How are emerging technologies such as AI, quantum or accelerated computing changing the demand for energy infrastructure? And how can modular solar systems help meet those demands?
Emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing are creating concentrated, high-intensity energy demands that overwhelm our aging electrical grids. Traditional grid upgrades are expensive, slow and inefficient due to transmission losses over long distances.
To maintain America’s leadership in intelligence and innovation, we must build energy abundance. This means bringing generation closer to loads and co-locating power directly with data centers and compute hubs. This approach reduces grid stress, eliminates transmission losses, and ensures high-quality power where it is needed most.
Modular, dispatchable energy systems deploy rapidly and at scale as data centers expand, providing clean, reliable, long-term power that forms the basis of next-generation AI infrastructure. This model not only meets the energy demands of the AI age, it also creates a flexible, self-reinforcing energy backbone that promotes economic growth, strengthens American competitiveness, and accelerates the transition to sustainable energy abundance. By localizing clean generation, we minimize community disruption, avoid land-use conflicts and delays that often slow traditional grid expansion.
in your Recent TradeTalk InterviewYou highlighted how microgrids will be operationalized, reducing pressure on the existing energy grid. Can you elaborate on why decentralized distributed energy resources are important for the future energy infrastructure?
Microgrids and other distributed energy resources are essential because they transform our centralized, one-sided grid into an adaptive, flexible system. By co-localizing production with compute facilities and deploying microgrids, we deliver energy directly to where it is consumed. This reduces reliance on long transmission lines, reducing costs and creating redundancy that prevents outages and disruptions.
It also creates a platform for energy innovation, where technologies like long-term storage, AI-driven optimization and flexible generation can be deployed faster and more efficiently than traditional utility models.
Strategic placement of data centers near abundant, affordable renewable energy sources enables power growth that keeps pace with rapidly growing AI-driven demand.
You also stressed the importance of policy being tailored to current and future energy needs. What energy policies or regulations are needed to ensure that the US remains competitive?
US policy is lagging behind the energy demands of the AI age. The Trump administration is actively pursuing efforts to strengthen US leadership in AI and energy through executive orders promoting the rapid deployment of data centers and energy projects on federal lands. Grid interconnection approval takes three to five years, while outdated siting practices create barriers that slow the development of both energy and compute infrastructure. To maintain global competitiveness, the US needs policies that:
- Encouraging co-location of power and computing facilities in areas with abundant renewable energy and minimal transmission constraints.
- Streamline interconnection processes to eliminate multi-year delays and reduce regulatory uncertainty.
- Accelerate the deployment of dispatchable renewable technologies for reliable, 24/7 clean power.
- Mandates coordinated planning between energy, transmission and compute infrastructure development.
These improvements can reduce energy costs, cut deployment timelines, and secure the reliable clean energy needed for AI leadership. Without them, the US risks falling behind competitors who are integrating energy and planning infrastructure.
