MBEF Winter Update 2025
Greetings MBEF Members:
Wow, 2025 is bringing all kinds of weather to Missouri in the first weeks of the new year. We’ve got snow and ice in the northern half of the state and wet weather to the south. Road crews are clearing roads 24/7 right now and we are grateful for their dedication to this thankless job.
After a second round of snow and precipitation, our electric grid is showing incredible strength and resiliency. According to poweroutage.us, just over 11,000 people statewide are experiencing power outages. In a state of over 6 million people, this is an incredibly low number.
Solar Energy Growth
Missouri’s energy portfolio continues to grow with the addition of new locally generated solar projects coming on line. One such project is Ameren Missouri’s Huck Finn project, which is now operational and can produce up to 200 megawatts of electricity. This is currently the largest solar project in Missouri.
The Solar Energy Industry Association provides this graph to show Missouri’s growth in this industry:
Projects like Huck Finn, located in Audrain and Ralls Counties create hundreds of construction jobs and provide millions of dollars in revenue for these communities. Other projects are expected to come on line this year and next, which will continue to provide cleaner, locally generated sources of energy.
AI and Energy
Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and its impact on society. We are finding that AI technology touches almost every industry for better or worse. Indeed, AI is a useful tool that allows our local utilities to better combat and predict power outages and it provides valuable intelligence to secure our nation’s electric grid. A major issue with AI though, it requires immense amounts of energy to process. Data centers are all the rage as the Googles and Amazons of the world seek to build data centers across the U.S., some right here in Missouri. Growth in the use of AI spurs significant demand for electricity, which strains our power generation. The constant requirement of energy to power AI and these data centers puts the spotlight on new energy generation, but also energy transmission. Do we have enough of an energy super-highway to supply a future with AI? A recent conference in Jefferson City discussed this very issue. We’ll take a deeper dive in future updates in 2025.
Until then, stay safe and warm and I hope your 2025 starts off on a positive note.
