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Main article: US economy
Generation sources
2023: Gas is the largest source of power generation
The boom in data centers for AI has led to a revival of gas power in the United States. New gas-fired power plants continue to emerge, belying expectations that their booming growth is near its end.
The largest power plants
Nuclear Power Industry
Main article: US Nuclear Power Plants
Solar Power
Main article: Solar power in the United States
History
2025: Gas is the most common source of electricity in the U.S.
Traditional fossil fuels, including natural gas, oil and coal, continue to be actively used around the world. This is evidenced by Dewesoft data, which TAdviser got acquainted with in early October 2025. Read more here
2024
Electricity consumption by data centers doubled - up to 9% of the total in the United States
Data centers in the United States have reached record levels of energy consumption. This became known in August 2025. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers now account for 9% of the total electricity produced in the country. Earlier, TAdviser reported that in 2023 this figure was about 4% - thus, in two years, energy consumption by data centers more than doubled.
The rapid growth is associated with a boom in artificial intelligence technologies and an increase in the number of large data centers. The US remains the world leader in data center installed capacity at 53.7 GW in 2025. According to experts, by 2028 the share of energy consumption of data centers can reach 12%.
At the regional level, the differences are especially noticeable. In Virginia, where the largest number of data centers are concentrated, they already use 26% of all electricity. For comparison: in the UK, this figure is 5.1%, in the EU - 4.8%, in China - 2.3%.
New projects in the field of artificial intelligence are creating a special burden on the energy system. The company's 364-hectare Meta * data center in Wyoming, scheduled to open in 2028, will use more electricity than all of the state's residential buildings combined. According to Rocky Mountain Power, a similar situation is observed in other regions.
The problem of energy consumption is exacerbated by high resource costs. One request to ChatGPT requires about 2.9 Vt·ch versus 0.3 Vt·ch in a regular search. Large data centers consume up to 2 thousand cubic meters of water daily. Some states are forecasting a 40-50% increase in electricity demand by 2035.
Utility companies are already forced to revise their strategies. Pacific Gas & Electric has abandoned plans to close three coal-fired power plants, and operators in Texas have warned of possible power supply disruptions.[1]
In the United States, they changed their minds about closing coal plants due to AI. Data centers lack electricity
In mid-June 2024, it became known that the US government was abandoning plans to close coal-fired power plants due to AI, as data centers lack electricity to maintain energy-intensive artificial intelligence models.
According to The Financial Times, large coal producers, including AlliantEnergy, have already shifted their plans to close coal mines for at least several years. Electric utility FirstEnergy has also completely abandoned plans to reduce the use of non-renewable energy sources for 2030 due to increased demand.
AI is an incredibly energy-consuming resource - one request ChatGPT uses about ten times more electricity than a standard search. Google Consulting Grid Strategies, a firm, forecast a 4.7% nationwide increase in electricity demand over the next five years, with those projected figures double the previous year's figures. Although these figures also mining cryptocurrencies take cloud computing into account, AI is considered the main consumer of electricity, which will affect the growth of demand in this segment.
In 2022, coal was the source of 36% of all global energy, according to the World Resources Institute. To stop global warming, the world needs to reduce this figure to 4% by 2030, but, apparently, the United States is ready to neglect these goals in the race for primacy in the international AI sphere. Shifting targets to renewable energy was a meaningful victory for the coal industry and a major blow to global climate initiatives that see reducing coal use as an important and urgent goal to protect the planet.[2]
2023
Electricity consumption by data centers in the United States soared 80% to 130 TVt·ch.
In the United States, from 2018 to 2023, electricity consumption by data centers (data centers) rose by almost 80% - from 73 to 130 TVt·ch. For the foreseeable future, the indicator will continue to grow, as evidenced by data from Rystad Energy, which TAdviser got acquainted with in mid-September 2024.
The last time the United States experienced a sharp increase in electricity demand until the early 2000s due to economic development, an increase in population and the active use of new electrical appliances such as air conditioners, computers and lighting equipment. Then an increase in demand for electricity was recorded up to 30%. However, this was followed by a decline in consumption growth, primarily due to innovation and the introduction of measures to improve energy efficiency, as well as due to economic obstacles and a decline in domestic production.
Since 2018, the growth in electricity demand from American data centers has been steadily growing. This is due to the active development of cloud services and the rapid introduction of artificial intelligence technologies, including generative ones. The resources of the world's largest hyperscalers are concentrated primarily in the United States, where the leading players in the cloud market are represented - Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
The Electric Energy Research Institute (EPRI) predicts that data centers in the U.S. will consume up to 9% of all electricity generated in the country by 2030, up from 4% of the total load in 2023. Florida-based NextEra Energy, a major player in the renewable energy industry, said it had data centers in its pipeline of projects that would consume more than 3 GW, comparable to providing electricity to all homes in the state of Minnesota.[3]
Energy Price Reduction for Industrial Plants
2022: Surge in power and gas outages among consumers for non-payment due to rising prices
[1] Blackouts and natural gas soared in the U.S. in 2022 as the cost of electricity in homes skyrocketed and consumers struggled to pay their bills, a new study suggests.
In 2022, households cut off electricity more than 1.5 million times for non-payment of bills, which is 29% more than in the same period in 2021, and the number of gas outages increased by 76%.
The growth comes as American consumers already facing high inflation will pay an average of 14% more for electricity and 19% more for natural gas in 2023.
2021: Half of the power grid is over 20 years old and requires modernization
Infrastructure in developed countries is wearing out: in 2021, 54% of developed countries have an energy network over 20 years old (in Japan, this figure is already over 60%). In the US, half of the grid is over 20 years old, and in the EU 30% of power lines are over 40 years old (and this number could grow to 90% by 2050).
These countries need colossal amounts of hundreds of billions annually to modernize existing energy infrastructure and even need to increase capacity as part of a "green energy transition."
For example, $6 trillion - so much is needed to modernize infrastructure in the United States until 2029, but only $3 trillion has been financed.
Such an agenda creates an additional extremely inflationary factor, making construction companies the main beneficiaries in this megatrend.
2020: High per capita energy consumption
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Notes
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