Ameresco Moves into SMR Nuclear Development through Terrestrial Energy Partnership

    June 25, 2025
    Earlier this year, Texas A&M University selected Terrestrial Energy as one of several SMR design firms to collaborate around campus research for advanced and microreactor technologies.
    Rendering of planned IMSR plant. Image credit Terrestrial Energy
    Rendering of planned IMSR plant. Image credit Terrestrial Energy

    Longtime renewable energy and microgrid developer Ameresco, which only recently announced it was hiring a first-ever director of nuclear partnerships to shift its focus from solar to small modular reactor (SMR) projects for future data center customers, has wasted no time in connecting with its first revealed partner.

    This week SMR startup Terrestrial Energy announced its new partnership with Ameresco. The collaboration will work to advance Terrestrial Energy’s planned IMSR plant, including site identification and project development.

    Earlier this year, Texas A&M University selected Terrestrial Energy as one of several SMR design firms to collaborate around campus research for advanced and microreactor technologies. The A&M deal could allow Terrestrial Energy to site a commercial IMSR plant at the university’s RELLIS campus.

    “Our collaboration with Terrestrial Energy reflects our commitment to expanding the capabilities of our clean energy portfolio,” said Nicole Bulgarino, President of Federal Solutions and Utility Infrastructure at Ameresco, in a statement. “By exploring hybrid energy systems that leverage the IMSR plant’s heat and power output, we’re enhancing our ability to deliver reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions tailored to the evolving needs of data centers and industrial customers.”

    Earlier this month, Ameresco announced it had hired longtime Westinghouse Electric nuclear sector leader Cenk Güler as its first-ever director of nuclear partnerships. The move was a sign of the company’s shift to prioritize SMR nuclear solutions for data center and digital infrastructure customers of the future.

    No SMR projects have been built in the U.S. yet, but numerous designs and development deals are going forward as tech giants seek resilient power that is also carbon-free. On other fronts, Microsoft and Meta have signed long-term nuclear power purchase agreements with utility generator Constellation that will fund reopening of Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania and renew the license of the Clinton reactor in Illinois, respectively.

     

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Managing Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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