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Hitachi Energy Commits $250M to Address Transformer Shortage

William Attardi on March 10, 2025

Electricity demand associated with artificial intelligence and data center development mean “the need for transformers has surged beyond initial projections,” Hitachi Energy said. Hitachi Energy on Monday announced a $250 million investment to expand global production of critical components for electrical transformers, including “enhancing production capacity at the company’s transformer factories in Virginia, Missouri, and Mississippi.” Power management company Eaton announced in February that it will invest $340 million to increase U.S. production of its three-phase transformers. Production and hiring is expected to begin in 2027 at the company’s production facility in Jonesville, South Carolina. Hitachi Energy commits $250M to address transformer shortage | Utility Dive

States in a Race Against Big Tech for Power Plants by Marc Levy, Associated Press

William Attardi on March 10, 2025

Facing projections of spiking energy demand, U.S. states are pressing for ways to build new power plants faster as policymakers increasingly worry about protecting their residents and economies from rising electric bills, power outages, and other consequences of falling behind Big Tech in a race for electricity. Some states are dangling financial incentives. Others are undoing decades of regulatory structures in what they frame as a race to serve the basic needs of residents, avoid a catastrophe and keep their economies on track in a fast-electrifying society. The spike in demand for electricity is being driven, in large part, by the artificial intelligence race as tech companies are snapping up real estate and seeking power to feed their energy-hungry data centers. Federal incentives to rebuild the manufacturing sector also are helping drive demand. States in a Race Against Big Tech for Power Plants – electrifiED

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind – The last time human beings headed moonward was on the Apollo 17 flight that launched Dec. 7, 1972—before any of the Artemis II crew members were born. Today’s crew will not land on the moon—they won’t even orbit the moon. But they will whip around the lunar far side, on a shakedown mission test-flying the Orion spacecraft. This is essential preparatory work for achieving NASA’s bigger lunar goals. Next year there will be another test flight in low Earth orbit during the flight of Artemis III, followed by up to two moon landings by Artemis IV and V in 2028, and annual landings thereafter. Unlike the Apollo program, Artemis aims not just for the so-called flags-and-footprints model of short, one- to three-day stays on the moon, but for a long-term presence at a long-term moon base in the south lunar pole, where deposits of ice can provide drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and oxygen-hydrogen rocket fuel. Very much like the Apollo program, Artemis finds itself in a closely watched moon race, not with the old Soviet Union this time, but with China, which has announced its intention to have astronauts on the moon by 2030. The U.S. is not going it alone this time, however. While Apollo was an entirely American enterprise, Artemis flies under the flag of 60 countries, signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international pact whose members vow to support the peaceful exploration of space and contribute money, modules, and astronauts to the Artemis cause. Artemis II Has Launched. Here’s Everything You Need to Know