Chapter 06 — A national transition, fifty state contexts
The U.S. grid became cleaner, but not because data centers grew where renewables did.
From 2019 to 2025, estimated national data-center electricity demand rose 72.8% while renewable generation share increased 7.3 percentage points.
U.S. generation by fuel
Coal declined while wind and solar grew rapidly; natural gas also expanded and remains a major source.
U.S. clean and fossil shares
The national generation mix steadily shifted toward clean energy over the past two decades.
Renewable share by state
The pace and level of renewable adoption differ substantially across states.
National data-center demand and renewable share
Both series rose from 2019 to 2025, motivating—but not proving—a relationship.
State data-center growth versus renewable change
The nearly flat relationship (r = −0.002) shows no state-level association.
State data-center growth versus CO₂ intensity
The near-zero correlation (r = −0.057) indicates no consistent state decarbonization response to data-center growth.