The Trump administration is moving to fast-track the construction of power-hungry data centers as a matter of national security. At the same time, it’s adding roadblocks for new solar and wind farms.
But the two policies could be at odds: Hindering renewable energy projects risks slowing the AI boom — and could exacerbate rising electricity prices, a slew of data suggests.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment right now to get the power to supply this,” said Robert Whaley, director of North American power at Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy. “In the next 10 years, there’s really nothing to replace renewables.”
The AI explosion — and its energy demands — is happening much faster than the pace at which utilities typically plan and build large power plants. In response, tech giants like Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have taken extreme measures to keep up, cobbling together data centers in tents and signing contracts for their own power plants.
Renewable energy so far remains the fastest and cheapest option to add power to the grid. Nearly 80% of the planned power plant capacity in the pipeline is tied to renewable sources, according to filings with federal regulators and grid operators compiled by Cleanview.co, an energy data company.
The number of applications for natural gas and nuclear facilities, the options President Donald Trump is embracing to power the AI surge, is much smaller, making up about 14% of planned capacity.
The dynamic creates a potential political challenge for Trump, whose goal of using the AI boom as an engine for the American economy risks blowback at the ballot box if voters blame the data centers he’s championed for higher power bills.
AI’s voracious need for electricity is likely to keep renewables growing, but every thwarted green energy project means fewer electrons added to the grid to ease the supply crunch, analysts say.
That’s not to say natural gas, the most viable and cheapest of the president’s preferred energy sources, won’t play a role in powering AI: Unlike solar and wind, which are intermittent, gas can provide the large, around-the-clock power supply data centers require. Meta, for example, is relying on the fuel to power its hulking four million-square-foot data center complex in northeastern Louisiana.
–
Officials could trip up other projects as well, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group. It estimates that new solar and energy storage projects, which make up more than halfof new power plant proposals, haven’t been fully permitted and are at risk.
Still, applications are a measure of intent and the feasibility of various options. Despite the rhetoric from the White House, a lot of renewable projects are likely to get the green light because AI developers are moving so quickly, Thomas said. Indeed, delays for new solar plants are in decline, according to federal data.
“There’s a lot of theater around this — what the Trump administration says and then what it does,” he added. “Things are still getting permitted and built. And people are just trying to fly under the radar.”
–
“MAGA has to be MAGA; they have to keep the base fired up,” Whaley said. “But privately, I think there will be concessions, because they don’t want to lose the AI race to China.”