DOE backs AEP Texas with a $3.26 billion loan for baseload and nuclear

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• DOE Awards AEP Texas $3.26B Loan for Grid Build-Out: The Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office approved a $3.26 billion financing package for American Electric Power's subsidiary, covering baseload generation, transmission upgrades, and nuclear development — a clear signal of where federal clean energy dollars are flowing under the current administration. Read More: Texas, Power Magazine.
• Eversource Takes $164M Hit on Revolution Wind: The New England utility booked a $164 million impairment charge on the 704-MW Revolution Wind offshore project after Trump administration stop-work orders stalled construction, the latest financial casualty of the federal permitting freeze. Read More: reNEWS.
• Georgia Power Starts 1,500-MW Gas Expansion at Plant Bowen: Construction began on a natural gas and battery storage addition at Plant Bowen in Bartow County designed to meet surging data center load, even as environmental groups file challenges over Atlanta-area air quality. Read More: Georgia, Georgia Recorder.
• Ohio Breaks Ground on Largest Battery East of Mississippi: Developer Eolian launched construction on the Flint Grid battery storage project near Columbus which will serve a growing AI computing cluster and rank as the biggest standalone battery system east of the Mississippi River. Read More: Ohio, Ohio Capital Journal.
• Samsung SDI Nears Q3 Start for US LFP Cell Production: Samsung SDI confirmed it remains on schedule to begin domestic production of lithium iron phosphate battery cells this quarter, with the company warning that demand already outstrips planned output — a bottleneck for grid storage developers counting on domestic supply. Read More: Energy Storage News.

Solar & Storage

The race to power America's AI economy is reshaping the grid-scale storage map. In Ohio, Eolian broke ground on the Flint Grid battery project near Columbus, a system the company calls the largest battery east of the Mississippi. The project's purpose is explicit: feed the electricity-hungry AI data center cluster sprouting across central Ohio, where demand projections have outrun the local grid's capacity. For developers in PJM territory, the project is a proof point that hyperscale computing loads can pull battery storage investment into regions that historically lagged the Sun Belt on deployment, according to the. Read More: Ohio Capital Journal.

Data center demand is also the driver 500 miles south. Power turned dirt on a 1,500-MW natural gas expansion at Plant Bowen in Bartow County, northwest of Atlanta, pairing gas turbines with battery storage to handle load growth that the utility attributes largely to data center commitments across metro Atlanta. Environmental groups wasted no time challenging the project, arguing that stacking more gas generation near an already ozone-stressed airshed will worsen respiratory health outcomes in communities downwind. The reports the legal fight could test whether state regulators adequately weighed cumulative air-quality impacts — a question developers across the Southeast are watching closely as similar gas-plus-storage hybrids multiply. Read More: Georgia, Georgia Recorder.

Meanwhile, is trying a different route to meet its own data center appetite. State officials are advancing agrivoltaics policies that would let developers pair utility-scale solar arrays with active farmland, an approach designed to defuse the land-use conflicts that have killed solar projects in rural counties across the mid-Atlantic. The framework, detailed by , comes as Northern Virginia's data center corridor — already the densest in the world — drives interconnection queues that dwarf available generation. For solar developers, the agrivoltaics track could open acreage that was previously off-limits under local zoning, though the specifics of crop-compatibility standards and lease structures remain unsettled. Read More: Virginia, Canary Media.

In , the long-delayed Solar for All program is finally delivering installations. profiled the Crisis Nursery in Urbana — a 45-year-old nonprofit now cutting its energy costs with rooftop solar funded through the program. The broader significance: Solar for All's ramp-up means community solar and low-income solar installers in Illinois are starting to see the pipeline of contracted work they were promised years ago, a development that could stabilize a segment of the state's solar market that has been stuck in bureaucratic limbo. Read More: Illinois, Canary Media.

On the supply side, Samsung SDI confirmed it will begin producing lithium iron phosphate cells at its US factory this quarter. The company told that demand already exceeds planned capacity — a warning sign for storage developers banking on domestically sourced LFP cells to qualify for Inflation Reduction Act manufacturing credits. Every megawatt-hour of domestic cell production that gets claimed by one buyer is a megawatt-hour unavailable to another, and the tight market could push procurement timelines further out for projects targeting 2027–2028 commercial operation dates. Read More: Energy Storage News.

Wind Energy

Eversource's $164 million impairment on the 704-MW Revolution Wind project is the starkest financial consequence yet of the Trump administration's offshore wind permitting freeze. The writedown, disclosed in the company's latest filings and reported by , stems directly from federal stop-work orders that have halted construction activity on the project off the southern New England coast. Last week, a coalition of Democratic governors publicly pressed the administration to resume permitting — a plea that has so far gone unanswered. Read More: reNEWS.

The financial hit lands on a company that was already unwinding its offshore wind exposure. Eversource had previously signaled its intent to exit or reduce its offshore wind stakes, and the impairment pushes total losses on the venture deeper. For investors tracking offshore wind economics, the number matters less as a one-time charge and more as a data point in the sector's creditworthiness: lenders and tax equity providers evaluating other East Coast projects now have another example of how permitting risk translates into balance-sheet damage. No new federal offshore wind permits have been issued since the administration took office in January 2025.

Policy & Markets

The DOE's $3.26 billion loan to AEP Texas is the clearest statement yet of the Trump administration's energy lending priorities. The Loan Programs Office — which the administration has rebranded as the world's largest energy lender — channeled the money toward baseload generation, transmission infrastructure, and nuclear development rather than wind or solar, according to. The package is notable for its sheer size and for the explicit preference for dispatchable, always-on generation — a category the administration has championed as the antidote to intermittent renewables. Read More: Power Magazine.

The loan matters to clean energy developers on two levels. First, it locks in billions of federal capital for a single utility's build-out in Texas, a state whose grid operator, ERCOT, has been scrambling to keep pace with industrial and data center load growth. Second, it sets a template: future DOE lending is likely to favor nuclear, gas with carbon capture, and transmission over standalone wind and solar. Developers whose business models depend on federal financing support will need to structure projects accordingly — or find capital elsewhere. Antora Energy's $550 million private fundraise, reported by alongside several other project announcements, suggests that private capital is stepping in where federal priorities have shifted. Read More: Renewable Energy World.

One emerging technology play that doesn't rely on federal loans: Revoy, a startup developing battery-swapping retrofit kits for Class 8 diesel trucks. The company claims its system can cut fuel costs by up to 90%, effectively turning long-haul diesel rigs into hybrid-electric vehicles without buying a new truck. reports the concept is entering US road testing. For fleet operators, the pitch is compelling: electrify incrementally, avoid the $300,000-plus price tag of a new electric Class 8, and start saving on diesel immediately. The model's viability will hinge on the density and location of swap stations — an infrastructure buildout that remains entirely theoretical. Read More: CleanTechnica.

LOOKING AHEAD

• Revolution Wind Next Steps: Watch for Eversource's Q2 earnings call, where analysts will press management on whether the 704-MW project can survive the federal permitting freeze or whether further impairments — and potential abandonment — are on the table.
• Samsung SDI Production Ramp: The company's US LFP cell line is expected to begin output this quarter. Early production volumes and customer allocations will signal whether domestic battery supply can keep pace with the storage pipeline or if shortages will push project timelines into 2028.
• Georgia Air Quality Challenge: Environmental groups opposing Georgia Power's 1,500-MW gas expansion at Plant Bowen are expected to file formal challenges with state regulators — a case that could set precedent for how cumulative emissions are weighed in utility resource plans across the Southeast.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Federal dollars are flowing to nuclear, gas, and transmission while offshore wind bleeds capital — and the battery storage sector's biggest constraint is no longer demand or permitting but the physical supply of domestically made cells.