Energy and Artificial Intelligence

AI and modern energy systems are deeply interconnected. The technology has created a new electricity demand paradigm in the United States, creating both opportunities and challenges for grid operations, power generation, and pricing. 

NEWS

America’s Data Center Boom Must Not Depend on Chinese Batteries 3/6/2026

America’s Data Center Boom Must Not Depend on Chinese Batteries

Jesse R. Edmondson and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the United States must build its own domestic battery supply chain to support the AI data center boom and reduce reliance on Chinese energy storage technologies.  March 6, 2026.

America’s Tech Ambitions Outrunning Industrial Realities 2/25/2026

America’s Tech Ambitions Outrunning Industrial Realities

Macdonald Amoah, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how American reindustrialization is constrained by structural weaknesses in three physical pillars: energy capacity, industrial supply chains, and technical workforce depth.  February 25, 2025.

How to Supercharge the US Military’s Arsenal 2/11/2026

How to Supercharge the US Military’s Arsenal

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how with more capital-sensitive procurement policies, deeper AI integration, and smoother allied co-production, the US defense industrial base can make a serious comeback.  February 11, 2026.

The Hidden Bottleneck of AI Data Centers: Water 12/17/2025

The Hidden Bottleneck of AI Data Centers: Water

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Brandon N. Owens write about how electricity enables AI growth, but water constraints are emerging as a decisive factor in data center siting and approval.  December 17, 2025.

AI’s Dirty Secret: Why Diesel Still Powers the Digital Age 12/17/2025

AI’s Dirty Secret: Why Diesel Still Powers the Digital Age

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Brandon N. Owens write about how AI’s demand for data centers relies on diesel generators because outdated permitting and reliability rules make cleaner backup power too slow to deploy.  December 17, 2025.

The Drone Supply Chain War: Identifying the Chokepoints to Making a Drone 12.9.2025

The Drone Supply Chain War: Identifying the Chokepoints to Making a Drone

Payne Institute Communications Associate MacDonald Amoah, Director Morgan Bazilian, Fellow Jahara Matisek and Katrina Schweiker write about how every drone involved in the war in Ukraine depends on China. From palm-sized quadcopters guiding artillery to long-range loitering munitions, nearly every unmanned system on both sides contains materials and components that originate in Chinese factories and refineries. December 9, 2025.

Supply-chain delays, rising equipment prices threaten electricity grid 11/14/2025

Supply-chain delays, rising equipment prices threaten electricity grid

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Kyri Baker write about how the crisis facing the U.S. power grid that can’t be solved simply by building more power lines, approving new power generation, or changing out grid software.  Supply-chain bottlenecks are taking years to clear, delaying projects, inflating costs and threatening reliability.  November 14, 2025.

AI’s Power Problem Could Launch a Nuclear Renaissance 11/7/2025

AI’s Power Problem Could Launch a Nuclear Renaissance

Brandon N. Owens and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how AI’s growth has outpaced America’s power grid. Nuclear energy could be the key to powering the AI era—if policy, permitting, and planning can keep pace. November 7, 2025.

Is AI blowing up our electricity prices? An expert weighs in. 11/7/2025

Is AI blowing up our electricity prices? An expert weighs in.

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributed to this article about how Colorado and other states are seeing massive data center growth, and big buyers may squeeze out consumers.  “Electricity demand is no longer predictable — it is algorithmically spiked and AI-governed. Policy is lagging. Capital is stampeding.   November 7, 2025.

Rising AI Demand Is Fueling Higher Electricity Bills 10/22/2025

Rising AI Demand Is Fueling Higher Electricity Bills

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and Brandon N. Owens write about how as data centers multiply due to AI demand, volatility is socialized onto consumers while stability is privatized by corporate giants.  October 22, 2025.

The Future of AI Runs Through Indian Country 10/1/2025

The Future of AI Runs Through Indian Country

Payne Institute NAMES Research Associate Alex Brunson, Student Researcher Elise Previdi, NAMES Director Richard Luarkie, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the U.S. is projected to experience a significant increase in demand for power capacity to meet the needs of its rapidly expanding network of data centers.   These require unprecedented levels of energy and computational power, which can be supported by forming strategic partnerships with Native Nations and placing some of this high-tech infrastructure on Native American lands. October 1, 2025.

How Artificial Intelligence Is Rewriting the Energy Playbook 7/16/2025

How Artificial Intelligence Is Rewriting the Energy Playbook

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian writes about how in our new artificial intelligence era, power isn’t just about computing abilities—it’s about who controls the energy grid.  Once engineered for steel mills and suburbs, the grid is now being reshaped by data centers—vast, humming fortresses of compute that guzzle electricity at levels reminiscent of heavy industry.  July 16, 2025. 

Pentagon’s AI metals program goes private in bid to boost Western supply deals 5/2/2025

Pentagon’s AI metals program goes private in bid to boost Western supply deals

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ian Lange contributed to this article about how a U.S. government-created artificial intelligence program that aims to predict the supply and price of critical minerals has been transferred to the control of a non-profit organization that is helping miners and manufacturers strike supply deals.  May 2, 2025.

The A.I. – Energy Revolution – Fueled by the White House and Rare Earth Metals! (and China!) 1/28/2025

The A.I. – Energy Revolution – Fueled by the White House and Rare Earth Metals! (and China!)

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how a swath of the new US administration policies are being aimed at bolstering domestic production of critical minerals and strengthening the U.S. energy supply chain.  Much of that was done to reduce the U.S. foreign dependence on trade and boost energy security, but there’s a hidden beneficiary that investors should be paying close attention to: artificial intelligence (AI).  January 28, 2025.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate Geothermal Investment 4/29/2022

How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate Geothermal Investment

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Sebnem Düzgün, Payne Institute Communications Associate Elsa Barron, and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how in the midst of the global energy transition, geothermal operations promise to provide stable, renewable energy, so why aren’t more investors taking the bait? One of the major roadblocks for geothermal investment is the high level of uncertainty that accompanies the subsurface resource.  April 29, 2022.

Big Data and AI in Advancing Geothermal Energy 12/13/2021

Big Data and AI in Advancing Geothermal Energy

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow H. Sebnem Düzgün looks at geothermal resources are subsurface and require costly discovery, exploration, development and operation processes. But mining engineers @ Colorado School of Mines are finding answers in Big Data and AI. Energy Resources Intelligence (ERI) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based prediction system that supports investment decisions in geothermal. The ERI system produces accurate footprints of potential subsurface geothermal resources using deep-learning algorithms, multimodal big data analytics and statistical- and machine-learning (SML) methods, which lead to cost reductions in geothermal discovery and exploration.  December 13, 2021.  

BIG DATA AND THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES January 14, 2020

BIG DATA AND THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES

A number of “disruptive” data science and sensor technologies are creating new opportunities for addressing global challenges. The emergence of abundant computing power made possible the generation and storage of “big data,” enabled the explosion of sensors and networked devices, and powered major breakthroughs in the application of Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning techniques. These developments have led to a new trend best described as the seamless interplay between the physical and the digital world—also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) (Deloitte, 2015). This has paved the way for potential radical transformation of whole sectors and industries across the globe. January 14, 2020.

THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ACHIEVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS January 13, 2020

THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ACHIEVING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Payne Institute Fellow Francesco Fuso-Nerini writes on the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its progressively wider impact on many sectors requires an assessment of its effect on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Using a consensus-based expert elicitation process, we find that AI can enable the accomplishment of 134 targets across all the goals, but it may also inhibit 59 targets. January 13, 2020.

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