With all the talk of incredible energy demand projections for the next few years, it’s easy to brush them off as hype. In fact, it’s hard to keep up. Every time we hear a new projection, it’s higher than the last. Just last week, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright said we’re going to need 100 GW of new firm generation capacity within five years due to growing demands from AI and data centers.

How much power is that? Roughly enough to run 72 million American homes. According to the Census Bureau, there are about 148 million homes in the United States. To put it simply, we’ll need to generate enough new electricity in the next five years to power half of all U.S. homes. That herculean task will require laying thousands of miles of new gas pipelines, building transmission lines and substations, and constructing new generation facilities across the country.

Read more in Utility Dive here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.