AI Infrastructure Boom, 24/7 Solar & the Copper Crunch
From the rapid build-out of AI-driven data centers to the world’s first round-the-clock gigawatt-scale solar plant, these stories capture how quickly the global energy system is evolving. Falling battery costs are reshaping electricity markets, emerging economies are charting new transition pathways, and critical materials like copper are emerging as potential bottlenecks.
🖥️ Visualized: U.S. Data Center Investment (2014–2025)
Data centers have quietly become critical U.S. infrastructure. As AI workloads surge and cloud services expand, construction spending has accelerated to record levels. New capacity is being added at unprecedented speed, reflecting how central digital infrastructure has become to economic growth.
☀️ 24/7, 1 GW Solar — A World First
The UAE has broken ground on a 5.2 GWdc solar PV project paired with 19 GWh of battery storage in Abu Dhabi. Designed to deliver 1 GW of continuous, round-the-clock power, it’s the first GW-scale renewable facility engineered to provide true baseload electricity.
⚡ India’s Shortcut Energy Transition
Unlike China’s coal- and gas-heavy early growth, India is leapfrogging with cheap solar to meet rising electricity demand. The strategy relies less on fossil fuels and moves faster on electrifying transport — carving out a distinctly different energy transition pathway.
📈 Battery Deployment Surges in 2026
Global battery deployments are expected to jump 43% in 2026, topping 450 GWh and pushing cumulative capacity beyond 1.14 TWh. With batteries dispatched almost daily, annual clean electricity delivery could reach 333 TWh, about 1.15% of global power demand, up sharply from 0.16% in 2023.
🔌 “You Can’t Own Enough Copper”
Billionaire miner Robert Friedland warns of a looming copper crisis. Today’s economy consumes 30 million tonnes a year, with just 4 million tonnes recycled. Even without new electrification, maintaining modest GDP growth would require mining as much copper in the next 18 years as humanity extracted over the past 10,000 — before factoring in EVs, data centers, or renewables.