Energy Transition Blog

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Energy Transition Blog

June 10, 2026 Energy Transition Blog

Data Center Buildout is Driving Solar Deployment and BatteryENERGY Development, US SMRs Reach Key Milestone, US Rapidly Depleting Gregory Lewis, CFA

Strategic Oil Stockpile, and Coal Refuses to Die (212) 588-6543 glewis@btig.com

Sherif Elmaghrabi

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: (332) 400-5177 selmaghrabi@btig.com

■ Solar Power Data Centers Momentum. While there are multiple bottlenecks facing Ben Sommers

the ongoing data center buildout, power generation remains a major near term (212) 738-6049 bsommers@btig.com

headwind. And while not all geographies are created equal, Australia has someTRANSITION of highest solar radiation per acreage in the world. According to Rystad Energy

(Private) over 80% of new utility scale solar starting construction in Australia

this year has opted to supply power for data centers. Of course the sun sets

every day which is why these DC projects are overlaid with batteries. We note

whether in Australia, or Texas, or California or the Middle East all of these places

curtail solar power generation during the day, making battery storage a viableINDUSTRY option to store cheap solar power during the day and then discharge it at night.

However, there is work to do with most battery storage systems having ~4 hours of

discharge (interestingly while nights can be long, DC work loads tend to be lower at

night), driving some battery manufacturers to push towards 8+ hours of discharge.

Bottom line: we expect renewables which can offer behind the meter (BtM) powerREPORT

solutions to continue to gain share in powering the global data center buildout.

■ US SMRs Reach Milestone. Antares Nuclear (Private) became the first microreactor

to achieve criticality under the DOE's Reactor Pilot Program (RPP).