⚡ 1.35 FPLs NEEDED TO FUEL AI

My friendly neighborhood utility, Florida Power & Light (FPL), is America’s number one utility with a capacity of 35 Gigawatts. It’s huge.

In the next six years, Goldman Sachs predicts data centers powering AI will create energy needs of 47 Gigawatts. In other words, 1.35 times FPL.

This is an opportunity for the mother company of FPL, NextEra Energy, which is also America’s largest renewables company.

There will be hard choices. AI companies prefer renewable sources, but it is not obvious that wind and solar, which have driven renewables to date, are the full solution. Natural gas will fill the gap in the medium term, while nuclear is expected to have a comeback over time.

Goldman Sachs’ report highlights the massive spending by tech giants and other companies on AI infrastructure, projecting over $1 trillion in capital expenditures. This includes significant investments in data centers, chips, and power grids necessary to support AI growth. Despite skepticism from some experts about the immediate economic returns of such investments, there is optimism about AI’s long-term potential to drive productivity and economic growth.

Brian Janous, co-founder of Cloverleaf Infrastructure and former VP of Energy at Microsoft, underscores the challenge ahead for U.S. utilities. The U.S. power grid…