Artificial intelligence data center developers are taking advantage of Trump administration inducements to go “behind-the-meter” and build their own power plants, or co-locate adjacent to existing commercial electricity generators to cut transmission costs, short-circuit lengthy permitting requirements, and get projects online faster.
During an Oct. 21 Rose Garden Luncheon with Senate Republicans at the White House, President Donald Trump praised “first-mover” developers for advancing self-powered projects that will be key to the nation’s drive to maintain cutting-edge supremacy in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and fission-fusion energy commercialization.
“We have an old grid. It’s a tired grid. It doesn’t have the juice that you need to fire-up these plants,” Trump said, noting that China “is building, right now, 52 power stations” and expanding its grid faster than the United States….