Blue Energy Advances Prefabricated Nuclear Reactor Dreams with $380 Million Funding
One of the new modular reactor design startups aiming for next-gen nuclear success accelerated a major financial leap forward by raising $380 million from several private capital investors.
Blue Energy’s latest successful funding round was led by VXI Capital with backing from Engine Ventures, At One Ventures and Tamarack Global. Blue Energy was created to develop prefabricated nuclear plants which theoretically could be crafted off-site, delivered, assembled and completed in 48 months.
The rise of data center and artificial intelligence energy demand is driving hyperscalers and other computing facility developers to seek behind-the-meter and added dependable capacity solutions whether they are gas-fired or next-gen nuclear. Many of those data center customers also are investing in future nuclear for its baseload and carbon-free attributes.
"This funding marks an important step in Blue Energy's mission to make new nuclear more deployable, predictable, and financeable," Blue Energy CEO and co-founder Jake Jurewicz said in a statement. "By combining offsite prefabrication, standardized plant delivery and a disciplined development model, we believe Blue Energy can reduce cost and compress timelines with the goal of making nuclear power competitive with fossil fuel and renewables – all without sacrificing safety. Blue Energy is developing a nuclear power product designed to scale at a time when the world needs it most."
No small modular reactor nuclear projects have been built or commissioned in the U.S. so far. Many startups such as Blue Energy, X-energy, Oklo and NANO Nuclear hope to finalize funding commitments and U.S. regulatory approvals so they can energize SMR plants by the early 2030s.
Blue Energy has reportedly announced expectations to begin construction on its first project in Texas by the third quarter of this year. Earlier this year, the company announced it received preliminary U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a licensing topical report around its plan to convert gas-fired power plants into next-gen nuclear reactor generation.
"The Blue Energy team has made remarkable progress de-risking the single hardest problem in nuclear — the cost structure that makes it project-financeable," said Michael Kearney, general partner at Engine Ventures and board director at Blue Energy. "Their manufacturing and development approach is what finally positions nuclear to run down the cost curve necessary for rapid deployment to meet this moment of demand growth, and we couldn't be more excited to back them on that path."
Jurewicz and his team founded Blue Energy only three years ago. Speaking earlier this year at the CERAWeek Conference in Houston, Jurewicz spoke about the grid capacity issues facing the U.S., noting the constraints were expected long before ChatGPT and OpenAI came on the scene.
“It’s not just an AI thing,” Jurewicz said during a CERAWeek session . “Before ChatGPT, (grid operators such as ) MISO, PJM and others were throwing out alerts” about grid power constraints and long interconnection queues to get projects commercially operational.
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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 17 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.