The United States is grappling with a power capacity crisis as AI development fuels surging energy demand, warns Maud Texier, Google’s head of energy strategy.
The rapid expansion of AI data centers, outdated grid infrastructure, and growing electricity consumption are straining the nation’s power supply.
The rise of China’s DeepSeek AI firm sent major power company shares tumbling in late January amid speculation that its AI model is cheaper and more efficient.
However, Caroline Golin, Google’s global head of energy market development, stressed that more power is needed now to keep pace with Beijing.
“We are in a capacity crisis in this country right now, and we are in an AI race against China right now,” Golin told a conference hosted by the Nuclear Energy Institute in New York City on Tuesday.
Four years ago, Google’s Alphabet unit set an ambitious goal to run its operations entirely on carbon-free renewable energy. However, challenges in achieving this have led the company to explore nuclear power as an alternative.
Google faced a “very stark reality” of insufficient power capacity to sustain its data centers both in the short and long term, according to Golin.
Google found that expanding renewables risked grid instability, prompting utilities to turn to carbon-emitting natural gas for backup, an executive said.
While wind and solar power have grown rapidly in the U.S., their output remains weather-dependent.
“We learned the importance of the developing clean firm technologies,” Golin said. “We recognized that nuclear was going to be part of the portfolio.”
U.S. nuclear projects have long struggled with delays, cost overruns, and cancellations. While no small modular reactors are yet operational, Google and Kairos aim to launch their first in 2030, with more expected by 2035.
Golin said the Kairos project is in an initial test phase with undisclosed partners. In November, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Kairos to build two 35-megawatt test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The goal is to secure support from partners, including electric utilities, to develop a scalable approach for deploying the technology, Golin said.
