President Trump’s expansive economic plans could fuel the first meaningful growth in electricity demand this century. Forecasts show that the United States will need 128 gigawatts of additional capacity by 2029 to meet high summer peak consumption, with data centers accounting for as much as 90 gigawatts of this electricity demand by 2030.
Meeting this power demand without penalizing American households — and making electricity bills a kitchen-table issue in the 2026 and 2028 election cycles — requires abundant, stable power generation. That means speed, agility and pragmatism built into an all-of-the-above electricity generation strategy.
The reality is that few forms of power generation can deliver abundant additional capacity in the next four years. New gas-fired generation capacity could take half a decade to come online — and cost twice what it did five years ago, thanks to a shortage of turbines. New, large-scale nuclear power plants are over a decade away. Small modular reactors may be quicker to deploy but are not expected to operate commercially at a gigawatt scale before 2035.
These deployment times do little to address the immediate and urgent need for power generation capacity. Low-cost, reliable, utility-scale solar can help, even as the country prepares to scale up long-term plans for baseload generation.
In 2024, the U.S. installed an estimated 32 gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity, equivalent to installing 32 conventional nuclear reactors in 12 months. Solar is extremely agile and highly decentralized, allowing it to be co-located at scale to power drivers of economic growth, such as data centers, without being constrained by transmission capacity.
Even the country’s largest and most experienced power generation operators, such as NextEra, advocate pragmatism. They argue that renewable generation, such as solar and battery storage, is part of the solution and can now be deployed to keep up with demand.
A commonsense electricity generation strategy gets the government out of the way. It recognizes the strengths and shortcomings of the full range of generation technologies at our disposal — and their ability to compete and complement each other’s deployment capabilities. The pragmatic view is that solar can bridge today’s shortfall in electricity generation with an era of “all-of-the-above” abundance in the next decade. It’s not the only solution, but it’s cost-competitive and ready to deploy.
No expansion of generation capacity should deepen our nation’s dependence on an adversary such as China — whose subsidy-fueled solar industry has virtually monopolized global solar power generation supply chains. The technology for new power-generating capacity must be manufactured in the United States, creating jobs for Americans, securing strategic supply chains at home, and safeguarding our nation’s security.
Fortunately, American solar manufacturing is thriving. Today, companies produce solar technology manufactured with American-made materials. Later this year, Louisiana will become home to one of the most extensive solar manufacturing facilities in the Western Hemisphere.
Together, these factories will produce 14 gigawatts of American-made solar panels annually — sufficient to power 50 large data centers — supporting 30,000 jobs and $2.8 billion in payroll income. They ensure that the power generation capacity needed is not dependent on Chinese supply chains but creates and supports American jobs and prosperity.
The reality is that solar power delivers when and where it’s needed. It is deflationary, fiscally responsible, competitive in a free market, enables deregulation and decentralization, and enhances our nation’s security. It can also be an enduring, middle-class job-generating machine.
Solar is one of the cheapest and quickest forms of new generating capacity. A commonsense electricity generation strategy will embrace the speed, agility and pragmatism of solar generation powered by American-made technology.
