The AI Boom Has an Energy Problem. Geothermal Is the Answer | Opinion

I strongly believe in the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) and the incredible advancements it brings to our world. But I also believe the energy conversation around AI is being handled badly, and the consequences will land on ordinary people. Data centers do not sleep. They run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They do not follow the human rhythm of morning ramp-up, lunchtime lull, and evening shutdown. They need a flat, constant load.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that electricity demand from data centers soared 17 percent in 2025, well outpacing global electricity demand growth of 3 percent. Read More on Leadership Insights The IEA's Electricity 2026 report projects global power demand to grow 3.6 percent annually through 2030, a sharp acceleration from the 2.8 percent rate of the past decade. That demand has to be met. The question is how. ... Solar and wind are essential to a cleaner energy system, but their variable output means that supplying data centres around the clock requires storage, grid flexibility or additional sources of firm power.

The IEA estimates that meeting data centres' reliability requirements with on-site gas -fired generation can require 30-70 percent more capacity than their electricity demand. Gas turbines create noise, emissions, and local pushback. If a data center connects to a constrained grid, the additional generation and infrastructure investment it requires can raise electricity costs for other consumers. There are two sources that can meet flat, 24/7 demand.

Nuclear and geothermal. A Deployment Problem I am a geoscientist and an engineer. I have spent more than 20 years across subsurface development, defense systems, and offshore operations. I have looked at the nuclear timeline. My assessment is that micro-nuclear remains years away from commercial deployment at the scale data centers need. It is coming. It is not here yet. Geothermal is here. The heat in the earth is constant. It does not fluctuate with weather, time of day, or season.

It is available for millennia. The U.S. leads the world with just over 4 GW of installed geothermal capacity, but the Department of Energy estimates the country has at least 300 GW of potential. That gap is not a resource problem. It is a deployment problem. My work focuses on closing that gap by reusing what already exists. The oil and gas industry has drilled millions of wells and built thousands of miles of infrastructure. Much of it sits in regions with geothermal potential, including the Gulf Coast.

When you reuse that infrastructure instead of starting from scratch, the cost of introducing geothermal energy drops dramatically. I have seen massive capex reductions on projects that take this approach. That matters because the barrier to geothermal has never been the heat. It has been the cost of reaching it. If the infrastructure is already there, the economics change. An Energy Transition Municipalities need to understand this. Data center developers need to understand it.

The general public needs to understand it. Geothermal is old, but it is new again, because the technology to access it has improved and the demand for firm clean power has arrived. The path forward is not complicated. It requires three things. First, educate local governments about the geothermal resource beneath their feet. Second, give data center developers a greener alternative to gas turbines. Third, use the infrastructure we already built to lower the cost of deployment.

This will help everyone. If we do that, the AI boom does not have to become an energy crisis. It can become an energy transition. The heat is there. The infrastructure is there. The demand is there. What is missing is the decision to use it. Jeff D. Kelley is the founder of RockWise LLC , an applied subsurface intelligence firm focused on the energy transition. All views are his own.