{"id":90575,"date":"2025-11-03T14:19:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T11:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=90575"},"modified":"2025-11-03T14:19:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T11:19:05","slug":"americans-concerned-about-rising-electricity-costs-due-to-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/americans-concerned-about-rising-electricity-costs-due-to-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Concerned About Rising Electricity Costs Due to AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/investors.sunrun.com\/news-events\/press-releases\/detail\/354\/new-sunrun-survey-finds-soaring-electricity-demand-and\">Sunrun<\/a> survey, 80% of electricity consumers in the United States are worried about the impact of data centers on their utility bills.<\/p>\n<p>A poll of 1,000 American homeowners revealed growing distrust towards traditional energy companies and their ability to meet the nation&#8217;s increasing electricity demands. Many fear rising rates, more frequent outages, and an unprepared energy system for escalating loads.<\/p>\n<p>Many are already experiencing instability:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>81% have faced at least one outage in the past year;<\/li>\n<li>60% have experienced up to three outages in the same period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>87% reported consequences such as spoiled food, lost income, and issues with medical equipment.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Renewable Energy Sources<\/h2>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=65264\">data<\/a> from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), electricity demand in the U.S. has remained stable for over a decade.<\/p>\n<p>In the past five years, commercial users, including data centers and industrial enterprises, have increased their energy consumption. The annual growth was 2.6% and 2.1%, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, household electricity usage grew by 0.7% annually.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-fd0b6230cfc1bac9-8560817490784389.webp\" alt=\"image\" class=\"wp-image-268834\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Electricity consumption since 1990. Source: EIA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Today, data centers consume about 4% of U.S. electricity\u2014more than double compared to 2018. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/articles\/doe-releases-new-report-evaluating-increase-electricity-demand-data-centers\">forecasts<\/a> by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, consumption is expected to rise from 6.7% to 12% by 2028.<\/p>\n<p>The growth of new capacities in solar and wind energy, along with the implementation of industrial battery systems, has helped meet the rising demand.<\/p>\n<p>The EIA anticipates that renewable energy sources will dominate new generating capacities at least through the next year. This trend could continue beyond 2026, but experts <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/11\/01\/rising-energy-prices-put-ai-and-data-centers-in-the-crosshairs\/\">predict<\/a> that Republican rollbacks of key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act will hinder growth.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Natural Gas<\/h2>\n<p>Another energy source, natural gas, has not met expectations. Although production is increasing, most of the new volumes are directed towards exports rather than the domestic market.<\/p>\n<p>Building new natural gas power plants will take longer than planned. Typically, it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iea.org\/data-and-statistics\/charts\/average-power-generation-construction-time-capacity-weighted-2010-2018\">takes<\/a> about four years to launch such facilities, but a turbine shortage has exacerbated the situation\u2014manufacturers warn that timelines could extend to seven years.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Problem Exists<\/h2>\n<p>The slow development of gas infrastructure, combined with limitations on renewable energy sources, has placed data center owners in a difficult position.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/global\/2025\/10\/15\/how-people-around-the-world-view-ai\/\">Pew Research<\/a>, most respondents feel anxiety rather than inspiration about AI development. Mass <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/pwc-25-of-companies-anticipate-layoffs-following-ai-adoption\">layoffs<\/a> only heighten fears and distrust of the technology.<\/p>\n<p>Back in July 2024, Bernstein Research <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bernstein-warns-of-potential-us-power-shortage-due-to-ai\">suggested<\/a> a potential electricity shortage if the growth rate of demand from AI data centers continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>80% of electricity consumers in the United States are worried about the impact of data centers on their utility bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"80% of US electricity consumers worry about data centers' impact on utility bills.","creation_source":"ai_translated","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,504,2204],"class_list":["post-90575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-energy","tag-solar-energy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"204","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"80% of US electricity consumers worry about data centers' impact on utility bills.","is_update":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90577,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90575\/revisions\/90577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}