States are struggling to meet their clean energy goals. Blame data centers

Nevada's largest utility, NV Energy, which powers 90% of the state, is facing unprecedented electricity demand primarily driven by proposed data centers. Shawn Elicegui, senior vice president of regulatory and resource planning for NV Energy, stated that the utility would need three times the electricity required for Las Vegas just to power these new facilities, a demand that may necessitate reliance on fossil fuels. This development threatens the state's clean energy target of 50% renewable power by 2030 and has sparked concern among environmentalists, including Olivia Tanager, director of the Sierra Club's Toiyabe chapter, who described it as "the single largest natural resource issue of our time." The challenge in Nevada mirrors a national trend where utilities and tech companies are grappling with the immense power demands of artificial intelligence and data centers. In North Carolina, a surge in data centers has led the state's largest utility to revise long-term plans, delaying coal plant retirements and proposing more natural gas plants. Nationally, NextEra Energy, a commercial electricity provider, dropped its zero-emissions goal due to the "demand for all forms of power generation." The article also notes that the data center industry accounted for half of all corporate clean energy procurement in 2024, as stated by Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition. However, the growth of renewable energy infrastructure is not keeping pace with demand. Local residents in Nevada are voicing their concerns to lawmakers, complaining about noise, potential impacts on water supply, and rising energy bills. Residents of Boulder City, for example, are opposing a proposed data center due to similar worries. Democratic Assemblymember Howard Watts of Las Vegas has called for mandatory requirements for data centers to fund their clean energy development costs, arguing it's "unacceptable" to jeopardize the state's renewable energy portfolio. While companies like Switch, operating a large data center south of the Las Vegas Strip, claim to run entirely on self-sourced renewable energy, many other utilities and tech companies are turning to gas-fired generation, such as the controversial xAI data center near Memphis using mobile gas turbines. The Public Utilities Commission in Nevada is expected to publish a report on the utility's progress towards clean energy goals by the end of the month, with the possibility of imposing fines if targets are not met.