Powering the Future: Why Your Data Center Forecasts Are Missing a Critical Piece.

The surge in data center power demand is undeniably the topic of the year. Recent reports from leading industry analysts, including EPRI, S&P Global, and Industrial Info Resources (IIR), paint a striking picture of the energy sector's future.

• EPRI's report, "Scaling Intelligence: The Exponential Growth of AI’s Power Needs," projects that U.S. data center capacity could range from 60 GW to a staggering 130 GW by 2030. This projection, which assumes the U.S. maintains 50% of global AI capacity, has profound implications for the energy grid.
• S&P Global's analysis, "US datacenter power draw to double by 2028," corroborates this trend, forecasting that U.S. data center power demand will nearly double from 2024 levels to 95 GW by 2028. States like Texas and Oregon are already grappling with the potential for power supply shortages and infrastructure strain.
• IIR's data indicates an impressive 122 GW of proposed data center projects by 2030, in addition to a current base of over 56 GW.

While these reports provide a high-level view, they also reveal a critical challenge: a significant percentage of proposed projects—ranging from 25% to 65%— will never be developed. This is where SynMax Vulcan becomes an indispensable tool.

Our weekly satellite imagery provides unparalleled insight into real-world project development, allowing you to cut through the noise and identify which projects are actually breaking ground. Every single project, without exception, begins with visible land clearing. By tracking this activity, we can separate viable projects from those that exist only on paper. Our data already shows that over 70% of 2027 projects are still in this non-development bucket. With 2027 on the horizon, we should soon see land clearing begin for these projects—or watch them fall off the timeline or be shifted farther into the future.

This week's data provides a perfect example of Vulcan's predictive power. We have identified a 200 MW solar project in ERCOT (Yaupon Solar Project) that has just begun land clearing. Though the EIA's planned online date is 12/2026, our satellite imagery suggests an aggressive construction timeline, with a potential online date as early as March 2026. This acceleration may be driven by the project's developers seeking to meet crucial tax credit deadlines.

This level of granular, weekly project intelligence is exclusive to SynMax Vulcan. Don't wait for the headlines—see the future unfold first. Subscribe to SynMax Vulcan and gain the competitive edge.

Project Highlight:
66216 Yaupon Solar Project (Hybrid), 200 MW, Milam County TX

EIA Planned Online: 12/2026, Vulcan Earliest Online: 3/10/2026

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