By Tom Still
MADISON, Wis. – It’s tempting to blame the rise of artificial intelligence and the need for data centers, which house and disseminate petabytes or even exabytes of data, for rising energy needs in the United States.
That might feel good, especially if you’re not an AI fan, but it avoids the reality that we’re all part of the energy challenge.
Bigger drivers are population growth and a generally expanding economy; electric vehicles; the continuing electrification of many industrial sectors; and the fact that consumers tend to buy all kinds of devices that come with a power cord.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently calculated the United States generated about 4,300 billion kilowatt-hours of electric power in 2024. It also predicted the nation will need between 1,000 billion to 1,200 billion more kilowatt hours in the next decade, an increase of roughly 25%. Electric vehicles and electrified technologies in buildings and industry will account for about 80% of the jump.
Data centers for the AI revolution are part of the surge, of course, but average people, small businesses and other institutions can’t pin it on data centers alone.
How to meet those future demands was a recurring topic in two recent forums designed to provide insights into how Wisconsin will get there.
The first was a May 19 tour of SHINE Technologies in Janesville, where two-dozen state legislators and staff got an up-close look at the future of nuclear fusion. That’s the same atomic reaction that powers the sun. It’s an emissions-free form of energy generation that works by melding lightweight atoms (deuterium and tritium) to produce sub-atomic particle neutrons, helium and energy.
While still years away from producing energy at commercial levels, fusion is already creating valuable medical isotopes as well as novel ways to inspect metals that can be subject to fatigue. It can also be used to break down “spent fuel” from conventional nuclear fission energy plants, which means an impediment to building next-generation fission plants may be removed.
“We have found ways to commercialize fusion today,” the bipartisan group of lawmakers were told by SHINE founder and chief executive officer Greg Piefer. That means the date by which fusion is a real energy source can be drawn closer.
The second event was a May 20 Wisconsin Technology Council forum in which possible generation sources were examined by a panel of people with expertise in renewables such as wind and solar, natural gas, coal, fission and fusion.
While there was general agreement that coal is on its way out due to high carbon emissions, Todd Stuart of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group noted the “huge strain” on the energy grid and suggested some planned retirements of coal-fired plants in the Midwest could be delayed.
“You’re shutting off all this coal all across the Midwest, the same time you’re adding all this load that is extraordinary,” Stuart said. “Some of these utilities that maybe shut down their coal plants decades early are perhaps regretting it in the short term.”
All agreed wind and solar will have a growing role – especially wind when coupled with battery storage. Melessa Johnson of Wisconsin’s Green Fire urged people to look beyond the direct costs of producing energy to the indirect costs of strategies that hurt the environment.
Kevin Nordt, executive vice president for Dairyland Power Cooperative, called the wind-battery combination a “monster resource” for the Midwest moving ahead. Based in La Crosse, Dairyland’s service area includes parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois.
Nordt said Dairyland is also exploring small modular fission reactors, which could be deployed in more flexible ways than traditional nuclear fission plants.
“We are very much monitoring and looking at promising SMR technologies,” said Nordt, who holds a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from UW-Madison and who returned to Wisconsin after decades of energy experience on the West Coast.
A bipartisan bill in the Legislature would direct the Public Service Commission to conduct a nuclear power siting study. That idea was supported by Nordt and panelist Robb Hughes of Realta Fusion, who agreed fusion can safely break down spent fuel from fission plants.
Energy use is growing and a blend of generation strategies will likely be needed to meet demand, with or without a fleet of data centers.
Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. tstill@wisconsintechnologycouncil.com.