Unlocking the next source of US energy dominance

Global Energy Agenda

May 6, 2026

Conner Prochaska

Conner Prochaska is the director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), an agency within the US Department of Energy. This essay is part of the 2026 Global Energy Agenda.

As the global economy develops and the US industrial base expands, demand for energy continues to grow at the fastest rate in a generation. In 2024, the US economy consumed 4,157 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity. The expansion of data centers’ capacity for compute is key to this transformation.

Unlocking the next source of US energy dominance

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