Home / News / How Rooftop Solar Can Help Meet the AI Energy Demand

At a glance:

As AI and data centers increase electricity demand, Central Oregon has an opportunity to meet part of that growth with clean, locally generated rooftop solar, while continuing to invest in storage, efficiency, and a stronger electric grid.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming part of everyday life (whether we like it or not). But behind every AI prompt, cloud backup, streamed video, and online service is physical infrastructure that consists of servers, cooling equipment, and data centers that run around the clock. That infrastructure requires a lot of electricity: the data centers needed to train AI can consume as much electricity as 200,000 American homes.

In fact, according to Pew Research Center, data centers accounted for a whopping 4% of total U.S. electricity use in 2024 (roughly equivalent to the annual electricity demand of the entire nation of Pakistan).

And the AI energy demand is only increasing.

By 2030, the energy demand of AI-focused data centers is expected to more than double. Even conservative analyses forecast that the tech industry will “drop the equivalent of roughly 40 Seattles onto America’s grid within a decade.” This will impact power generation, transmission lines, energy affordability, water, and land use, both across the country and here in Oregon.

Many in Central Oregon are understandably asking: how can we build enough reliable, affordable, clean energy to support a changing world while protecting the landscapes, communities, and quality of life that make our region special? One part of that answer could be right above us: the unused roof space on our homes, storefronts, warehouses, schools, and other buildings.

Why AI is Becoming an Energy Issue

Data centers have existed for decades, but the rapid growth of cloud computing and AI has increased the scale and the urgency of their electricity needs. While many types of energy use rise and fall throughout the day, data centers often require large amounts of steady, around-the-clock power. Their equipment also produces heat, which means cooling systems add to their electricity needs (and, in some cases, their water demands).

Oregon is already confronting this issue directly. A recent Oregon analysis reported that the state had 111 data centers operating in 2025, which consume nearly one-quarter of the state’s power. The report projects data-center electricity use could rise to nearly 25 terawatt-hours by 2030, or roughly 31 to 32 percent of Oregon’s electricity demand.

However, those figures should be reviewed with care. Future energy use depends on which projects are built, how intensively they operate, improvements in computing efficiency, and how utilities plan for new load. Still, the direction this is heading is clear. Oregon needs more clean power generation, more transmission and distribution capacity, stronger energy-storage systems, and better ways to manage demand.

Our state’s own Data Center Advisory Committee has described these facilities as large, fast-growing, always-on electricity users that place mounting pressure on grid planning. At the same time, the committee notes that well-designed policies could require large energy users to plan responsibly and contribute fairly to the infrastructure their growth requires.

To Meet the AI Energy Demand, We Must Think Beyond “More Power”

Meeting new demand by relying heavily on fossil fuels would make it harder to meet Oregon’s climate goals and could increase the pollution impacts that are associated with electricity generation. Oregon’s Clean Energy Targets require the state’s largest investor-owned utilities and electricity service suppliers to reduce power-sector greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent below baseline levels by 2030, 90 percent by 2035, and 100 percent by 2040.

That makes the challenge we’re facing more nuanced than building the fastest available power generation source. Oregon needs a power system that is:

• Clean enough to support the state’s climate commitments.
• Reliable enough for homes, businesses, hospitals, public safety, and critical services.
• Affordable for customers (who shouldn’t be expected to absorb the costs of poorly planned growth).
• Thoughtful about water and land use, and the impact on wildlife as well as the character of our local communities.
• Flexible enough to support new technologies without sacrificing our region’s resilience.

We recognize that there isn’t a single solution. Utility-scale renewables, transmission investments, battery storage, energy efficiency, demand-response programs, upgraded distribution equipment, and careful rules for large energy users will all play a role. But rooftop solar deserves to be given far more attention in this context.

Rooftops Are an Energy Resource Already In Place

Central Oregon has an advantage many communities would love to have: abundant sunshine and a large number of buildings with roofs already exposed to it.

It’s important for us to acknowledge that rooftop solar doesn’t replace the need for utility-scale projects or major grid investments. A solar array on a home or business can’t independently power an AI data center, and the responsibility for rising industrial demand shouldn’t fall on individual households.

Rather, what rooftop solar can do is help reduce the amount of electricity the grid needs to provide during sunny daytime hours. That’s especially valuable when systems are distributed across many homes and businesses in the community instead of concentrated in one location.

A growing network of rooftop systems can:

• Generate electricity close to where it’s consumed, reducing the need to move energy across long distances.
• Put existing roof space to use (rather than requiring new land for clean energy additions).
• Help homes and businesses offset part of their own electricity use.
• Support local resilience when paired with battery storage and appropriately designed backup circuits.
• Complement larger clean-energy projects by contributing additional daytime generation across the community.

For businesses especially, rooftop solar poses a significant opportunity. Retail buildings, offices, warehouses, agricultural facilities, and other commercial properties (think: parking garages, storage units, and car washes, for example) often have large, exposed roof areas that can produce electricity onsite, which also leads to more predictable operating costs over time.

For homeowners, solar is a practical way to take greater control of their energy use, especially as demand for electricity increases and utility planning and energy rates continue to evolve.

Storage and Flexibility Are Also Important

Solar production is highest when the sun is out, and electricity needs often climb in the morning and evening. That’s why battery storage, smart energy management, and demand flexibility are important factors to consider.

For example, a solar-plus-storage system can help a homeowner or business use more of the solar energy it produces, reduce reliance on the grid during selected periods, and maintain limited backup power during an outage (when designed for that purpose). This type of setup isn’t a substitute for the power grid, but it can make individual properties and the larger energy system more flexible.

Large energy users also have a role to play. Oregon utilities and technology partners have already tested data-center demand-response programs that reduce power use during periods of extreme weather, market-price spikes, or grid emergencies. We believe that kind of flexibility should become part of responsible data-center development, alongside investments in clean energy, efficiency, storage, and grid infrastructure.

In short, the solution shouldn’t be to address increasing demand with the same approach. The answer should be a smarter system in which everyone (from corporate facilities to local businesses and households) has a role in using energy more responsibly.

A Local Response to a Global Shift

AI may seem like a distant or abstract idea, but the energy required to power it is very real, and it has a local impact. These impacts affect utility planning, all of our household bills, our community’s resilience, open spaces/public lands, water, and Oregon’s progress toward a cleaner grid.

But Central Oregon doesn’t have to choose between innovation and the places we care about. We can support a modern economy while also asking intentional questions about who uses electricity, who pays for new infrastructure, and how clean energy is built.

While we recognize that rooftop solar doesn’t provide the entire solution, it is part of it. Solar provides a smart and scalable approach by allowing us to use the infrastructure we already have in place to generate power right where people live and work. In fact, as electricity demand grows, looking up is one of the most sensible places to start.

Curious what your roof could contribute? E2 Solar is a local contractor that help you understand your property’s potential for solar, projected energy production, battery-storage options, and the incentives that may apply to your home or business. Contact us for a complimentary assessment.