AI Driving US Power Growth Forecast by 81%, NextEra Says (1)

The biggest US wind and solar farm developer expects the growth rate of the demand for electricity to soar to keep up with artificial intelligence, electrification, cloud capacity and chip factories.

“What you have today is electric demand that has been relatively flat for years now all of the sudden looking at an 81% increase” in the growth rate forecast over the next five years, John Ketchum, chief executive officer of renewables giant NextEra Energy Inc., said Monday at CERAWeek by S&P Global conference Monday.

About a year ago, the US Energy Information Administration estimated the annual growth ...