This year—June 15–18, Chicago Marriott Downtown—the mood was quietly bullish: utilities want new capacity, OEMs want repeatable designs, and regulators want fewer surprises. Call it nuclear’s boring-is-beautiful turn. 

The three conversations that mattered

1) “One-and-done” licensing is over; lifecycle governance is in.
Panels leaned into living safety cases, digital twins for change management, and integrated configuration control so fleet learning sticks. If you’re an SMR hopeful without a plan for version drift across sites, you’re behind. (Conference program highlighted “hot topics” with regulators and industry leadership.) 

2) Supply chains are becoming strategic assets.
From pressure vessels to advanced sensors, the winners showed dual sourcing, QA depth, and realistic lead times. Vendors who arrived with material traceability mapped into utility ERPs got meetings; those with “we’ll find it later” got coffee. Exhibitors and labs—from OEMs to national labs—telegraphed the same refrain: predictability beats peak output. 

3) Fuel cycles move centre stage.
Fuel availability (including HALEU pathways), transport containers, and enrichment timelines are now P&L items—not sidebars. Expect more long-dated contracts and public-private schemes to buffer volatility. (Pre-event releases and exhibitor notes flagged fuel and detection portfolios.) 

Why this was different from last year

Less evangelism, more execution. Utilities are writing roadmaps that bundle uprates, life-extension, and new build with grid constraints in mind—interconnection queues, N-1 security, and the AI/data-center load surge that’s forcing baseload conversations back into the room.Founder note: If you sell into nuclear, make your value prop legible to licensing and QA. Show digital paperwork that auditors can love on a Tuesday at 4 p.m., not just glossy dashboards.

REN25 Global Summit (Venice): Climate pragmatists plot the grid-first transition

Slug: /ren25-venice-2025-grid-first-renewables
Meta title: REN25 (Venice): Grid build-out, flexible capacity, and the data-center surge
excerpt: At REN25, policymakers and operators pivoted to grid reality—permitting, flexible capacity, and financing models that actually deploy steel.

June 16–18, Venice (Hotel Indigo Sant’Elena): REN25 wasn’t a cheerleading session for wind and solar; it was a planning meeting for transmission, flexibility, and finance. The take: new renewable capacity is meaningless without wires, and AI-era loads need firm power contracts that pass investor scrutiny. 

Signals from the sessions

• Transmission is the rate-limiter. Delegations compared permitting reform, advanced conductors, and cross-border cost allocation. Projects that squeeze more out of existing corridors (reconductoring, dynamic line rating) are 2025’s fastest wins. 
• Firm clean PPAs are the product. Energy buyers want 24/7 coverage (wind/solar + storage + dispatchables). Contracts are getting more granular—hourly matching and penalty-aware delivery.
  
• Blended finance goes operational. First-loss tranches + offtake-linked debt are leaving the whitepaper stage for district energy, storage, and grid upgrades. (Event materials emphasize policy-meets-finance.) 

Founder note: Build for interconnection and capacity markets. If you can shave peaks or anchor firm PPAs, your sales cycle shrinks.