Photoelectric modules at a solar farm in Hanstholm, Denmark. The solar panels are part of the renewable energy sources that power Apple’s European data center in Viborg.
Christoph Dernbach | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
The surging power needs of artificial intelligence and data centers will be met primarily with renewable energy — not fossil fuels, according to the CEO of a leading solar company.
The natural gas industry believes it is best positioned to fulfill the surging power demand from data centers, arguing that renewables aren’t reliable enough to power these energy-hungry projects alone.
But Dan Shugar, the CEO of Nextracker, said the low cost and rapid deployment of solar as well as the ambitious climate goals of Big Tech will make renewable energy the preferred power choice for data centers.
Nextracker builds systems that allow solar panels to track the position of the sun, increasing the efficiency of renewable power plants. The company has beat Wall Street expectations for four straight quarters. Nextracker has a backlog of more than $4 billion and has shipped 100 gigawatts to date, twice the peak power load of California.
Nextracker shares are up 19% year to date and 37% over the past two months. About 80% of Wall Street analysts who cover the company rate its stock as buy or overweight, according to FactSet.
Nextracker shares year to date
Shugar pointed to the more than 1,500 gigawatts of power generating projects requesting connection to the electric grid. Solar represents 70% of those projects, or 1,028 gigawatts, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a Department of Energy sponsored lab.
When including wind power, there are about 1,400 gigawatts of renewables seeking connection, which is more than the entire installed capacity of the U.S. electric grid. Gas projects, on the other hand, make up 79 gigawatts, or 5%, of the power in line for connection.
“There’ll be some gas, but we believe based especially on the data published by the DOE, the predominant energy source for these data centers is going to be renewable energy,” Shugar told CNBC in an interview Thursday.
“Our industry is just way ahead, no matter how you slice it,” the CEO said.
Big Tech wants clean energy
Goldman Sachs estimates that electricity demand from data centers will more than double to 8% of total U.S. power consumption by 2030.
Whereas older data centers may have been 100 to 200 megawatts in size, some of the “monster data centers” today may be as big as 1,000 megawatts, Shugar said. That is equivalent to the power produced by the average nuclear plant.
Goldman sees natural gas supplying 60% of the power demand growth from data centers and renewables supplying 40%, according to an April report from the investment bank.
Goldman estimated that carbon emissions from data centers could more than double by 2030 to about 220 million tons, or 0.6% of global energy emissions, assuming gas provides most of the power. Shugar pointed to the tech companies’ climate goals as catalyst for renewables demand.
“The clients that are developing these data centers, they have very serious sustainability goals and they don’t want their power coming from fossil,” Shugar said. “Basically renewable is lower cost than gas.”
Microsoft, for example, recently signed a massive renewable energy deal with Brookfield Asset Management. The companies described the agreement as the largest renewable energy deal signed between two corporate partners to date.
The backlog problem
Analysts, however, have pointed to the massive backlog of renewables in the connection queue as a challenge for the industry, which could result in increased utilization of existing gas assets for the time being to help power data centers and other projects.
“If you want to build a new renewable or any new project which connects to the grid, it will take at least two to three years to get all the interconnection approvals,” said Maheep Mandloi, director of clean energy research at Mizuho Securities.
Shugar said the backlog can be a problem for some projects, but once the interconnection process is done construction proceeds quickly. Fossil fuel plants have a longer development cycle than renewables, are harder to permit, and face the issue of variable fuel costs, he said.
“The point is there’s a massive, massive portfolio of projects all across the United States that’s already applied, put down interconnection deposits, has engineering studies advanced with utilities,” he said.
The CEO also pushed back against the argument that variable weather conditions, or intermittency, presents a problem for renewables. “I don’t buy it,” he said.
Most utility-scale solar projects Nextracker is involved with have battery storage associated with them, Shugar said. Batteries store energy for deployment when the sun is fading or wind conditions aren’t as strong.
Battery storage in the U.S. is expected to nearly double this year by 14.3 gigawatts, according to the Energy Information Administration. There are 1,000 gigawatts of storage waiting for connection right now. All told, there is a total of 2,480 gigawatts of solar, wind and storage line to be connected, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This is almost double the current capacity of the U.S. electric grid.
“The short story is we see data centers becoming an increasingly significant demand driver for renewables both from aggregate demand standpoint as well as an environmentally preferred source of energy,” Shugar said.
The Tesla Cybertruck is in crisis. The automaker is still sitting on a ton of old inventory, which it is now heavily discounting, and it is throttling down production to try to avoid building up the inventory again.
When launching the production version of the Cybertruck in late 2023, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that the vehicle program would reach 250,000 units a year in 2025:
“I think we’ll end up with roughly a quarter million Cybertrucks a year, but I don’t think we’re going to reach that output rate next year. I think we’ll probably reach it sometime in 2025.”
We are now in 2025, and Tesla is expected to currently be selling the Cybertruck at a rate of about 25,000 units a year – a tenth of what Musk predicted.
Earlier this month, we reported that Tesla began the second quarter with 2,400 Cybertrucks in inventory, valued at over $200 million.
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This is a real problem for Tesla as many of those Cybertrucks are older 2024 model year units not eligible for the federal tax credit, and even some ‘Foundation Series’, which Tesla stopped building in October 2024 – meaning that Tesla is sitting on some 6-month-old trucks in some cases.
Tesla is now offering deeper discounts on the new inventory of Cybertrucks. The discounts can go as high as $10,000, but the average one is closer to $8,000, which is more than the tax credit:
Despite Tesla’s efforts, the automaker has only reduced its Cybertruck inventory by about 100 units since the beginning of the month.
Tesla is now further throttling down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas, according to a new report from Business Insider.
According to two Tesla workers speaking with BI, the automaker has reduced its Cybertruck production teams and now operates at a fraction of its original capacity. It also moved some Cybertruck production workers to Model Y production at the plant.
One of the workers said:
“It feels a lot like they’re filtering people out. The parking lot keeps getting emptier.”
When it comes to the Cybertruck program, it sounds like Tesla is lowering production even further.
Last week, Tesla launched a new version of the Cybertruck in an attempt to boost demand, but it has been poorly received due to the automaker’s removal of many essential features.
Electrek’s Take
There are a lot of other automakers that would have already given up on the Cybertruck ith these results, but not Tesla. Musk is not one to admit defeat easily.
However, Tesla is running out of options.
The new Cybertruck RWD was a desperate attempt, and I doubt it will work. Now, it sounds like Tesla is further throttling down production – virtually confirming that the new trim didn’t help.
The next step would be a complete production pause.
Again, I don’t think Musk wants to admit defeat, but at some point, it’s inevitable.
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LiveWire, the electric motorcycle brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, has officially launched a new line of electric motorcycles tailored for law enforcement and security use. The move marks another example of electric two-wheelers expanding beyond consumer markets and into professional and government fleets.
The company’s new LiveWire fleet program debuted with its electric motorcycle models adapted to include law enforcement-specific features like sirens, emergency lighting, and reinforced mounting points for gear. They are designed for urban patrol duties, security, and events where agility and low operational noise are critical.
As LiveWire explains, the electric drivetrain offers several advantages over traditional gas-powered police motorcycles, including lower maintenance needs, reduced operational costs, and near-silent operation. Those can be strategic advantages for many law enforcement departments. Instant torque and quick acceleration also give officers a performance edge in dense urban environments.
Additionally, the lack of a clutch and the ability to operate the motorcycle entirely with just the right hand and right foot, as opposed to a traditional motorcycle requiring the use of both hands and both feet, make the bikes ideal for reducing rider fatigue during long shifts and for low-speed operation like motorcade duty.
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Departments will be able to configure bikes with a range of custom options through LiveWire’s fleet division. The fleet program highlights benefits such as regenerative braking for improved efficiency, customizable ride modes, and short recharging times allowing officers to quickly recharge during shifts if needed.
The initiative comes at a time when interest in electric police vehicles is rising. Several major cities have already begun integrating electric vehicles including e-bikes into their fleets to reduce emissions and lower fuel costs. LiveWire’s dedicated police motorcycles could help fill a niche where traditional gas-powered motorcycles are too noisy, high-maintenance, or costly for modern policing needs. That’s exaclty what we’ve seen in the past when the original Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle was already drafted into police department use years ago.
For now, LiveWire’s police models are targeting agencies across North America, but given the growing global demand for greener fleets, it’s likely we’ll see broader adoption if the program proves successful.
Electric motorcycles have also proven popular among police departments and security forces both in the US and around the world.
As electric vehicle technology continues to improve and charging infrastructure expands, it’s all but inevitable that more police and security fleets will gradually transition to electric models.
The combination of lower operating costs, easier maintenance, and environmental benefits makes electrification an increasingly practical and attractive option for public safety agencies.
Current battery technology, which generally provides around 100 miles (160 km) of range, positions these electric motorcycles ideally for urban law enforcement roles. This urban setting is precisely where their strengths become most apparent. Quiet operation, zero emissions, and significantly reduced maintenance costs make electric police motorcycles particularly beneficial for high-mileage city fleets.
Imagine landing at JFK or LaGuardia after a fun but taxing vacation, and instead of hailing a two-hour cab ride or asking your brother-in-law to come and get you, you take to the skies in an eVTOL. You’re back on the ground in 15 minutes for a short trip back home to bed. What a time to be alive. eVTOL developer Archer Aviation is making this dream a reality alongside its business partner, United Airlines, offering travelers to NYC a new map of air taxi routes to travel to and from NYC airports.
As you may or may not already know, Archer Aviation ($ACHR) is a Santa Clara, California-based aviation developer specializing in designing and developing electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, particularly for use in urban air mobility (UAM) networks such as air taxi services.
Archer remains one of the more exciting eVTOL developers we follow and stays relevant on our news beat with steady announcements of new partnerships with companies worldwide to develop and implement networks of sustainable air travel using its flagship Midnight eVTOL aircraft.
One of Archer’s long-standing partners has been Stellantis, which signed an agreement to become the exclusive manufacturer of Archer’s eVTOL technology at a new facility in the US, specifically Covington, Georgia. Last summer, Archer announced that a new US facility had completed construction, and Midnight eVTOL production was scheduled to begin in early 2025.
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In addition to Stellantis, plenty of other big names have invested in Archer and/or signed agreements with the eVTOL specialist, including Boeing and ARK Invest. Aviation companies like Southwest and Soracle in Japan have signed ventures to establish eVTOL air taxi networks in major metropolitan areas like Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Chicago – the latter of which comes via a landmark agreement with Signature Airlines signed in June 2024.
Another partner is United Airlines, which is working alongside Archer to establish a new eVTOL air taxi network around the NYC metropolitan area, connecting Manhattan to several nearby airports. You can see the NYC air taxi route map below:
Source: Archer
Archer unveils eVTOL air taxi routes coming to NYC
Archer Aviation unveiled the initial route map for air taxi operations in NYC this morning alongside details of its ongoing partnership with United Airlines. The pending air taxi network includes vertiports at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Airports around NYC and a presence at regional airports and three helipads in the city itself.
Per Archer, the goal is to provide travelers with a new, safe, and sustainable method of transportation in which they can visit a nearby heliport and fly 5 to 15 minutes in a Midnight eVTOL to their destination as opposed to potentially sitting in hours of NYC traffic. Archer founder and CEO Adam Goldstein elaborated:
The New York region is home to three of the world’s preeminent airports, serving upwards of 150 million passengers annually. But the drive from Manhattan to any of these airports can be painful, taking one, sometimes two hours. We want to change that by giving residents and visitors the option to complete trips in mere minutes. With its existing helicopter infrastructure, regulatory support and strong demand, I believe New York could be one of the first markets for air taxis in the United States.
Thanks to its partnership with United, Archer said its future passengers can book air taxi flights in NYC as an “add-on” to their existing itinerary. As an example, the eVTOL developer said a customer would be able to take a Midnight eVTOL, which is designed to transport four passengers plus a pilot, from a vertiport downtown to the Newark Airport in less than ten minutes, then go through security and board their commercial flight as normal, saving tons of time along the way.
Source: Archer
As a long-term investor and customer in Archer’s eVTOL technology, United Airlines intends to work alongside its partner to help make these air taxi routes around NYC a reality. Andrew Chang, Head of United Airlines Ventures, also spoke:
At United, our focus is on driving innovation, reimagining the future of air travel and enhancing the customer experience every step of the journey. Our strategic collaboration with Archer will be key to our efforts to build and optimize the infrastructure – such as real estate development, air space management, and safety and security protocols – necessary to bring advanced air mobility to our customers.
Here is the full list of planned vertiports for air taxi travel around the NYC metropolitan area:
Major Airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Newark Airport
NYC Helipads: East 34th Street Heliport, Downtown Skyport, West 30th Street Heliport
Regional Airports: Westchester County Airport, Teterboro Airport, Republic Airport
The NYC network is a part of Archer’s more extensive plans to establish eVTOL air taxi travel across populated and traffic-dense areas in the US, including additional networks in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Archer shared it is currently working through the final stages of FAA approval to get those routes up and running.
A representative for the company shared the following update when asked when we might see Archer air taxi operations in the New York City area:
We’re taking a step by step approach for any new market we’re launching in, starting with a few aircraft on a few routes. We’ll ramp commercial operations upon receiving Type Certification from the FAA. We’re in the final stages of FAA type certification for Midnight, and once complete, we’ll be ready to begin commercial operations. We will start slowly, with a “crawl, walk, run” approach with Midnight’s roll-out. In the U.S., we’ve identified New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco as our initial markets.
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