Keep pulling the thread on United States.
Due to the demands of AI, U.S. electricity production will need to grow by 15% to 20% per year, a significant increase from its stagnant growth over the past two decades.
The Trump administration stopped the closure of 17 gigawatts of coal power plants this year that were previously slated for shutdown under the Biden administration.
The Biden administration's energy plan involved closing over 50 GW of coal plants and aimed to close another 100 GW over 5 years, while only planning to build 22 GW of firm generation, resulting in a net reduction of 88 GW.
While the U.S. and China had comparable electricity grid sizes in 2010, China's grid is now three times larger than that of the U.S.
Under a fast-track program established by presidential executive orders, 11 test reactors are being developed, with some expected to achieve criticality before July 4th.
The upcoming criticality of new test reactors will mark the first time in 40 years that a non-light water reactor has been turned on in the United States.
The first commercial deployments of new small modular reactors are expected in 2028 or 2029, with significant scaling to begin in the early 2030s.
The Department of Energy will deliver over 20 tons of HALEU fuel, sourced from downblended highly enriched uranium or plutonium, to bridge the gap until commercial enrichment capacity is online.
The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan is being restarted and is expected to provide nearly a gigawatt of power by late summer.
The Three Mile Island reactor, renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, is expected to be back online sometime next year.
During a cold snap in New England on January 27th, wind, solar, and batteries combined provided only 2% of electricity at peak demand, while oil was the number one source.
The projected electricity demand growth from data centers alone is about 1,000 terawatt-hours by the end of the decade, a 25% increase over the current U.S. consumption of 4,000 terawatt-hours per year.