The Genesis Mission: How AI Is Rewriting the Rules of American Science and Energy

The U.S. spends more than a trillion dollars a year on R&D. What if AI could double its productivity within a decade? Dr. Dario Gil, Under Secretary for Science at the Department of Energy and director of the Genesis Mission, makes the case that we're at an inflection point as consequential as the invention of the Internet--and that the convergence of AI supercomputing, high-performance computing, and quantum computing is about to transform how the nation does science. From fusion reactors to the Texas power grid, Gil maps the breakthroughs already underway, the infrastructure being built right now, and what it will take to produce 50 to 100 "AlphaFold moments" across every domain of science in the next five years.

Innovations in Battery Technology for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Utility-scale battery capacity exceeded 26 GW in 2024 (EIA), demonstrating the rapid expansion of energy storage deployment. However, today's dominant technology - lithium-ion - faces significant limitations. Safety concerns, federal and foreign policy, sourcing constraints, cost volatility, and the inability to economically deliver long-duration storage (beyond four hours) create barriers to scaling. As utilities plan record levels of grid investment, over $1.1 trillion through 2029, according to the Edison Electric Institute, the window has opened for new energy storage technologies that deliver higher energy density, smaller footprint, lower costs, and enhanced safety to take root.

Giovanni will share his insights from the frontlines of commercializing next-generation energy storage systems designed to meet these challenges head-on. He will speak on how innovative battery architectures can achieve superior energy density and site flexibility, unlocking deployment in space-constrained areas, and supporting broader community acceptance. Attendees will also learn how new technologies are being validated by leading utilities, national laboratories, and commercial partners as part of a growing movement toward long-duration, sustainable storage solutions.

This presentation will explore the real-world considerations that determine which technologies succeed in today's market, including how innovators can strategically position themselves for utility and investor engagement. As CMBlu Energy, Inc.'s President, He will share the lessons he learned from the company's own path to commercialization and outline the practical steps startups and developers can take to bring disruptive storage technologies from concept to commercial readiness. The discussion will be relevant to utility leaders, policymakers, researchers, and clean energy innovators seeking to understand the market dynamics shaping the next generation of energy storage and how to capitalize on this pivotal moment in the energy transition.

Taking Storage from NIMBY to YIMBY with Safety-first Sodium-Ion Batteries

Data center load growth and industrial electrification are stressing local grids faster than new generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades can be built - making energy storage a near-term necessity. Yet the on-site and urban installations that matter most for reliability and resilience are increasingly slowed by community opposition, with lithium-ion thermal runaway concerns dominating public hearings and permitting dockets.

This session reframes the problem through the lens of offering communities a lithium alternative that ensures reliable energy for the coming grid crunch without sacrificing trust or resilience. While lithium-ion battery storage can be engineered to meet stringent codes and standards, the perceived risk profile still triggers resistance, particularly in dense areas where proximity to critical infrastructure, housing, and first responders raises scrutiny.

Sodium-ion batteries are emerging as a compelling option for stationary storage because they can shift the safety conversation. While not entirely free of fire concerns, sodium-ion cells are designed in a way and with specific materials that thermal runaway occurs at higher temperatures and spreads more slowly. This makes them better suited to meet the concerns of urban fire departments and shifts the community storage narrative away from the uncontrolled fire fears that often drive local permitting debates.

Stephanie Choi Brookes of Syntropic Power will share a "safety-first" siting narrative and project framing that pairs sodium-ion's evolving performance and supply-chain advantages with community-centered permitting: clearer risk communication, emergency-response alignment, and benefits that resonate locally. Stephanie will explain how this framing can move storage from "someone else's problem" to a trusted, neighborhood-compatible reliability asset so data centers, cities, and utilities can build faster where the grid needs it most.

Beyond Lithium: Designing Safer, Scalable Storage for a Grid-Constrained Future

Surging electricity demand from AI datacenters and electrification is pushing the grid to its limits, making scalable, sustainable and resilient energy solutions more critical than ever. While lithium-ion batteries currently dominate battery storage deployments, safety constraints, siting barriers, and supply chain bottlenecks are growing increasingly evident. The persistence of high-profile fire events, permitting delays, and material supply volatility are creating friction across projects from substation support to behind-the-meter resilience.
This session examines how non-flammable sodium-ion battery systems are being deployed to address these constraints and how coordinated action across utilities, manufacturers, regulators, and project developers can ensure safe, effective integration at scale. Drawing on examples such as Peak Energy's 3.5 MWh pilot deployment in Colorado and U.S.-based manufacturing scale-up efforts, we will explore how sodium-ion batteries can reduce permitting complexity, improve insurability, and accelerate project timelines for utilities and facility operators without compromising performance.
Attendees will gain practical insight into where sodium-ion systems are most effectively applied across utility-scale, commercial, and industrial settings. The discussion will cover safety-driven design considerations, integration with existing transmission and distribution infrastructure, and strategies for incorporating storage into reliability planning models. We will also outline actionable recommendations for utilities, regulators, and industrial operators seeking to diversify supply chains and deploy storage in dense or safety-sensitive environments.
Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how battery chemistry influences system reliability, project economics, and infrastructure resilience, and how alignment across diverse sectors can unlock safer, more scalable energy storage deployment.

New Nuclear - Learn from the Past or Repeat Mistakes?

Using 50 years of design, regulatory, and construction experience, this presentation will present what enabled success for past nuclear projects - or doomed them to failure. This presentation reviews analyses and actual experience from the 1970s to current to identify success factors for new nuclear projects. Examples and case studies are included, along with realistic keys to enabling nuclear project success.

Beyond the Queue: Accelerating Grid Reliability Through Strategic Storage Partner

As load growth from data centers, AI infrastructure, electrification, and domestic manufacturing accelerates, grid infrastructure development is struggling to keep pace. Transmission queues now stretch for years, interconnection studies face mounting backlogs, and permitting timelines continue to expand. Even approved generation projects often cannot be delivered at the speed required by electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, and large industrial customers seeking dependable capacity in the near term. The result is mounting pressure on grid reliability and growing urgency to deploy flexible resources that can be sited and interconnected faster.

Energy storage is emerging as a critical bridge, but serving these customers requires a fundamentally different approach than traditional utility-scale procurement. Cooperatives, municipals, and industrial operators evaluate projects through the lenses of reliability, dispatch certainty, cost exposure, and operational control. Many lack large procurement teams and face distinct governance, financing, and risk constraints. They need development partners who engage early during site selection, interconnection strategy, and system configuration, rather than vendors offering standardized, late-stage proposals.

This session explores how storage developers are adapting to meet these grid infrastructure challenges. We will examine how early collaboration can streamline interconnection pathways, optimize siting to reduce transmission upgrade costs, and structure offtake agreements aligned with real operational needs. Discussion will compare behind-the-meter, co-located, and front-of-meter configurations, and analyze how dispatch optimization strategies differ in volatile markets versus contracted capacity models. We will also address how domestic supply chain dynamics and regulatory shifts influence bankability and long-term reliability.
For developers accustomed to standardized utility RFPs, engaging cooperatives and industrial customers demands new partnership models, risk frameworks, and execution strategies.

The Role of Gas Engines for Growing Power Demand

While volatile renewable power generation will play an increasing role in the electricity supply, electrification in all sectors of transport, buildings and industry will increase electricity demand. Power generation that is dispatchable and can provide grid balancing and a lot of grid services will become more important, as electricity storage cannot provide all this in the foreseeable future. Datacenters are one of the most power demanding industries now. Due to the huge power demand of large and very large datacenters grid power cannot supply appropriate capacities and electricity in time.
Gas power plants therefore play an important role in supporting emerging industries like datacenters. At the same time, gas power plants are facing a new operating environment, especially operating flexibility. This is the case for grid balancing to follow the volatile load from renewables or for onsite power to follow the load demand from datacenter operations. Secondly, gas power plants can provide a lot of grid services such as synchronous inertia response, frequency containment reserve (FRC), automatic and manual frequency restoration reserve, replacement reserve voltage control as well as flexible ramping and black start service. All these services make gas power plants a favorable solution in addition to the relative short delivery times.
Gas engine power plants are a preferred solution in the gas to power segment because of several advantages. Gas engines are installed as modular plug and play solutions, with a high degree of prefabrication and low remaining work at the plant installation site. The multiple unit installation has also the advantage of higher reliability and availability when a unit fails or is down due to regular maintenance. Gas engines replacing diesel generation can provide back-up power and in addition continuous power if grid connection is not sufficient or have a longer lead time. Gas engines are also ready for hydrogen, which means they can be converted to run on hydrogen once available to replace fossil natural gas.
In this presentation we provide an update on how gas engines are designed today to meet the flexibility and design criteria for large and very large power plants. We provide peaking power plant examples from Europe and US as well as an update on first gas engines running on 100% hydrogen in the field.

Leveraging Advanced Control Systems and Artificial Intelligence for Modern Power

Evolution of Power Plant Control and Increasing System Complexity
Over the last fifty years, the landscape of power plant control and automation has transformed significantly. Early systems, which relied on basic relay logic, have given way to sophisticated digital control platforms.
This technological progression has paralleled the rapid acceleration of electrification globally. As a result, modern utilities now face an environment of unprecedented complexity. The integration of broad interconnections, widespread adoption of renewable energy sources, and evolving operational requirements have all contributed to this heightened system complexity.

Identifying the Benefits of Fleet Wide Energy Management and Reporting Systems

This abstract examines the longstanding application of digital twins and intelligent assistants in powerhouse analysis and operation, spanning over three decades and more than 40 industrial powerhouses. While these technologies have traditionally been used to estimate operational cost benefits, practical experience underscores that a singular focus on cost reduction is insufficient. Effective powerhouse management necessitates prioritizing safety, consistent risk management for reliability, emissions and water reduction, energy performance optimization, and accommodating external operating constraints. Additionally, modern powerhouses are increasingly integrated into the grid, utilizing diverse fuel sources and operating within complex frameworks such as Real Time Pricing, demand response programs, and unique contractual arrangements, requiring Energy Management and Reporting Systems that address those requirements. This multifaceted approach is crucial for achieving sustainable and resilient powerhouse operations.

Permitting is a Political Process

Permitting for energy projects is often framed as a technical and regulatory exercise governed by statutes, studies, and agency review timelines. In reality, it is also deeply political. Community sentiment, local leadership dynamics, organized advocacy efforts, media narratives, and shifting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) expectations can significantly influence whether a project advances smoothly or becomes entrenched in controversy. Regulatory approval alone does not guarantee success; public perception and political context frequently shape outcomes long before formal decisions are issued.

This presentation examines how recognizing permitting as a political process fundamentally changes the way project leaders approach development and community engagement. Rather than focusing exclusively on compliance milestones, successful organizations integrate early, strategic outreach as a core project function. Attendees will learn practical approaches to identifying key political stakeholders, mapping formal and informal influence networks, assessing community power structures, and engaging elected officials, civic leaders, and trusted community voices before opposition narratives take hold.

The session will also explore how misinformation spreads rapidly in today's digital environment and how proactive, transparent communication can prevent inaccurate claims from defining a project's reputation. Emphasis will be placed on cross-functional coordination among engineering, legal, executive, and public affairs teams to ensure message discipline, credibility, and responsiveness throughout the permitting lifecycle.

By treating permitting as both a regulatory requirement and a political pathway, organizations can more effectively manage non-technical risk, reduce delays, and strengthen community trust. Participants will leave with actionable strategies to navigate local political realities while maintaining transparency, accountability, and long-term community partnership.

The Storm That Changed the Playbook

• Chris Anderson, General Counsel, Rayburn Electric Cooperative

Extreme weather has redrawn the risk map for the U.S. power sector, with Texas offering one of the clearest examples of how quickly operational stress can escalate into a financial and legal crisis. Winter Storm Uri exposed critical vulnerabilities in ERCOT's market structure, compressing years' worth of power costs into a matter of days for utilities across the state. For Rayburn Electric Cooperative, that meant nearly $900 million in invoices delivered in less than a week, forcing immediate decisions around liquidity, cost recovery, regulatory exposure, and long-term market participation.

Rather than retreat from risk, Rayburn fundamentally rethought it. In the months following Uri, it moved aggressively to reduce exposure to market volatility by securing dispatchable generation under local control. Rayburn entered and won a competitive bidding process for a 758-MW natural gas facility, competing directly with well-capitalized hedge funds to acquire capacity that could stabilize service for more than 625,000 Texans during periods of extreme weather and peak demand. As regional electricity demand is projected to growth by more than 25% over the next decade, Rayburn also launched construction of a second 570-MW facility to further strengthen system reliability.

In parallel, Rayburn navigated complex regulatory and legislative terrain, securing eligibility for the Texas Energy Fund, a $5 billion state program created to incentivize new dispatchable generation. Rayburn was one of only 17 projects selected statewide and the only electric cooperative deemed eligible.

In this session, Chris Anderson, General Counsel at Rayburn, and Clint Vince, Chair of Dentons U.S. Energy Practice, examine how legal and compliance judgments made under extraordinary grid conditions shaped Rayburn's recovery. The discussion offers practical lessons for utilities nationwide on managing extreme-event exposure, reassessing market reliance, and aligning legal strategy with long-term reliability and risk management.

Building the Bench--Hands-On Strategies for Building the Future Energy Workforce

As the power grid evolves into a complex network of distributed resources and intelligent systems, and as massive new electricity demand is expected over the next decade, the power and energy industry faces a critical bottleneck: a shortage of skilled workers to install energy resources, engineer solutions, and manage systems. Where will the next generation of power and energy professionals come from, and how can we start preparing them today to enter the industry? This talk explores how we can "build the bench" by transforming K-12 energy education from abstract theory into tangible, career-ready skills, ensuring that today's students can meet the industry's future needs.

In this session, we will use a case study of a recent pilot of an energy education course for 4th-grade students at an Indiana school to demonstrate how to move students beyond theoretical discussions of energy toward active problem-solving and learning. We will discuss:
(1) The state of science and engineering education in elementary, middle, and high schools, and what students learn about energy
(2) How integrating low-cost sensor technologies, block-based coding, engaging demonstrations, and realistic projects allowed 4th-grade Indiana students to step into the role of "Energy Detectives," building smart electricity meters and analyzing energy consumption data to solve a problem
(3) How to bridge the gap between the technical skills the power and energy industries need, state and national science standards, and what students currently learn in the classroom
Throughout our discussion, session attendees will also participate in some of the activities that the 4th-grade students undertook, and experience firsthand how shifting how students learn about energy can engage and excite them.

By integrating energy concepts into an experiential, project-based learning framework, we can demystify energy and the grid, help students develop practical, career-ready skills, and spark early interest in future energy careers.

Co-Optimizing Combined Cycle Power Plant Operations with Digital Twins

As the energy market continues to transition, the pressures being placed on traditional fossil generation are shifting at an advanced pace.
With the parallel growth in demand, largely driven by the Data Center expansion, and the continuing pressures of alternative energy buildout, the gas-fired Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) fleet is concurrently being required to operate under different circumstances. In today's energy market, plants are being asked to be both more efficient and more flexible at the same time.
This presentation will demonstrate how Combined Cycle Plants can improve their reliability, efficiency and flexibility independent of equipment OEM and without major mechanical expenditures using modern advanced controls, artificial intelligence (AI) and Digital twin applications.

Enhancing CCPP Flexibility through Automation and AI.

• Alan Karr, Director of Digital Software Operations, Siemens Energy, Inc.

As the energy market continues to transition, the pressures being placed on traditional fossil generation are changing with it. As a result, the gas-fired Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP) fleet is continuously being required to operate under different circumstances. With flexibility being one of these key aspects, many plants are transitioning to transient operations, starting and stopping multiple times a week.
This presentation will demonstrate how Combined Cycle Plants can improve their reliability, flexibility and market appeal for maximizing its operational profile even within regulated power markets, using advanced automation and artificial intelligence (AI).