John R. Mills & Dave Walsh
There is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bonanza taking place in America. To grow and thrive, AI needs data. Data centers need to be constructed to marshal this resource. Northern Virginia, for example, is becoming a parking lot for data centers. In turn, data centers need energy. The AI and data center explosion is on top of ongoing power needs required by heavy industry targeted for a reshoring resurgence. As onshoring and re-industrialization take off with the Trump administration, energy demands will only increase. These sectors require constant duty energy. Cloudy days or lack of winds egregiously undermine the perceived value of “green energy.”
The Green Energy slogan may be well intended, but it miserably fails the math test of reality. Solar and wind, unless an unforeseen innovation occurs, deliver under 15 percent of the nation's growing energy requirements. With an incoming administration that intends to unleash American Energy, sanity and adult leadership freed from the religion of green energy can be applied to the urgent problem of satisfying America's energy demand spike.
After many years of neglect from environmentalists, nuclear energy is suddenly in vogue due to the advent of small modular reactors (SMRs). There is a potentially great opportunity with SMRs. However, the simple issue upfront is that SMRs won’t be operational for another ten to fifteen years, and that is being generous. There is only one logical answer to bridging this growing energy demand canyon—gas turbines or re-opening (and ceasing to shut down) coal and large, legacy nuclear plants. Announced plans, despite the present power shortage, call for the closure of another eighty GW of more baseload U.S. coal capacity by 2028.
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