January 29, 2025

Chevron and activist investor firm Engine No. 1 are teaming up on plans for what they expect will be the first multi-gigawatt gas-fired power plant co-located with a data center.

That announcement came yesterday, days after President Trump told the World Economic Forum that he will use his claimed authority under the National Energy Emergency to expedite the siting of such facilities.  

It also came a day after fossil fuel and renewable energy trade groups agreed at USEA’s 21st Annual State of the Energy Industry Forum that they must work together to meet the explosion of electricity demand from data centers. That same day, however, news broke of Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek’s breakthrough in large language models, using fewer and substandard processing chips to power its chatbot ... and thus less electricity. That has some in the U.S. now rethinking how many data centers will really be needed to power AI. 

Keep on eye on NetZero Insider as we follow what is sure to be one of the dominant stories in energy. 

Here’s what else we had this past week: 

• FERC Drops Consideration of GHG Policy Statement for Gas Infrastructure 

• Massachusetts DPU Approves Price Increase for NECEC Line 

• New England Lobbyists Preview 2025 State Legislative Sessions 

• NextEra, GE Vernova Move Toward Gas Generation Development 

• Santee Cooper Seeks Buyer for Unfinished Nuclear Project 

• Study Models West Coast OSW Transmission Options 

• Trump Energy, Interior Cabinet Picks Easily Pass Committee Votes 

See you next week!