The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure is fundamentally reshaping energy demand in the United States. Data centers — once a niche segment of electricity consumption — are now emerging as one of the largest drivers of new power needs nationwide.

While the industry initially envisioned a future powered entirely by renewable energy, the reality of operating massive, 24/7 facilities has exposed significant technical and logistical challenges. To meet rising demand and ensure reliability, a new hybrid energy model is quickly taking shape — combining on-site generation with evolving grid resources.

Data centers and computing centers are now driving the largest growth in electricity demand in the United States.
Initially, there was hope that data centers could run primarily on renewable energy (solar, wind).
However, it’s not physically achievable today for data centers to rely only on renewables because:
- Solar and wind have low capacity factors (they only produce power about 30%-35% of the time).
- Data centers require constant, reliable power — 24/7, 365 days a year.
Therefore, the future energy model for data centers will be a hybrid:
- Self-generated power (like combined cycle gas-fired plants or small modular generation facilities).
- Plus some grid-supplied power (which is slowly becoming greener over time).

Quote-style summary:
“Data centers need constant power. You can’t just plug into solar and wind. It will have to be a mix — self-generation combined with greener grid power.”

“Behind-the-meter” setups — where a data center has its own generation plant and is not fully dependent on the public grid — were discussed as a solution.
He noted that building new transmission for traditional grid expansion is becoming too slow and expensive due to permitting delays.
Companies like Glar Company (example he gave) are vertically integrating: owning land, building gas plants, and running their own power for data centers.