With global demand for new energy sources exceeding 1,000GW by 2030, mines, industrial operators and data centres face growing pressure to secure reliable, always-on power. To address this, global energy solutions provider USP&E and engineering consultancy BAM Energy have launched BridgePower Nuclear. This joint venture is designed to help large energy users bridge the gap between today’s urgent power needs and tomorrow’s lower-carbon baseload requirements.The launch coincides with reliable electricity becoming one of the defining constraints on African industrial growth.According to the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, 73% of firms in Sub-Saharan Africa experienced electrical outages in 2025. At the same time, the International Energy Agency projects global data centre electricity consumption will more than double to around 945TWh by 2030, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure growth.BridgePower Nuclear’s model combines a near-term fuel-flexible thermal power block with a future small modular reactor pathway on the same site, under one operator and one power purchase agreement.The thermal phase is designed to be deployed within 12 to 24 months, using gas, diesel, heavy fuel oil or dual-fuel generation. From 2029, BridgePower Nuclear plans to phase in Pearl small modular reactor (SMR) modules — subject to customer agreements, site selection, regulatory approvals and project financing — allowing customers to transition from thermal to modular nuclear power without replacing the site or renegotiating the commercial structure.Will Gruver, chairman and founder of USP&E. (BridgePower Nuclear) Will Gruver, chairperson and founder of USP&E, says the venture is designed around the practical realities facing African industry. “African mines, industrials and data centre operators do not have the luxury of waiting for perfect grid conditions. They need firm power now, but they also need a credible pathway to lower-carbon baseload power before regulation, customers and capital markets force that transition. BridgePower Nuclear is designed to do both.”The proposed technology platform is the Pearl reactor, developed by BAM Energy.Pearl is designed to address three barriers that have delayed many SMR programmes: dependence on enriched fuel, reliance on heavy forgings, and complex on-site construction. It is factory-built, road-transportable, and uses a closed Brayton-cycle air turbine with zero water consumption for the power conversion cycle, which is critical in Africa’s water-constrained mining and industrial regions.Dr Leon Malan, ThermoFluids and Numerics engineer at BridgePower Nuclear. (BridgePower Nuclear) The reactor builds on South Africa’s pebble-bed modular reactor heritage. “South Africa helped shape the original thinking around modular nuclear,” says Dr Leon Malan, ThermoFluids and Numerics engineer at BridgePower Nuclear. “BridgePower Nuclear is about bringing that engineering lineage back to the continent in a commercially practical model that starts with the power needs customers have today.”USP&E brings more than two decades of African frontier power delivery experience to the venture, having delivered more than 30 power stations across over 45 countries. BAM Energy contributes two decades of pebble-bed SMR development and the Pearl reactor platform.The venture targets sectors where the need for reliable power is immediate. According to the Africa Data Centres Association’s Data Centres in Africa 2026 report, power availability has overtaken connectivity as the principal constraint for Africa’s data centre sector.“These are large, energy-intensive operators whose output and revenue are directly tied to reliable electricity,” says Gruver.“What they need is a bankable power pathway that does not strand capital as the energy transition accelerates. This is not nuclear as a distant policy aspiration, it is a power infrastructure model built around what Africa’s industrial economy needs now.”Senior leaders from USP&E and BAM Energy will present BridgePower Nuclear publicly for the first time at the Africa Energy Forum 2026 in Cape Town from June 16 to 19.For more information, visit the BridgePower Nuclear website.This article was sponsored by USP&E.