The rise of data centers and their quest for renewable energy to power AI technology will boost the growth of renewables even under President Donald Trump, the Americas head of Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, told Reuters.
“The new administration will be more constructive on fossil fuels, but that doesn’t mean renewables go away,” Kevin Cronin, Regional Executive and CEO for The Americas at MUFG, told Reuters in an interview published on Friday.
Surging demand from data centers will boost renewables growth in America and projects will continue to be developed as they take years and multiple election cycles from the planning to the operational stage, according to Cronin.
There have been concerns in the renewables sector that it would suffer under Trump who has vowed to rescind many of the climate and clean energy policies of President Joe Biden.
Trump’s transition team is said to be preparing radical changes to U.S. policy toward electric vehicles and tailpipe emissions. These could include axing the EV incentives and the government mandate for federal EV fleets, and rolling back the Biden Administration’s rules on tailpipe emissions and fuel economy standards, Reuters reported earlier this week, citing a draft document it has seen.
In a sign of what the energy industry can expect, Trump last month picked a shale boss, Chris Wright, chief executive of Liberty Energy, as his nomination to lead the Department of Energy.
The nomination of Doug Burgum, the Governor of North Dakota, to be the interior secretary and head of a new National Energy Council at the White House, is also a signal to the industry that America’s leadership in fossil fuel production and exports is also high on Trump’s agenda.
“The common thread in the thinking on energy expressed by both Wright and Burgum is that they want to boost production of all types of energy, including fossil fuels,” commented Ed Crooks, Senior Vice President, Americas, at Wood Mackenzie.