As gas plants power AI data centers, renewable energy advocates fight for alternative power sources.
As artificial intelligence's explosive energy demands drive a fossil fuel renaissance, renewable energy advocates are fighting to ensure massive data centers rely on climate-friendly power sources instead.
The challenge is stark: tech giants are demanding electricity at such unprecedented speed and scale—some data centers consume more energy than mid-size cities—that wind and solar construction cannot keep pace. This mismatch has triggered the largest construction boom in natural gas power plants on record, while utilities, power plant owners, and the federal government work to extend the operational lives of aging coal plants beyond their scheduled retirements.
Lawmakers in states with aggressive climate policies worry data centers will derail their emissions-reduction goals. "We are literally talking about the wealthiest companies in the world that are looking to build in New York state," State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, a Democrat, told The Associated Press. "If they have the resources to put billions of dollars into data center development, then they certainly should have the resources to build out renewable energy sources to power them." Gonzalez authored legislation on Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk requiring large data centers to meet renewable energy benchmarks by 2030 and source at least 90 percent of their power from renewables by 2040.
Michigan, Oregon, and Minnesota have led the way, enacting laws within the last 18 months to protect their existing requirements that electric utilities rely exclusively on emissions-free energy by 2040. "That's a challenging thing to meet with the data centers," said Bob Jenks, executive director of the Oregon Citizens' Utility Board, a nonprofit advocating for lower utility bills and cleaner energy. Minnesota and Oregon ordered regulators to align data center power supply with emissions-reduction targets, while Michigan required hyperscale data centers to meet a 90-percent clean energy requirement within six years to access lucrative sales tax exemptions. Similar bills have emerged in California, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Tech giants like Google are investing billions in zero-emissions projects—solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, and battery storage—alongside gas projects. However, these companies frequently encounter utilities unable to supply power at the required scale and speed. They've allied with environmental groups, energy entrepreneurs, and business associations to persuade regulators to expand grid access, even in states resistant to clean energy mandates.
"Then business said, 'Hey, we're doing more things now, the postal service is not keeping up, so maybe there's an opportunity for a new service,'" said Greg Robinson, whose Raleigh, North Carolina-based Aston Power helps procure energy for data centers and other large users, likening the dynamic to FedEx's rise.
Clean energy advocates are also framing expanded grid access as economically rational for utilities, which profit from building infrastructure. Utilities can connect power sources without charging customers and gain stable, long-term contracts with large energy users who pay to expand the grid—an alternative to losing customers who build standalone power sources.
Colorado regulators last year ordered Xcel Energy, the state's largest electric utility, to create a program enabling large power users to build clean energy projects connected to the grid. In an April filing, Xcel cited two Google projects approved through similar programs: 115 megawatts of geothermal energy in Nevada and 1,900 megawatts of wind, solar, and battery storage in Minnesota. Google's agreement with Nevada's largest for-profit utility, NV Energy, won approval last year and is widely considered the first of its kind. Google reports similar concepts are now approved or under consideration in eight additional states, including Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, and South Carolina.
The Corporate Energy Buyers Association, whose members include tech giants and major corporations, negotiated an agreement with Georgia Power, approved by state regulators this year, allowing members to build clean energy sources and connect them to the grid. They are now pursuing similar arrangements in North Carolina.
"These innovations are actually some of the most incredible and understated innovations we're going to see in regulatory and energy procurement," said Nidhi Thaker, CEBA's senior vice president of policy. "And I think the actions that are being taken right now are actually going to set energy policy for the next two to three decades."