Thousands of clean energy projects are waiting to connect to the grid. How many will make it through, and will it be soon enough to keep the grid reliable?

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Electricity demand in the U.S. is rising fast, fueled by the rapid growth of AI data centers and other power-hungry technologies. At the same time, many fossil fuel power plants are retiring, putting added pressure on the grid to maintain reliability.

To meet this challenge, clean energy and battery storage projects are lining up to connect to the grid. The queue now holds more than twice the capacity of all power plants currently in operation.

But getting these projects online is proving difficult. The interconnection process, which evaluates and connects new power projects to the grid, has become a major bottleneck. It is overwhelmed by the sheer number of proposed projects and further slowed by permitting challenges, supply chain delays, and uncertainty around federal incentives. Reforms to the interconnection process are underway, but it is yet to be seen whether they will move quickly enough to make a difference.

RMI’s Sarah Toth Kotwis explores the technical and regulatory barriers to bringing new energy online, and what it will take connect new energy projects quickly and reliably.

Sarah Toth Kotwis is a senior associate on the Clean Competitive Grids team at RMI.

Related Content

The Untapped Potential of ‘Repurposed Energy’ https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-untapped-potential-of-repurposed-energy/

The Future of Electricity Demand in the AI Era https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/podcast/the-future-of-electricity-demand-in-the-ai-era/

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