Natural gas demand is building fast along the Gulf Coast. New LNG export terminals, data centers and power generation — and new pipelines to deliver the incremental gas. That’s all baked in. What’s still far from certain is where all the gas will come from, and how intense the battle for gas supply will become.
We’ve blogged about rising demand for natural gas in the southeastern U.S. and the pipeline projects being planned there. But there’s more to the story — a bigger picture — namely, that gas consumers in the region increasingly find themselves competing for supply with LNG exporters.
Data center development is booming across the country. But power and water supplies, fiber connectivity, and regulatory environments differ across states. Today’s RBN blog compares seven leading states for data centers on the key factors that help determine development outcomes.
All roads lead to Louisiana in the natural gas market, and those roads have become increasingly crowded as LNG demand sucks in gas from other states. Today, we discuss Boardwalk’s Kosci Junction project and how it will impact the gas market in Louisiana, Mississippi and beyond.
All the speculation you hear about the future of data centers comes with the promise of massive amounts of electricity usage down the line. But which facilities are using the most grid power right now?
There is a lot of talk about the best way to meet the expected increases in U.S. power demand, driven by manufacturing growth and the rapid development of large-scale data centers, which has sparked renewed interest in nuclear power. The most recent reactors to come online were Units 3 and 4 at Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear power station, but they came in well over budget and far behind schedule. Still, the startup of those units is a significant milestone as they are the first new reactors to come online in the U.S. since 2016. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss the lessons learned from the Vogtle project and what they might mean for future nuclear development.
Storms that form in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) during hurricane season don’t just dissipate once they make landfall and can inflict havoc on onshore assets. Storm damage and flooding can delay plant restarts, but so can power outages, as we saw when Hurricane Beryl hit the Texas/Louisiana region in July. And while there were no major refining or production assets in the path of Hurricane Helene, which slammed into the Florida Panhandle on September 26, widespread damage illustrated the potential risk to onshore infrastructure. In today’s RBN blog, we will examine how hurricanes have disrupted onshore assets and explain why power restoration is often the Achilles’ heel in plans to resume normal operations.
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about the best way to meet the expected increases in U.S. power demand, driven in part by manufacturing growth and the rapid development of large-scale data centers. That has spurred a renewed interest among regulators, industry leaders and the general public in nuclear power. But while traditional reactors are known for their cost overruns and construction delays as much as the massive amounts of carbon-free power they produce, some see a better way forward in the form of small modular reactors (SMRs). Advocates with “uranium fever” say they can be built without many of the problems that accompany their larger cousins and offer a number of potential advantages, including siting flexibility, price and efficiency. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at the state of nuclear power in the U.S., examine the potential for SMRs, and discuss the hurdles they face to obtaining the necessary permits and ultimately beginning operation.
