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Posted on 11/10/2025 2:37:30 PM PST by DFG
Some artificial intelligence (AI) data centers are vacant in California because the local utility cannot provide the electricity required to operate them, according to Bloomberg.
Although developers in Santa Clara, California, have completed shells of data center projects, the facilities remain empty and unpowered because the city-owned utility Silicon Valley Power (SVP) cannot supply enough electricity to meet their energy demands, Bloomberg reported. California imports the second-largest amount of electricity of any state, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), and has been phasing out reliable power sources like coal as it pursues a rapid green energy transition.
Big Tech pledged to meet emissions goals similar to California’s aggressive climate targets in a move that James Taylor, President of the Heartland Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation has left the industry grappling with an inadequate and unreliable power system.
“The same tech industry that now bemoans a lack of available and reliable power is the same tech industry that for the past 20 years teamed with climate activists to prematurely retire coal power plants and block new natural gas power plants,” Taylor told the DCNF. “American consumers were punished with rapidly increasing electricity prices as a result. Now Big Tech is stuck with an inadequate, unreliable, wind and solar future of their own making. This is called justice.”
Data center expansion and onshore manufacturing are driving much of America’s rising power demand, according to EIA. The Trump administration rolled out a plan to promote AI and streamline data center development in July, citing the need to achieve global technological dominance and beat China in the AI race.
President Donald Trump declared a “national energy emergency” on his first day back in the Oval Office while his Department of Energy (DOE) sounded the alarm over approaching blackouts should the U.S. continue to phase out reliable power supply without adequate replacements. Aging energy infrastructure and harsh green energy mandates set by former President Joe Biden and several Democrats at the state level sharply limited reliable, baseload power sources like coal while promoting intermittent energy sources like wind and solar.
“The demand has never been higher, and it’s really a power-supply problem that we have,” Bill Dougherty, executive vice president for data center solutions at CBRE Group Inc., told Bloomberg. “There are portions of data-center demand that need to be as close as possible to population centers. … That is the demand that needs to be in California. They can’t bring it online because there’s constraints on power.”
The Golden State has ambitious climate goals, with Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom aiming for an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and carbon neutrality by 2045. The governor’s office touted in July 2025 that California was “powered by two-thirds clean energy in 2023,” citing government data that included several zero-emissions sources including wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric power and nuclear energy.
The state imports nearly 90% of its natural gas supply, which accounts for about 35% of its energy portfolio, according to information from California Energy Commission (CEC) and EIA.
SVP and Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
California has the second-most expensive electricity in the U.S., behind only Hawaii, a report from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found. In 2024, the national average was ¢12.68 per kilowatt-hour kWh, compared with over ¢27 per kWh for California households, according to EIA data.
Janine de la Vega, an SVP spokesperson, told Bloomberg that “SVP is undertaking a $450 million system upgrade to meet the needs of these and other customers, and the project is currently on schedule to be completed in 2028.”
Notably, sixteen Republican attorneys general warned several Big Tech companies in September, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta that their “misleading” green energy claims could exacerbate America’s risk of blackouts. Republican Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who led the letter, wrote that “as a result of big tech’s misleading energy use claims, coal and natural gas plants are being shut down, putting communities across the country at an increased risk of blackouts over the next few years.”
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4 Corrupt California Families - Newscum, Brown, Pelosi, & Feinstein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUJCR8XhmoY
Gavin Greasehair would provide more value to California if he sat on a pedal machine hooked up to a generator. The 0.2 watts per hour he’d provide would be worth much more to the state than his miserable, corrupt, and totally inept leadership.
On-site nuclear.
The Bad Big 4
Yeah, but pinwheels! I mean windmills.
Scum and Traitors
Bill Gates gave up on the Global Warming racket because he’s all in AI—Microsoft Copilot.
Another of Newsom’s monumental failures to govern California properly.
I wonder, if you think real hard, does your appetite go up?
It looks like we are serious about small modular reactor nuclear power-that would be just the ticket, but...the ruling Leftists in California will never allow that. They have their Leftist rat-claws full just trying to get rid of the Diablo Canyon plant, which is stuck in their craw.
They would rather their citizens be in the dark rather than willingly generate nuclear power there.
Windmill, windmill sitting on the hill
How many birds today, did you manage to kill?
Verse two...pondering
These AI data centers drawing a lot of power from the grid driving up residential rates will become a big political issue
Data and AI centers should share the grid that Americans depend on. They should be building their own grid, possibly powered with their own nuclear reactors.
His clearing the streets of drug needles, poop, and homeless encampments just prior to Xi's visit was the telltale sign!
The FBI/DOJ needs to investigate this. Follow the MONEY (and the BLACKMAIL).
Small Nuclear Reactors (SMR)
Some people are calling this the Second Nuclear Age. SMRs can power a data center, or a city.
Many brag that it is free of the evil hydrocarbons (fossil fuels for those of you in Rio Linda).
What's hilarious is that one of the MAIN items in atmosphere is water vapor. Nuclear power plants use and emit LOTS OF water vapor.
why dont the make their own power
Tear out some more hydroelectric dams.. that’ll help!
Idiots
Well I might have finally found a single reason to support Green energy. If it destroys all the devilish AI crap then that would be a good thing.
The author is uninformed, just plain ignorant or a typical hack writer.
California had a peak installed capacity of coal fired generation of 439 MW in 2005. There were 10 generating units at eight power plant locations. This represented about 0.7% of California's total electric generating capacity at the time (66,105 MW overall). None of the units exceeded 50 MW, with the largest plant at 109 MW.
Coal generation in California has always been miniscule.
The author is right that CA is pursuing an insane "green energy" transition.
I can't believe that anybody would build a data center in Santa Clara in the first place, much less without having the necessary power contracts to run it. Something doesn't smell right in this story. Business people are not that stupid. Everybody knows data centers require water for cooling, fiber optic line connections, lots of electricity, and the ability to store diesel fuel to run backup generators.
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