nuclear-news

Trump’s AI Push May Hinge on Renewable Energy

By Kyle Stock and Mark Chediak, December 5, 2025 , https://origin.www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-12-04/how-trump-s-renewables-roadblocks-can-stall-the-ai-boom

President Donald Trump is pro-AI and anti-renewables. But those two stances are increasingly contradictory: Data centers need quick power on the cheap, and that’s exactly what renewables offer.

Today’s newsletter takes you inside the mismatch and why opposing renewables might do more than hinder the US in the battle for AI supremacy.

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.

Wind and Solar Are Now Cheaper

Cost to build electricity generation in dollars per megawatt hour, based on recent projects and fuel costs

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.

“President Trump is expanding base load power from reliable energy sources like natural gas, coal, and nuclear to support growing electricity demand from AI and data centers,” said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson. “Intermittent and unreliable energy sources like offshore wind that were propped up by the Green New Scam simply cannot generate the sustained power needed to make the United States the global leader in cutting-edge technologies like AI and quantum computing.”

US New Electricity

New electrons from solar, storage and wind are expected to outnumber those of new natural gas plants almost six-fold in the next 10 years

But the cost to build solar and wind farms plummeted in the years before those incentives were scrapped. Meanwhile, building up enough gas and nuclear plants to power data centers may prove too slow and expensive. Gas turbines, critical equipment to turn natural gas into electricity, are in short supply, and even though Trump is moving to accelerate permitting of the next generation of small-modular nuclear reactors, the next wave of those aren’t expected to be built until the end of the decade at the earliest.

At this point, battery storage systems, solar arrays and wind farms are faster and cheaper to build per kilowatt of capacity than anything else, according to Lazard.

Another advantage to renewable-powered data centers is that those equipped to supply their own power during heatwaves and other emergencies can begin operations much more quickly than those reliant solely on traditional utility hookups, according to a new study by Princeton University’s ZERO Lab in conjunction with energy software firms Camus Energy and encoord.

Installing onsite natural gas turbines, solar panels or batteries means data centers can achieve a speedier connection to the grid because they will represent less of a demand stress when electricity is tight. In some cases, the wait time can be cut by as much as five years — a significant difference in an industry where grid hookups can stretch up to seven years.

Read the full stories on how renewables projects are quietly getting built

December 6, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

‘Solar for All’ should mean just that.

  October 12, 2025 by beyondnuclearinternational, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2025/10/12/solar-for-all-should-mean-just-that/

An EPA decision to cancel a solar grant to tribal nations is a hard hit, writes Cody Two Bears

The EPA’s decision to cancel its Solar for All grant to our coalition of tribal nations is more than a policy reversal—it’s a gut punch to communities that believed they were finally being seen.

Our coalition of 14 tribal governments spanning North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, and Wyoming came together around a once-in-a-generation opportunity: to deploy $100 million in solar infrastructure to more than 3,500 tribal homes, while training Native youth and veterans in a clean energy workforce that could serve their own communities.

That promise is now gone. And we are not alone.

This past month, dozens of other states, cities, and communities—red and blue alike learned that their own Solar for All awards contracts will be terminated. Across the country, tens of thousands of low-income households are being told that the solar systems they were promised won’t be installed. That the jobs and training they applied for may not materialize. That another chance to turn energy burden into energy security has slipped away.

In Indian Country, the pain is particularly deep. We’ve been here before. Our communities are used to being promised opportunities that never arrive. But that doesn’t make this one hurt any less.

Solar for All wasn’t just about installing solar. It was about building a future that Native communities have been fighting for—one where we control our own energy, reduce crushing utility bills, and create jobs that allow our youth to stay and serve their people. 

It was about growing Native-owned solar businesses, launching the first tribally led operations and maintenance teams in the Northern Plains, and helping each other stand up community-driven energy programs built to last.

Our coalition’s plan would have installed thousands of solar and battery systems and saved Native households over $300 million over the next 25 years. Those savings matter.

Many tribal households already pay double or even triple what the average U.S. household pays for energy. And just like the rest of the country, we’re bracing for steep increases in electricity rates in the years ahead. In communities where winter electric heating bills can exceed $600, solar isn’t just smart policy—it’s a matter of survival. We knew this wouldn’t be easy. But we showed up anyway. Tribal councils passed resolutions. Apprenticeship programs were designed. Community outreach had already begun. In some communities, program managers had been hired and work was underway.

Now, much of that momentum has been lost.

To say we’re disappointed is an understatement. But we’re not giving up. As tribal nations, we have always walked a harder path—but never without purpose. We remain grounded in our values: self-determination, stewardship, and the belief that our communities deserve to lead in this transition—not be left behind by it.

And we will lead. Solar for All gave us a platform to organize, build relationships, and design solutions tailored to our communities. We are keeping that vision alive—with or without this federal funding. But we won’t pretend this isn’t a major setback.

And we want to be clear: we are doing this anyway.

Because no matter what anyone says about solar, we have the laws of physics and economics on our side. The sun will keep shining. Panels will keep getting cheaper. And every kilowatt we produce locally is one less dollar sent off the reservation. The long-term math is in our favor—and we’re building for that future, even when the politics fall short.

Now is the time for philanthropic partners, private investors, and aligned institutions to step forward and help us carry this work forward. We have the plans, the partnerships, and the people. What we need is support—and the courage from others to believe in this vision, even when Washington doesn’t follow through.

Tribes don’t need handouts. We need the means to build what we’ve already envisioned.

Solar for All was supposed to be just that—for all. For red states and blue, for tribal communities and rural towns, for people who’ve too often been left behind in the energy transition. With its cancellation, a lot of doors just slammed shut.

But we’ll keep knocking. Because this is what leadership looks like in Indian Country: standing up, standing together, and staying the course—especially when the promises are broken.

Cody Two Bears is the Founder and CEO of Indigenized Energy and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. He is a nationally recognized leader in the movement for tribal energy sovereignty, combining Indigenous knowledge with Western science to bring renewable energy solutions to Native communities. In response to the 2016 #NoDAPL movement, Cody launched Indigenized Energy and led the development of North Dakota’s largest solar project on Standing Rock. A shorter version of this article was published as a letter to the editor in The Washington Post.

October 15, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA | Leave a comment