, has raised more than $2.5B to date. The latest funding will go toward deploying Base Core in more homes, national expansion, and hiring talent. This year, Base Power has expanded its battery fleet to over 500 megawatt-hours (MWh) and launched partnerships with utilities including El Paso Electric, Austin Energy, and CoServ for 200 MW+ of capacity.
Base Factory 1 in Austin, Texas, is producing thousands of systems per month. Courtesy: Base Power
Flint Locked
The biggest battery energy storage system (BESS) in PJM territory is now under construction. Eolian is targeting operations for spring 2027 at Flint Grid, a 200 MW / 1.06 gigawatt-hour (GWh) grid-scale BESS in Jersey Township, Licking County, Ohio.
Located adjacent to New Albany datacenter and industrial load, the Flint Grid Project is the first large-scale battery energy storage system to qualify for the PJM capacity market and the largest BESS to clear the 2027/28 Residual Capacity Auction, representing more than half of all new battery storage capacity in that capacity year (ouch!). The Flint Grid endeavor is also the first grid-scale battery energy storage system permitted by the Ohio Power Siting Board and the largest system built to date in the state.
According to Eolian, Flint Grid will unlock the grid and balance costs in a critical location for datacenter growth.
A map showing the location of Flint Grid in relation to nearby data center development. Courtesy: Eolian
“There’s growing consternation about how the US can rapidly scale infrastructure to support America’s growing electricity demand, but not nearly enough conversation about how to use existing technology to unlock the wasted capacity that already exists on the grid,” opined Aaron Zubaty, founder and CEO of Eolian. “Flint Grid demonstrates how companies like Eolian have been investing in solutions to unlock the grid and reduce price pressures on consumers using proven and scalable technology. This project requires hundreds of millions of dollars to construct, and we committed the necessary capital and resources years before today’s demand forecasts became headline news.”
“As policymakers consider changes to competitive electricity markets, it’s critical that they avoid undermining the long-term investments already underway that will make better use of existing transmission infrastructure and that create a bridge to further long-term supply expansion,” he added.
Power Player Doubles Up
A major developer, owner, and operator of utility-scale clean energy projects has effectively doubled its line of credit and, in turn, its capacity to deliver electrons.
Last week Avantus announced the closing of an upsized $1.05 billion corporate credit facility, a massive upgrade from the $522 million facility previously put in place in July 2024.
The expanded facility will advance Avantus’ independent power producer (IPP) strategy and accelerate the execution of its portfolio across core markets in California and the Desert Southwest, according to the company. Avantus boasts a development pipeline totaling at least 24 GW of capacity, including 13 GW of solar integrated with 44 GWh of storage.
“This upsized facility provides Avantus with the flexibility to advance our pipeline of high-quality solar and storage assets, moving projects swiftly from development into construction and operations,” assessed Omar Karar, EVP of capital markets and M&A at Avantus. “The strong demand reflects deep institutional conviction in our platform, and we’re grateful to be expanding and extending our relationships with leading firms long rooted in our sector.”
“It gives us the financial strength and scale to deliver the affordable, reliable power millions of Americans depend on,” added Cliff Graham, Avantus CEO.
The consortium includes existing lenders who extended or upsized their commitments, including SMBC, serving as Administrative Agent, Collateral Agent and Lead Arranger, alongside prior Lead Arrangers ING Capital LLC, HSBC, KKR and Truist Securities, Inc., as well as new Lead Arrangers BHI (Bank Hapoalim), CIBC, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Mizuho, National Bank of Canada Capital Markets and Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking.
Avantus celebrates the start of commercial operations at Aratina 1, a solar and storage project in Kern County, California. Courtesy: Avantus
Nuclear fission startup Antares has raised $470 million in Series C funding, co-led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital, that will accelerate the company’s path from demonstration to deployment at U.S. military installations.
The capital, which includes $370 million in equity and $100 million in debt, comes weeks after Antares took its Mark-0 reactor critical at Idaho National Laboratory. It was the first privately developed non-light-water reactor to achieve criticality in the United States in more than four decades. Antares says it met the milestone on schedule, validating reactor physics, reactivity control, and instrumentation in a full-scale core using TRISO fuel.
“On June 4th, we won the race to criticality, and now we’ve shifted to the race to commercialization,” said Jordan Bramble, CEO and co-founder of Antares. “The military has been a partner to us every step of the way. We’ve secured firm contracts to build reactors. To do that, we’re announcing $470M of equity and debt to invest one-to-one with the taxpayer in bringing this technology to commercial scale. Our deep customer relationships and committed orderbook allow us to focus our engineering roadmap on one simple thing from here on out – reactors that operate reliably and safely for 6+ years deployed to military installations as soon as 2028. This focus will guide us to the first microreactor producing useful electricity in a truly commercially viable design.”
Courtesy: Antares
The Series C funding round also included participation from Point72 Ventures, Shine Capital, Industrious Ventures, and others.
Antares microreactors are designed to run safely and autonomously for years without refueling, delivering uninterrupted power. The Series C funds the path from a demonstrated reactor to fielded systems – the Mark-1 electricity-producing reactor in 2027, and initial deployments to defense customers in 2028, including the U.S. Air Force under the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations initiative. Antares produces microreactors purpose-designed for those missions, addressing a widening national vulnerability: many U.S. military installations depend on a commercial grid under growing strain from rising demand, extreme weather, and adversary targeting. Antares is building to meet the deadline set out by Executive Order 14299, which directs the Department of War to begin operating a reactor at a domestic military installation by September 30, 2028.
Where the Sun Grows
Global inverter and BESS provider Sungrow has commissioned the RESPITE solar-plus-storage project in Sierra Leone. It is the country’s first major national-scale power generation project to be completed and connected to the grid in nearly a decade.
The project features a total energy storage capacity of 35 MWh and integrates eight units of Sungrow’s PowerTitan Series ESS.
Sierra Leone’s RESPITE solar and storage project. Courtesy: Sungrow
Sierra Leone, one of the countries with the lowest electricity access rates globally, has long faced challenges from limited power infrastructure and unreliable electricity supply. The national grid relies on a single 161 kilovolt (kV) transmission line with a capacity of 70 MW, connecting the Bumbuna Hydropower Plant to the distribution network of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. The grid frequently experiences power outages, lasting up to 18 hours.
Of the approximately 172,000 electricity users nationwide, 90% are concentrated in Freetown, leaving most regions with limited access to reliable power. Only 5 of the 16 regional capitals receive partial electricity supply from diesel generators and hydropower facilities, while rural electrification remains severely constrained.
Like many energy projects in low-income countries, RESPITE faced structural barriers such as weak grid conditions, limited electricity affordability, and insufficient commercial viability, creating challenges in attracting commercial financing. Leveraging Sungrow’s PowerTitan advanced black start and independent off-grid capabilities, the project team implemented an emergency response strategy by switching from grid-connected commissioning to off-grid operation. Through the system’s black start capability, it can automatically switch to black start mode and establish a microgrid without external grid support, using solar power to support on-site loads and create a stable electrical environment for commissioning.
Sungrow’s globally recognized bankability also garnered confidence from the World Bank, which backed the project. According to World Bank estimates, once fully operational, the project is expected to increase Sierra Leone’s national electricity access rate from 16% to 36%, significantly improving power availability and delivering stable electricity to households, schools, healthcare facilities, and commercial and industrial users.
