Despite the Trump administration’s best efforts, the momentum of clean energy cannot be stopped.
That’s the topline takeaway from the annual bacchanalia of renewables called RE+, held this year in Las Vegas, Nevada, where tens of thousands of people sought refuge from the scorching desert sun and endless casino floors last week to figure out what’s next.
Among them was Chris Seiple, the Vice Chairman of Wood Mackenzie’s Power & Renewables group. He and his colleagues at the global intelligence firm released a series of reports ahead of the event, highlighting a significant increase in grid interconnection agreements, showing how utilities are planning for large load capacity growth, and breaking down the composition of new power being added to the grid.
In a special edition of the Factor This podcast from the road at RE+ 2025 in Las Vegas, host Paul Gerke met up with Seiple to get a pulse on the clean energy industry at this pivotal moment.
“The demand growth that’s happening is real, and it’s unprecedented,” Seiple summarized.
U.S. utilities have 116 gigawatts (GW) of large load capacity committed or under construction, equivalent to 15.5% of current US peak demand, according to WoodMac’s recent survey of major investor-owned utilities.
Seiple acknowledges constraints in being able to add supply in addition to policy “whiplash” by the Trump administration, but expects demand for electricity is simply too strong to slow the deployment of solar, wind, and storage. The U.S. solar industry installed nearly 18 GW of new capacity in the first half of 2025 amidst a series of anti-clean energy policies, and solar and storage accounted for 82% of it.
“The industry is kind of at this critical inflexion point,” WoodMac’s Seiple confirms. “Do the realities of what the grid needs and accomplishing the goals of reshoring manufacturing and supporting the artificial intelligence industry ultimately prevail over some of the shortcomings in the Trump administration?”
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Over the course of a diverse discussion, the two touch on WoodMac data that shows how stakeholders are handling increased electricity demand and navigating shifting federal policy to get clean energy projects connected to the grid. Other topics include:
- The reality of project cancellations
- Rapid growth of battery energy storage deployment and its benefits
- The ways in which stakeholders are handling data centers
- How utilities are thinking about cost allocation and ratepayer protection
- The role of flexibility in the ‘grid of the future’
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