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Power lines and transmission towers near the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, U.S., on Saturday, Feb. 19. 2022.

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Artificial intelligence could strain the U.S. electric grid, as power demand from data centers is poised to surge in the coming decade just as supply is falling due to the rapid retirement of coal-fired plants.

Data centers in the U.S. alone could consume as much electricity as some major industrialized economies produce by 2030, as they proliferate not just in number but also in the scale of their power needs.

The computer warehouses that power the Internet and increasingly AI could require up to 400 terawatt hours of electricity by 2030, according to an August report from Mizuho Securities.

That’s more than the total electricity production of the United Kingdom in 2022, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

Data center developers are knocking at the door of the nation’s utilities at the same time many of these power companies are retiring coal plants as part of the transition away from fossil fuels. But the waiting list to bring clean energy, primarily solar and wind, onto the grid to replace coal is long and renewables are less reliable.

PJM Interconnection, the largest grid operator in the U.S., warned in July that the reliability of the system is a growing concern as coal plants close faster than new power generation is built.

PJM serves 13 states primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region, including northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world. Resources in areas of Virginia are insufficient and the transmission system is constrained, limiting the ability to import power from elsewhere, according to PJM.

Yet data center “growth is accelerating in orders of magnitude, driven by the number of requests, the size of each facility and the acceleration of each facility’s ramp schedule to reach full capacity,” Dominion Energy CEO Robert Blue told investors on the company’s earnings call on Aug. 1.

Electrification of economy

In addition to data centers, manufacturing is returning to the U.S. and the broader economy is electrifying. Recent auction prices to bring new power capacity to the PJM power pool have surged more than 800% as a consequence of rising demand and limited supply.

“The market has already made one transition from coal to gas,” Susan Buehler, a spokesperson for PJM, told CNBC. “We see this energy transition is here. We just see that the forces around it are happening faster than the renewable energy transition is happening.”

“So we see a potential gap, and that’s what the market is signaling,” Buehler said.

PJM has forecast that electricity demand surge will surge nearly 40% by 2039 in its 369,000-square mile service area. Meanwhile, 40 gigawatts of existing power generation is at risk of retirement by 2030, or about 21% of PJM’s current installed capacity.

While there are 290 gigawatts of renewable projects waiting to get connected to the grid, in the past only about 5% of such projects have actually been built, according to PJM.

About 38 gigawatts of renewable energy have been approved for connection and another 72 gigawatts are coming in the first quarter of 2025, Buehler said, but the projects are not being built quickly enough due the challenges developers are facing on the ground.

Buehler said developers “can’t get their projects sited, there are supply chain delays, and there are financing issues.”

Step-change in investment needed

Utilities that operate in PJM have disclosed at least 50 gigawatts of potential data center demand during their recent earnings calls, though CEOs have cautioned there could be some duplication in the numbers.

About 29% of current data center electricity demand in the U.S. is located within PJM’s territory, according to Mizuho. Some 25% of data center power demand in the nation is in Virginia.

American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., has commitments for more than 15 gigawatts of demand from data centers through the end of the decade, interim CEO Benjamin Fowke told investors on the company’s second-quarter earnings call earlier last month.

That level of demand is equivalent to more than 40% of the peak electric load of 35 gigawatts across AEP’s entire system at the end of last year, according to Fowke. AEP serves 5.6 million customers in 11 states in the Midwest and South.

“These are far from just inquiries,” Fowke told investors. “These are serious customers that want to get on the grid and are willing to financially commit to do what it takes to get on the grid.”

Fowke testified to Congress in May that demand for electricity in some parts of the U.S. is already outstripping available capacity on the grid. The former CEO of Xcel Energy said that requests from large customers would more than double the current peak demand on the utility’s system.

“It took over 100 years of planning and building to create our current system, and a step-change in infrastructure investment on an accelerated timeline will be required to serve even a fraction of this future demand in a reliable manner,” Fowke told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

The cost of building new infrastructure to meet the demand is expected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars, Fowke said.

In the past, a large manufacturing facility might need 100 megawatts of electricity — equivalent to about 100,000 homes, Fowke told Congress. It is now increasingly common for a single data center to need anywhere from three to 15 times that amount of power, the CEO said.

Dominion Energy regularly gets requests to support data center campuses that require as much as several gigawatts of power, Blue said in May. That’s larger than the average capacity of a nuclear reactor in the U.S.

Going around the grid

One of the many challenges in connecting this kind of demand to the grid is that it can take up to a decade to decide the exact route a transmission line will take, get the necessary permits and build it, Edison Electric Institute senior vice president for customer solutions Phil Dion told Congress in June.

As a result, tech companies that are building data centers are increasingly looking at directly connecting their facilities to large power resources, such as nuclear plants, rather than waiting to access the grid. But that approach is already facing controversy.

Amazon Web Services purchased a data center campus in March from Talen Energy for $650 million that will be powered directly by the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. It was viewed by some in the industry as a landmark agreement that could pave the way for more nuclear-powered data centers.

But AEP has challenged the agreement before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, warning that such arrangements could further constrain supply on the electric grid.

Constellation Energy CEO Joe Dominguez told investors earlier this month that hooking data centers directly to nuclear reactors is the fastest and most cost effective solution. Constellation operates the largest portfolio of nuclear plants in the U.S.

“The notion that you could accumulate enough power somewhere on the grid to power a gigawatt data center is frankly laughable to me,” Dominguez said on Constellation’s August earnings call.

Utility executives have warned that failure to meet rising demand from data centers could affect the entire U.S. economy.

“If I can’t get that power capacity online, I cannot do the data center. I cannot do the manufacturing. I can’t grow the core businesses of some of the largest corporations in the country,” Petter Skantze, vice president of infrastructure development at NextEra Energy Resources, the renewable energy unit of NextEra Energy, said at a conference in New York City in June.

“The stakes are really, really high,” Skantze said. “This is a new environment. We have to get this right.”

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This $2,000 Chinese pickup truck golf cart is lovably strange

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This ,000 Chinese pickup truck golf cart is lovably strange

Sometimes on Alibaba, you find something that makes you stop, scratch your head, and wonder whether the designer started with a golf cart and added a pickup truck bed… or started with a farm truck and grafted on the front half of a golf cart. Either way, the end result is this glorious mashup of country club chic and back-forty practicality.

It’s also the perfect candidate for this week’s edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week – a chance to dumpster dive through some of the coolest and most innovative EVs on the internet.

Up front, you’ve got what looks like your standard neighborhood golf cart – small tires, stubby hood, upright windshield, and a seating arrangement that says, “I could drop you off, but you’re carrying the clubs.”

But move your eyes toward the rear and suddenly you’re on a rural Chinese farm. It’s basically the epitome of the classic Chinese farm truck… and I’ve walked the line at Chinese farm truck factories. That short golf cart chassis has been stretched into a full-blown flatbed mini-truck, complete with drop-down side gates and a tailgate to turn it into a flatbed. It’s ready to haul hay bales, tools, or apparently, livestock (as our graphics department so tastefully demonstrated above).

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The pièce de résistance? That big, plastic laundry basket bolted to the hood with “SPORT” proudly embossed on it. Who needs a glove box when you’ve already got a whole hamper right in front of you? Perfect for golf balls, groceries, or the world’s most precariously placed toolbox.

Despite the hybrid identity crisis, the specs are no joke. Wel, ok – they’re a little funny. This little utility cart boasts a 72V, 1,500W rear-axle motor that can whisk you along at up to 38 km/h (about 24 mph). That’s quick enough to get you in trouble on the fairway or make a speedy feed run at the farm. It can even climb a 20-degree grade, meaning you’ll have no problem hauling a load of goat feed up your driveway. Range is listed at 70 km (43 miles), so you can spend all day zipping between barn and bunker without a recharge.

Weighing in at 317 kg (just under 700 lb), it’s heavy enough to feel stable but light enough that you could probably push it out of a sand trap with a couple of buddies if you really had to. It’s also got a key start, built-in speakers, and of course, that open-air cabin that’s perfect for warm days and questionable weather decisions.

And the price? Just $2,300… if you happen to be standing on the factory floor in China with cash in hand (or just $2,000 if you buy 100 of them!). That’s the factory floor (EXW) price, which means by the time you pay for shipping, import duties, and a customs officer’s confused glare, you’ll be spending a lot more to get one into your driveway. And with tariffs the way they are, now it’s around 40% more than “a lot more.”

For reference, the last time I bought an electric mini-truck from China, the $2,000 truck cost me closer to $8,000 to land it in the US – and that was before Trump Tariffs 2.0.

Is it a golf cart? Is it a truck? Is it a lifestyle? Yes. It’s all of those things. And in a world where we usually have to choose between impractical fun and functional utility, this weird little contraption says, “Why not both?”

Whether you’re hauling mulch around your garden, running parts around a warehouse, or pulling up to the clubhouse looking like you just came from a tractor pull, this Alibaba gem has you covered. Just be prepared for the stares – not everyone is ready for the future of cross-genre utility vehicles.

A casual warning

As always, a friendly reminder before you start reaching for your credit card: don’t actually go buying one of these things. Seriously. These bizarre Chinese EVs are a blast to gawk at, but this column is just a lighthearted weekend stroll through Alibaba’s wildest listings. I’ve scored a few fun wins on the site, but I’ve also taken some expensive lumps (there’s an electric excavator scam story that has yet to be told…), so this is definitely not a shopping guide for anyone faint of heart or who values their hard-earned money.

Sure, some daring (or just plain stubborn) readers have ignored my advice and rolled the dice anyway, but please don’t be the one who ends up with a sad story and a thinner bank account. Consider this your official “you’ve been warned” notice.

For now, let’s just enjoy how wonderfully absurd it is that a golf cart–pickup truck hybrid even exists, and leave the gambling to the pros. Until next week’s weird Alibaba EV, this is Micah signing off.

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Lease an electric G-Wagon? Mercedes is dangling $9,500 in incentives

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Lease an electric G-Wagon? Mercedes is dangling ,500 in incentives

If you’ve been eyeing the all-electric G-Wagon, Mercedes-Benz just sweetened the deal – but only for a limited time.

According to a dealer bulletin, the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G 580 with EQ Technology – AKA the electric G-Wagon – now comes with $9,500 in lease cash, up from last month’s $7,500. That’s a 27% jump in savings. The move comes just weeks before the $7,500 EV lease tax credit loophole closes on September 30.

Like most EVs leased in the US, the G-Class has been able to qualify for the credit even though it’s excluded from purchase incentives. That benefit is about to disappear, which likely explains why Mercedes is boosting the offers now.

The electric G-Wagon doesn’t come cheap. With a base price of $162,650, the $9,500 incentive amounts to only a 5.8% discount. The SUV also carries a steep advertised lease: $1,869 per month for 36 months with $14,613 due at signing. Factor it all in, and you’re really paying about $2,275 a month for 10,000 miles a year. Current Mercedes deals run through September 2.

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For context, the 2025 G 580’s lease money factor now sits at 0.00180, which works out to around 4.3% APR – lower than the standard rates previously on offer.

Performance-wise, the electric G-Wagon earns an EPA rating of 62 MPGe and an electric range of 239 miles. Not groundbreaking numbers, but for buyers who want the iconic G-Wagon experience with zero tailpipe emissions, this is it.

With federal lease credits ending soon, Mercedes appears to be betting that drivers looking for a last chance at big EV savings will jump now rather than later.

Click here to find a local dealer that may have the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G 580 with EQ Technology in stock. –trusted affiliate

Thanks to CarsDirect for digging up this dealer offer.

Read more: From $129 a month: 5 of the best EV lease deals in August


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Used Honda Prologue EVs are selling faster than expected

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Used Honda Prologue EVs are selling faster than expected

The Honda Prologue is a surprise hit. It was the second-best-selling electric SUV behind the Tesla Model Y in the second half of 2024. Now, used models are in high demand.

Honda Prologue leads used EV sales growth in July

After it delivered the first customer models last March, the Honda Prologue quickly became one of the most popular EVs in the US.

Throughout the second half of the year, Honda sold an average of over 5,000 Prologues every month. In November, it was the third best-selling EV, trailing only the Tesla Model Y and Model 3.

Honda’s electric SUV continues to be a top seller this year. Last month, it outsold the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Hyundai IONIQ 5. Since delivering the first Prologue model last March, Honda has now sold 52,500 units in the US.

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According to Cox Automotive’s latest EV Market Monitor report, used Honda Prologue EVs are selling faster than expected.

Used EV sales rose sharply in July to 36,670, up 23.2% from June and 40% compared to last year. Honda had the biggest increase in used EV sales, more than doubling (+103%) month-over-month. Hyundai (+61.3%) and Rivian (60.5%) ranked second and third.

Honda-Prologue-used-EVs
Honda Prologue Elite (Source: Honda)

Tesla led used EV sales last month, selling 15,903 vehicles, up 18% year-over-year. GM’s Chevy (3,499 units, +28.6%), Ford (1,967 units, +25.7%), Mercedes-Benz (1,724 units, -12.3%), and Nissan (1,659 units, +19.9%) rounded out the top five.

Although its market share slipped to 43.4% from 45.2%, Tesla remained the leader by a wide margin. Other luxury brands, including BMW and Audi, reported higher used EV sales in July, with increases of 43.87% and 38%, respectively.

Honda-Prologue-used-EVs
2025 Honda Prologue at a Tesla Supercharger (Source: Honda)

According to the report, used EV listing prices reached $35,263 last month, a 1.9% decrease from June. With a price gap of just $1,266, a record low, used electric vehicle prices are closing in on ICE vehicles.

New EV sales also picked up in July. With over 130,000 EVs sold, up 26% from June, the electric vehicle market share reached 9.1%, the second-highest to date.

Honda-Prologue-used-EVs
2025 Honda Prologue Elite interior (Source: Honda)

Ahead of the $7,500 federal tax credit deadline, set to expire at the end of September, 11 brands posted their best EV sales of the year. The top five included Tesla, Chevy, Hyundai, Ford, and Honda. Volkswagen surged to sixth after electric vehicle sales surged 454% last month.

The Honda Prologue starts at $47,400, but with the credit, you can snag one for under $40,000 right now. Honda is also offering monthly leases as low as $159 in California and other ZEV states. In other regions, it’s still listed for as low as $229 per month.

2025 Honda Prologue trim Starting Price* Starting Price After
Tax Credit
*
EPA Range
(miles)
EX (FWD) $47,400 $39,900 308
EX (AWD) $50,400 $42,900 294
Touring (FWD) $51.700 $44,200 308
Touring (AWD) $54,700 $47,200 294
Elite (AWD) $57,900 $50,400 283
2025 Honda Prologue prices and range by trim (*Does not include $1,450 D&H fee)

Even Honda’s luxury brand, Acura, is selling more electric vehicles than expected. Through the first half of the year, the Acura ZDX outsold the Cadillac Lyriq, and it’s based on the same GM Ultium platform.

Sales are expected to continue picking up ahead of the deadline. As Cox Automotive highlighted, “July’s performance sets a strong precedent, and as policy support winds down, the market’s ability to respond to real-time demand and brand-level dynamics will be critical in shaping the next phase of growth.”

Ready to take advantage of the savings while they are still here? We’re here to help. You can use our link to find deals on the Honda Prologue in your area (trusted affiliate link).

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