Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin discusses how the EPA is rolling back the previous administration’s regulations to support the rise of AI on “The Bottom Line.”
America’s ability to compete in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race may depend less on computing power and more on the energy required to maintain it.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), electricity demand from data centers could account for as much as half of all new energy consumption in the US between now and 2030.
Natural gas is expected to meet 60% of energy demand growth, driven by AI and data centers, Goldman Sachs reported in April.
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Nathan Lord, president of nonprofit Shale Crescent USA. (Shale Crescent USA)
“Natural gas is the only fuel type that can be deployed quickly enough, scale large enough, and still remain affordable to even become a viable option for data centers,” Lord said.
For years, data centers were typically built near fiber optic hubs, but Lord believes that needs to change.
“We’ve spent the last decade building where the fiber is and not where the power is, and that introduces a lot of problems,” he said. “… What we are communicating to energy-intensive data centers is that the safest and most reliable place for them to be is on top of the natural gas supply, not building them 500 miles away or in parts of the US where there is no energy.”
Roughly 80% of U.S. natural gas supplies come from the Texas Gulf Coast and the Shale Crescent region — which also includes Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania — where Shale Crescent USA works to support high-wage manufacturing, according to Lord.
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FILE PHOTO: A natural gas well is pictured in rural Pennsylvania. (iStock)
“The Shale Crescent region is uniquely equipped to be a solution to the increasing demand for data centers,” he said.
Chevron is among the companies positioning themselves for this shift.
The company announced earlier this year that it would partner with Engine No. 1 and Chevron USA Inc. to establish a new company focused on developing natural gas-powered energy solutions for data centers.
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FILE PHOTO: Pictured here is a data center. (iStock / iStock)
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Meanwhile, China has dramatically expanded its energy production. The country now produces 2.5 times more energy than the US, despite surpassing America only 15 years ago, Lord said.
“America cannot defeat China if it outpaces China, so the US must prioritize developing reliable power,” he said.
