The U.S. Navy is seeking “execution-ready” energy prototypes through a new solicitation issued via the Center for Energy, Environment, and Demilitarization (CEED) Consortium under an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement, aiming to harden bases against grid outages and modernize on-site power.
“President Trump’s commitment to unleashing American energy innovation is powering the Navy into a new era,” said Secretary Phelan. “We are calling on America’s most capable innovators to deliver advanced, installation-scale energy solutions, ranging from small modular nuclear reactors to cutting-edge storage and generation technologies that can deliver power with 99.9% availability, even if the public grid goes dark. This is about warfighting readiness, mission assurance, and making sure our bases remain operational under any circumstances.”
The request emphasizes resilient, quickly deployable systems that can be mobilized with limited permitting and move rapidly from concept to operation, according to the announcement. Focus areas include:
– Upgrading energy infrastructure at Navy, Marine Corps, and other Department of Defense installations.
– Achieving near-continuous power availability during public grid failures.
– Supplying high, steady power for data centers running advanced AI workloads.
– Integrating dispatchable, on-site generation such as small modular nuclear reactors, geothermal, and advanced storage.
– Hardening against natural disasters, cyber threats, and broader grid instability.
– Using alternative financing structures to speed deployment and limit reliance on traditional appropriations.
Program officials say the OTA pathway is intended to accelerate timelines by allowing the department to work directly with both traditional defense contractors and non-traditional energy firms outside of standard acquisition processes. Participation is restricted to CEED Consortium members.
“Energy resilience is warfighting resilience,” said Secretary Phelan. “If a hurricane knocks out the local grid, our ships still sail. If a cyberattack takes down civilian power, our bases stay online. That’s the standard and we’re setting it now.”
The solicitation underscores the military’s push for highly reliable, on-base generation and storage as data center demand surges and grid reliability concerns persist. The Navy’s interest in small modular nuclear reactors follows broader Pentagon efforts to test microreactors and expand microgrid and battery deployments across installations. While nuclear concepts would require regulatory clearances and community engagement, the department is signaling an appetite for options that can be fielded faster and financed creatively.
Full solicitation details are available at https://cmgcorp.org/cmg-opportunities/.
