A systems view on nuclear, renewables, AI, and energy security
I get invited to a surprising number of technical energy and climate forums. Surprising, at least, to people who see me walk into these rooms and instinctively try to place me. I can almost hear the internal monologue: Is she policy? Investor? Founder? Communications? Why is she here?
What they usually don’t realise is that climate work, if taken seriously, forces you to sit across silos. You cannot talk about sustainability without understanding energy. You cannot understand energy today without nuclear, AI, grid systems, geopolitics, and manufacturing. And you certainly cannot build credible opinions without spending time in rooms where the conversations are technical, uncomfortable, and occasionally intimidating.
The FICCI TANENERGY Summit 2025 in Chennai was one such room. And more importantly, it reinforced something I’ve been observing for a while now: Tamil Nadu is becoming one of the most serious energy-thinking states in the country, not through noise or branding, but through range, depth, and systems-level ambition.
Nuclear Is No Longer a Side Conversation
One thing that stood out across keynotes and panels was how nuclear energy is no longer being treated as a niche or defensive topic. It showed up naturally in discussions on decarbonisation, baseload power, industrial growth, AI infrastructure, and even space missions. That shift, in itself, is telling.
There was a noticeable move away from debating whether nuclear should exist in the energy mix, toward discussing how far and how fast it needs to scale. Fusion energy, in particular, featured prominently, with references to India developing its own tokamak reactor by around 2035, and Ahmedabad being positioned as a major centre for this work.
What caught my attention was the way future fuels were discussed. Helium-3, rather than uranium alone, was framed as strategically important, especially given its availability in lunar regolith. That word — regolith — came up more than once, and yes, I wrote it down phonetically first and Googled later, like any honest person would.
The broader narrative linked nuclear energy with space ambitions, solar-powered satellites, and long-term energy security. There were references to India having its own space station by 2047, and to using space-based solar and nuclear capabilities not just for domestic needs, but to support global energy and water missions. This wasn’t presented as sci-fi optimism, but as part of a long arc connecting energy, sovereignty, and technological independence.
A particularly sobering example that surfaced repeatedly was Germany’s decision to decommission nuclear reactors on the assumption of stable gas imports from Russia. That assumption, of course, collapsed with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, forcing Germany into an awkward and expensive rethink. The takeaway was simple and unromantic: energy dependency is geopolitical risk, and ideology does not power grids.
SMRs, Manufacturing, and India’s Strategic Positioning
Across discussions, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) were treated as inevitable rather than experimental. Not as replacements for large reactors, but as complementary infrastructure that fits industrial clusters, repurposed thermal plants, and distributed energy needs.
SMRs were repeatedly highlighted for their passive safety features, lower seismic requirements, and ability to produce both electricity and industrial heat. Several speakers pointed to 2035 as a realistic inflection point when SMRs move from first-of-a-kind designs to scalable deployment at meaningful volumes (Nth of a kind).
What was particularly interesting was how often India was positioned not merely as a consumer of nuclear technology, but as a manufacturing and localisation hub. With countries across the US, EU, and Southeast Asia doubling or tripling their nuclear ambitions, India is increasingly being seen as a place where reactors, components, and expertise can be built at scale.
Collaborations with global players, including EDF France, were discussed in the context of localising manufacturing and strengthening domestic capability. There was also mention of ongoing conversations with Russia to expand India’s nuclear commissioning and manufacturing footprint. Regulatory evolution, including changes to nuclear liability frameworks and the proposed SHANTI Bill 2025, was framed as a necessary step to build investor and partner confidence.
There was, unsurprisingly, a firm assertion that India has technological solutions for nuclear waste management and safety, countering the outdated assumption that nuclear inevitably equals uncontrollable risk. Whether the public discourse is ready for that nuance is another question, but the technical confidence in the room was unmistakable.
AI, Compute Power, and Why Energy Is No Longer Just About Electrons
Another strong thread running through the summit was the relationship between AI, computing power, and energy systems. This was not framed as a future concern, but as a current constraint.
One idea kept resurfacing: compute capacity is becoming a new measure of national competitiveness. Concepts like compute elasticity — how quickly a country can scale and optimise computing power — were discussed as strategic assets. Tokenised computing models were also mentioned as ways to optimise access to GPUs and processing infrastructure.
What landed heavily was the scale of energy consumption being discussed. Data centres are no longer marginal loads. A single hyper-scale data centre can consume energy in the gigawatt range, and one remark stayed with me: one nuclear plant may be required to power one large data centre. That sentence alone collapses any remaining illusion that AI growth and clean energy planning can be treated separately.
Companies like NVIDIA were referenced not merely as chip manufacturers, but as ecosystem builders shaping hardware, software, optimisation, and energy efficiency together. The implicit message was clear: AI expansion without clean baseload power is unsustainable, and energy transitions that ignore compute demand are incomplete at best.
Tamil Nadu’s Green Energy Reality, Beyond the Headlines
Tamil Nadu’s renewable energy position was discussed with a level of specificity that I appreciated. India, it was noted, has reached roughly 50% renewable energy in its installed capacity, and Tamil Nadu mirrors this closely, with 50–60% of its installed base coming from renewables, largely solar and wind. The state ranks among the country’s top green energy contributors, alongside Gujarat and Rajasthan.
But the conversation did not linger on capacity numbers, which is refreshing, because capacity alone does not keep the lights on.
The sharper focus was on grid readiness and storage. Energy storage was repeatedly described as integral, not optional, with future pathways including battery storage, pumped storage projects, and hydrogen-based systems. CNG was also discussed as a mainstream transition fuel, with the observation that while several states have scaled CNG infrastructure effectively, Tamil Nadu still has headroom here.
Looking ahead to India’s target of 100 billion units of green power by 2030, there was strong emphasis on decentralisation. Community-centric energy solutions, rooftop solar, solar deployment in industrial clusters, and distributed solar for agriculture — including solar pumps — were all highlighted as necessary, not supplementary.
Digitalisation, big data, and AI were framed as tools for energy efficiency and smarter distribution, but there was also a clear acknowledgement that skills and labour transitions need to keep pace. Technology, as always, will move faster than institutions unless deliberately aligned.
A Personal Note
A special note of thanks to Mr. Nandakumar, Founder of Nanwin Energy and Convener of the Energy Panel at FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council, for the invitation and for curating a programme that remained technical, forward-looking, and grounded throughout. Events like this don’t come together accidentally, and it shows when intent meets execution.
What I’m seeing increasingly is a concentration of serious climate and energy conversations in Tamil Nadu. These are conversations that sit at the intersection of policy, physics, manufacturing, and long-term national interest.
More people from outside the state should spend time in these rooms. Not to be impressed, but to understand where the work is actually happening.
Because if India’s energy future is being shaped quietly, Tamil Nadu is very much part of the engine room.