The AI-fueled boom in power demand is a hot topic at Climate Week, and the mood of the conversation is shifting. Earlier this year, when the scale of energy that will be needed for data centers started to become clear — forecast to reach up to 9% of US power consumption by 2030, double the current rate — the climate community was gripped by a sense of panic that the AI scramble would turn into an emissions nightmare. That anxiety is changing to excitement as more energy executives like Hardy say that Big Tech could be a powerful and sorely needed ally in the financing of clean power.
“We got this,” Arshad Mansoor, CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute, a research organization supported by the utility industry, told me. “Having the tech and energy industries come together will actually accelerate the clean energy transition in the long run, because they’re sharing the financial risk and sharing a need they both…
