Transmission How Solar Turned The Price Curve Upside Down - AES Clean Energy
Feb 17, 2026
Terry Embury, VP and Head of Trading and Market Operations at AES Clean Energy, leads trading for large renewable and storage projects. He discusses how soaring AI data center demand and collapsing solar prices flipped market dynamics. They cover ERCOT’s sudden duck curve, why solar+storage is becoming standard, and batteries as a fast solution to looming generation shortfalls.
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True 24/7 Green Is Expensive To Scale
- 24/7 matching requires oversized renewable fleets and/or batteries to cover flat data center loads.
- Achieving higher coverage (90%+) rapidly becomes much more expensive due to scaling and intermittency.
Nuclear Timelines Will Stretch Longer
- New nuclear (SMRs) faces long timelines, regulatory hurdles, supply-chain and manpower limits.
- Terry expects realistic commercial-scale timelines nearer 12–15 years, not 10.
Life As A Nuclear Submarine Operator
- Submarine life was cramped and intense with an 18-hour cycle of watch, maintenance and scarce sleep.
- Terry learned to 'hot rack' and even slept on a pile of plastic buoys during training.