For the first time in a generation, electricity demand is rising faster than the grid can grow — and the culprit is computing. Utilities are delaying retirements, restarting old plants, and quoting years-long waits for new connections.
The tell is the absurdity at both ends: record solar capacity gets curtailed — switched off for lack of somewhere to go — while data centers a state away sign deals for gas and coal. The energy is there. The architecture connecting it to demand isn't.
Inside: why compute's demand shock breaks the grid's planning model; what curtailment reveals about stranded energy value; how light-native computing — a fraction of the draw, solar-capable, sited where the sun is — turns stranded energy into the industry's cheapest asset; and who owns the meeting point of light-made power and light-run compute.

This isn't a green pledge. It's an industry map for energy's collision with compute — written for builders who want to see it first.

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