scotty, america needs more power!

The United States has continued to see the growth of AI data centers and an increase in electric demand in the past years. Of course with rising demand, there must be an increase in production and generation to meet that demand. Yet, the US is not currently equipped or frankly ready to power the upcoming data centers. Transmission projects take much longer to build than to build data centers. Nevertheless, the data centers are not stopping anytime soon with projections showing that Northern Virginia could become “Data Center Alley” with an expected increase in power demand from 4 GW increasing to 15 GW in 2030! Georgia already can be seen to use most of their power for data centers, by tripling in load forecast in just one year.

Needless to say, the overall load from data centers alone are expected to become over 50% of the overall load in the next 10 years. American Electric Power has demonstrated how some of these utility companies will see drastic changes in the next 5 years by having a load increase of over 17,000 GW, almost 8 times the current load we are facing.

So how is the US currently handling this crisis?

• Cancelling funding for major upcoming transmission projects required?

  • One such example shows what could have covered 800 miles of farmland and powered over 3 million homes in the region.

• Cutting clean energy producing alternatives that help grid operators and energy production?

  • Wind and solar projects are being cancelled continuously through the US.

• Spreading false narratives about how solar and wind energy work, repeatedly?

  • Yes, more than once the concept of “batteries” has not been mentioned and doesn’t explain the full capabilities of renewable energy production methods.

Well now you may be asking yourself, what should we be doing?

• We need to produce more electricity, at a scale never seen before, in order to meet the rise in expected demands. The US is nowhere near where we need to be in order to accomplish these goals.

• Funding energy production methods of all types and implementing them nationwide. Over 5,000 transmission line miles a year are going to be required for the continuous growth we are seeing.

• Invest in the vast implementation of battery improvements and storage capacity projects. This will help maximize the benefits of with renewable methods and with grid management.

The most powerful nation on Earth will need more power and fast, unless is wants to become powerless.