AI data center demand is forcing a rethink of every power asset on the US grid

America has a record volume of electricity generation under development right now, and building it is getting more expensive by the quarter. That tension sits at the center of the US power market in 2026, as AI data center load growth collides with a grid buildout constrained by equipment backlogs, permitting bottlenecks, import tariffs, and interconnection queues that stretch for years.

The Wall Street Journal reported in late July that construction costs for every type of power plant are rising, driven by the same confluence of supply-chain pressure that has made transformers, turbines, and switchgear difficult to source quickly. The article, by reporter Jennifer Hiller, noted that the US has a record amount of generation under development but that the cost to complete those projects keeps climbing.

Stranded assets are back on the table

The demand signal is strong enough to reopen infrastructure that the industry had largely counted out. Energy Central reported on July 30 that the Trump administration is pursuing the restart of shuttered petroleum refineries as power-generation assets, targeting sites from California to the Virgin Islands. The move reflects how acute the supply gap has become: assets that were decommissioned for economic reasons are suddenly worth re-evaluating when grid capacity is scarce.

On the renewable side, the same logic is playing out through brownfield solar development. A 1.2-GW solar array is planned for the site of a Texas coal plant, which will continue to operate alongside the new installation. According to Canary Media, as cited by Energy Central, the project would be the largest solar installation ever sited on a brownfield in North America. At 1.2 GW, it is a meaningful slice of capacity for a single site, and its co-location with an active coal facility signals that operators are no longer waiting for full plant retirement before layering in new generation.

The cost side of the equation

Reviving old assets or building new ones both run into the same set of friction points. The Wall Street Journal identified equipment backlogs, permitting delays, tariffs, and multi-year interconnection waits as the primary cost drivers. Gas turbine makers have benefited from the boom in demand, but lead times have stretched accordingly. Transformer shortages, a persistent issue since 2023, have not meaningfully eased. And the interconnection queue, which routes new projects through a years-long study and approval process before they can deliver power, remains a structural bottleneck regardless of what sits at the generation end.

For procurement and infrastructure teams managing large facilities or campuses, this cost environment has direct operational consequences. Contracted power that looked affordable at signing is increasingly hard to replicate for new capacity. Utility-scale projects that anchored five-year energy plans are facing revised completion dates. And the tariff exposure on imported electrical equipment adds another variable to cost models that were already under pressure.

What operators should watch

The brownfield solar trend is worth tracking closely for real estate and facilities teams with large industrial footprints. Sites that carry environmental or zoning complexity often clear permitting faster than greenfield locations because grid infrastructure is already nearby. The Texas project illustrates that co-location with legacy generation, rather than waiting for site clearance, can accelerate timelines considerably.

On the supply side, the refinery-restart push adds a new variable to regional capacity forecasts. If even a fraction of those sites come back online as power generators, it could shift reserve margins in markets where data center load growth has been most aggressive. Energy procurement teams with exposure to constrained grid regions should factor that potential capacity addition into their planning, while noting that regulatory and permitting hurdles for reactivating petroleum infrastructure are substantial.

The Wall Street Journal's framing that the US has a record amount of generation under development is the one concrete piece of optimism in an otherwise cost-pressured picture. The pipeline is large; the question is how much of it survives equipment delays, tariff exposure, and interconnection backlogs to reach commercial operation on the schedules that procurement contracts assume. Teams signing long-term power agreements in 2026 should build schedule risk explicitly into their terms.