The American Clean Power Association, American Petroleum Institute, Alliance to Save Energy, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce don’t always see eye-to-eye on energy issues, to put it mildly. But together, they’re sounding the alarm on the need to add capacity — especially from renewables — to the nation’s power grids.

The groups released a report last month showing that by 2040, the United States will need more than 900 additional gigawatts of renewables and batteries. That increase, by itself, would increase the nation’s generation capacity by about 75%.

It’s also 15 times higher than the amount of gas capacity the nation will need during that time, according to the study. The disparity reflects a basic reality that’s increasingly driving American energy generation: it’s increasingly faster and cheaper to develop renewables than gas plants.

The bold report, unveiled during the most recent energy industry CERAWeek conference, highlighted that U.S. electricity demand is set to jump 35-50% by 2035 for a variety of reasons:

• More data centers: AI, cloud computing, and massive data centers are eating up electricity. AI-related power demand alone is projected to quadruple by 2030.
• More domestic manufacturing: As U.S. production grows, the grid will have to expand and adapt.
• More electric vehicles and heating: More EVs mean more charging stations pulling from the grid, while electric heaters in homes will also increase power consumption.

The demand growth will be especially challenging over the next five years, given that while big users such as data centers and manufacturing facilities “typically take two to three years to construct, new power generation can take five years or more to come online.” Economic and supply chain issues are especially hindering development of gas plants, as this recent New York Times article explains: “power companies now have to wait up to five years to order new gas turbines as manufacturers struggle to keep up with global demand.”

This makes renewables even more important: advancements in wind, solar, and battery storage manufacturing mean these resources can be built much faster and more affordably than new gas plants. Wind farms, solar arrays, and new battery storage can be built in as little as 18 months. 

One of the biggest hurdles to getting more solar and wind online will be permitting and transmission challenges, the report says. It also says that energy efficiency savings — which help reduce electricity demand especially at peak times — “remain essential to maintain reliability.”

“Successfully navigating these challenges will unlock economic growth (e.g., generative AI) and efficient, lower carbon emission trajectories for the sector,” the report says. “Electricity supply shortfalls in the near term could translate into longer-term missed economic opportunities.”

It’s clear that rapid investment in clean energy, transmission and storage will help us avoid serious supply shortages. When such diverse groups come together to demand attention on the nation’s energy future, people need to listen.