New Era Energy (NEE.US), the largest developer of wind and solar farms in the United States, expects the growth rate of electricity demand to soar to keep up with advances in artificial intelligence, electrification, cloud computing capabilities and chip factories.

etop306 John Ketchum, CEO of renewable energy giant New Era Energy, said at the S&P Global Energy Week conference on Monday that the annual growth rate of electricity demand in the United States will accelerate from less than 1 percent today to about 1.8 percent under the influence of artificial intelligence technology. “Now electricity demand has been relatively flat for many years, but all of a sudden the growth is expected to increase by 81 percent over the next five years.”

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About a year ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated in its long-term annual outlook that electricity demand was growing at less than 1 percent a year. That will accelerate to about 1.8%, New Era estimates.

As AI continues to advance, electricity demand is rising sharply, potentially putting further strain on the U.S. power grid. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also recently predicted that in order to meet the demand for artificial intelligence and electric vehicles, there could be power shortages in the next few years.

etop306 The sharp rise in growth rates could put further strain on power grids already strained by extreme temperatures and the effects of climate change.

According to Ketchum, renewable power generation is expected to triple or more to 37 to 45 gigawatts. To meet this demand, New Era Energy has developed a system to locate new data centers based on solar and wind resources and access transmission lines.