Blue Energy, a developer of what it calls “prefabricated” nuclear power plants, received a strategic equity investment from Constellation Energy’s venture arm Constellation Technology Ventures, the company said July 16.
Blue Energy, founded in 2023, said in a press release that the investment from Constellation shows growing confidence in the company’s strategy to use shipyard manufacturing and project financing to get more reactors online. Constellation operates the largest nuclear fleet in the United States with 21 units across 12 sites.
The value of the investment was not listed in the release.
This marks the first time Constellation Technology Ventures invested in a domestic nuclear company that develops small modular reactors (SMRs), according to the release.
“With demand for near-term power rising, Constellation’s investment will help Blue Energy meet America’s need by making new nuclear development predictable, rapidly scalable, and project financeable for the first time in history,” Jake Jurewicz, Blue Energy CEO, said. “This relationship helps us leverage an established operator, proven technology, and innovative, project-financeable deployment models to expand access to nuclear energy.”
As a startup company, Blue Energy has not deployed a nuclear power plant yet. The company has reached a May deal with GE Vernova Hitachi to bring a 2,500-megawatt gas and nuclear power plant to Texas. The nuclear reactor used for that plant would be GE Vernova’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor, which has not been deployed in the U.S. yet.
Additionally, Blue Energy hit a licensing milestone with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in January. NRC approved the company’s licensing topical report’s concept of reducing the five-year timeline of nuclear construction to four years by transitioning from natural gas to nuclear power methodology.