By John Burr, Jacksonville Climate Coalition
In recent months, JEA has received, “several inquiries about supporting new large data centers in our service territory,” according to Karen McAllister, director of content and media relations at the utility.
JEA (Jacksonville Electric Authority), the municipal electric utility that serves Jacksonville, is weighing the requests to see how it could meet an increased demand for electricity from the data centers, McAllister wrote in an email.
Across the Southeastern U.S. – North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and elsewhere – power utilities are planning to build natural gas-burning generating plants to meet the quickly rising demand for electricity. The booming construction of data centers, driven in part by the insatiable demand for artificial intelligence computing, is creating this spike in electricity demand. Data centers, which run 24/7, consume big electricity loads.
That spells trouble in the fight against climate change. Electric utilities want to build natural gas-fired plants to generate electricity. Once these plants are built, they will be in use for decades, creating carbon dioxide emissions that fuel climate change. Better to supply future electricity needs with solar power, or other clean energy alternatives.
Of note: JEA decided to study the construction of a $1 billion gas-fired generating plant last year, before the recent inquiries from data centers.
To its credit, JEA recently announced a 35-year agreement with Florida Renewable Partners to bring online three solar power facilities to supply 200 megawatts, enough electricity to power 37,000 homes. JEA expects the three sites to be producing electricity by the end of 2026.
The utility has set a goal of generating 35% of its electricity from clean energy by 2030, a definition that includes nuclear power. With the new solar power included, JEA will be producing about 17% of its power without burning fossil fuels.
John Burr is the editor of the Jacksonville Climate Coalition newsletter, where this piece was first published.
If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here. To learn more about sea-level rise, watch the video below.
