The largest utility company in the United States: Natural gas is unable to meet the demand for electricity, renewable energy is the way out.

The largest utility company in the United States, and the largest developer of wind and solar power, NextEra Energy (NEE.US), believes that gas-fired power plants can only meet a small portion of the unprecedented growth in electricity demand expected until 2030. The company's CEO John Ketchum stated in an interview at the CERAWeek conference in Houston that, even in the best case scenario, by the end of 2030, only about 75 GW of gas-fired power could be built, accounting for 16% of the total demand of 460 GW. Ketchum predicts that the demand for American Electric Power Company, Inc. will grow by 55% in the next 20 years, which is 6 times faster than the 9% growth rate in the past 20 years. The costs of these gas-fired plants have also skyrocketed in the past 18 months. Ketchum stated that if the U.S. focuses only on gas, they will become even more expensive, forcing consumers and businesses to pay higher bills. He said instead, the U.S. will need to rely on renewable energy to provide the majority of its power supply, around 350 GW, with the rest coming from delaying the retirement of existing coal-fired power plants. Ketchum said, "The bottom line is this: we need renewables, we need gas, we need nuclear. All of that will come at different times and different costs, but we shouldn't just make a decision that forces us into one technology." Ketchum hopes that the U.S. will maintain the tax incentives for renewable energy projects from the Biden era. He said, "If you take renewable subsidies off the table, we are going to be a one-trick pony in this country. We have put all of our eggs in the gas-fired power basket." Data centers from tech giants like Alphabet(GOOGL.US), Microsoft Corporation(MSFT.US), Meta Platforms(META.US) and Amazon.com, Inc.(AMZN.US) are driving the growth in electricity demand, while power supply has become a critical bottleneck. Supply chain bottlenecks for turbines, grid equipment, and labor are worsening, potentially hindering efforts to produce enough new electricity. Earlier, U.S. Energy Corp. Secretary Chris Wright spoke at the same conference, promising to completely change Biden's energy policy and focus entirely on fossil fuels.