Back
AI faces a big question that even ChatGPT hasn’t been able to answer: How to provide the massive amount of power it needs to work and expand. But a new, efficient and inexpensive open-source AI model may sidestep the question altogether.
Just last week, the U.S.’s path forward on AI seemed clear. OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — and two partners got a White House welcome to announce a $500 billion investment into building out the virtual and physical infrastructure behind AI. That includes funding for solar arrays and battery storage to power new, energy-hungry data centers, Bloomberg reports.
A slew of other news made it clear energy was still at the heart of AI’s challenges: Tech companies joined a utility regulators’ conference to curry favor as they look to build their own power plants, and Chevron cemented a partnership to build gas plants dedicated to powering data centers.
President Trump meanwhile took his own crack at a plan for powering data centers, saying he’d use his new emergency powers to fast-track power plants that would connect directly to AI data centers. Companies can use “anything they want” to power their data enter operations, Trump said, “and they may have coal as a backup.”
But a Chinese company’s apparent AI breakthrough may render all of those plans moot. The company DeepSeek last week released a chatbot that it says uses far less computing power and energy than rivals like ChatGPT, but still churns out comparable results. The news sent AI and energy company stocks tumbling, as investors quickly noticed that the efficient DeepSeek could drastically reduce AI’s energy usage.
Still, DeepSeek’s long-term impact is still up in the air. It could end up creating loads of new energy demand, as its cheapness and efficiency earns it new customers, Heatmap notes. It could lead the U.S. government to fund domestic AI research to catch up to China’s lead.
Or, if DeepSeek fails to take off over security concerns or its apparent pro-China censorship, it could mean nothing at all.
💵 Deep freeze: The Trump administration pauses approvals for clean energy projects on public land and waters, and freezes conditional loans for clean energy and other projects that had not yet been finalized by the Department of Energy. (The Hill; E&E News, subscription)
🌊 What Trump’s wind order means: President Trump’s order curtailing wind power is likely to affect at least seven offshore projects still in the permitting process and jeopardize new manufacturing and supply chain investments, but questions remain about how forcefully the Interior Department will execute the policy. (Canary Media)
👀 All eyes on the states: Advocates share their fears about how the Trump administration will upend renewable energy development and climate action, but say state-level progress will be key to keeping things moving over the next four years. (Inside Climate News)
☀️ Floating a new idea: Federally owned or managed reservoirs could hold enough floating solar panels to power 100 million homes each year, a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study finds. (Canary Media)
🔌 Charging EVs: Congressional Republicans look to impose a national fee on electric vehicles, which advocates fear will be punitively high and discourage EV adoption. (New York Times)
📉 Solar growth sunsets: A new report predicts U.S. solar industry growth will come “to a halt” this year, as President Trump’s orders blocking Inflation Reduction spending and instituting tariffs threaten the industry. (E&E News)
🔋 Storage safety: Experts say recent safety improvements for grid-scale battery storage systems make another fire like the one at the Moss Landing site in California unlikely. (Canary Media)
🏠 Heat pumps heat up: U.S. residents bought 37% more heat pumps than gas furnaces in the first 11 months of last year, marking the electric appliances’ biggest lead over fossil fuel heating yet. (Canary Media)
.svg)
