Amid Rising Energy Costs, Senator Tillis Must Protect Energy Supply Needed to Power Our Global Tech Edge
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Raleigh, N.C. — As summer heat settles in and utility bills surge, America is facing a dual challenge: keeping household electricity bills affordable while powering the explosive growth of AI and data centers essential to U.S. competitiveness and national security. Renewable energy is a cheap and reliable way to meet this demand — yet the House Republican tax bill would cut clean energy production, cede the global AI race to other countries, cost North Carolina jobs, and drive up utility costs.
By gutting the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits, the House proposal amounts to a full repeal of bipartisan investments that have slashed energy bills, created jobs in North Carolina, and worked to meet the new energy demand.
Repeal would raise energy costs for U.S. families by $110 as soon as next year — just as electric demand from new data centers is set to soar.
“Senator Tillis has a chance to meet the moment: demand for electricity is soaring in our growing state, and it only makes sense to invest in an affordable supply,” said Climate Power North Carolina State Director Terryn Hall. “Gutting clean energy incentives would raise prices, destabilize the grid, and leave North Carolina families and businesses vulnerable.” If current tax credits stay in place, Americans will save $38 billion on electricity bills by 2030.
Data centers are sending energy demand through the roof. With North Carolina’s recent announcement of an Amazon data center, that need will grow:
- North Carolina is home to 83 data centers. As of the first half of 2024, Charlotte and Raleigh had a combined 113.4 MW of data center space underway.
- Duke Energy expected 45% of its future demand from large customers to be from data centers, and demand from data centers in the state could grow to 4.6% of total electricity demand by 2030.
- In 2028, data center power demand was expected to double or nearly quadruple Duke Energy’s current capacity in North and South Carolina, which is 34.5 GW.
- In 2023, data centers accounted for 1.9% of the total electricity used in the state. By 2030, power demand for data centers in North Carolina was expected to increase between 77 and 370 percent.
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