Massachusetts-based on-site energy and microgrid developer Ameresco clearly sees the future of energy supply leading to next-generation nuclear solutions for commercial, industrial and mission-critical services sectors.
Ameresco announced it has hired longtime nuclear industry insider Cenk Güler as its first-ever director of nuclear partnerships. The role is a newly created one as the company enters the nuclear energy market with a focus on microreactor and small modular reactor (SMR) projects.
Not a single SMR has been built in the U.S. so far, although numerous companies are in various stages of design and construction permit application processes with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Companies such as X-energy, NANO, Oklo, NuScale and Natura are working out prospects for future small nuclear power plants to meet the needs of data centers and industrial customers such as Dow, Google, Amazon Web Services and others.
The fledgling SMR business sector, though, is in early stages and low on traditional development specialists, such as what companies such as Ameresco, Schneider Electric, ELM and PowerSecure do with microgrids. Ameresco has worked with military, education and commercial sectors on numerous distributed energies, microgrid and efficiency projects.
“Cenk brings a wealth of experience and technical leadership in nuclear innovation, fuel technologies, and strategic partnerships,” said Nicole Bulgarino, President of Federal Solutions and Utility Infrastructure at Ameresco, in a statement. “His expertise will be instrumental in aligning our energy infrastructure initiatives with both national and international priorities as well as the rapidly expanding data center market.”
Güler’s nuclear experience spans more than two decades, including previous senior leadership roles at Westinghouse Electric. He led global teams on advanced reactor development, core design and high-energy fuel technologies with that company.
“I’m excited to join Ameresco and contribute to advancing its nuclear energy initiatives,” said Güler. “This role offers a unique opportunity to build meaningful partnerships and help shape the future of infrastructure across federal, utility, and international markets through innovative nuclear technologies.”
It may be the late 2020s or early 2030s before an SMR power plant is built in the U.S. Even so, multiple energy players are pushing their business development strategies in that direction as power generation planners are preparing for more than 50 GW in expected electricity load growth around new AI-enabled data centers and newly on-shored manufacturing.
Ameresco has long championed renewable energy resources for its customers, the company envisons a future of meeting exponential load growth and demand for resiliency through next-generation nuclear technologies.
"At Ameresco, our primary focus is on advancing microreactor and small modular reactor technologies, which we see as transformative for the future of energy," the company stated in response to an emailed question from Microgrid Knowledge. "That said, we remain actively engaged in exploring a broad spectrum of innovations to ensure we're delivering the most forward-thinking and flexible solutions for our customers."
Ameresco is not alone in singling out next-gen nuclear. Among other companies, some of those efforts are focused on new nuclear to power manufacturing, such as Dow’s agreement with X-energy, while others are partnerships to provide gas-fired power to meet future data center demand. Some of the other companies focused on expanding gas power infrastructure include Siemens Energy, Eaton, Chevron and PowerSecure.
And some tech giants are exploring nuclear but choosing conventional and existing infrastructure instead of new-build SMRs. Microsoft and Meta have signed long-term power purchase agreements with utility-scale power generator Constellation Energy to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear unit 1 and relicense the currently operational Clinton Clean Energy Center, respectively.
Some forecasts, including those by Goldman Sachs, Bloom Energy and others, are predicting some 60+ GW in data center load growth over the next five to seven years. This could overwhelm utility grids where previous consensus was on flat load growth.
"Digital infrastructure is driving an energy demand like we've not yet seen, and operators are facing mounting pressure to secure resilient, reliable and low-carbon power," Ameresco said to Microgrid Knowledge. "Given these challenges, we see data centers as being a key strategic focus for our emerging nuclear offering and the exact space in which nuclear technologies like SMRs can be critical to success."
Ameresco was founded in 2000. Since then, it has delivered microgrids, district energy and on-site distributed solar-storage combinations for military bases, school districts, universities and airports, among others.
What intrigues companies about nuclear, especially SMR and smaller footprints for power generation, is the high capacity factor and flexibility of the power plants. Nuclear power plants are expensive to build but deliver resilient, baseload-level electricity with no carbon emissions.
Powering Data Centers with Microgrids and SMR: Reducing OPEX Costs
New White Paper by Xendee
