As the United States races to expand its electricity supply, most of the attention has gone to the visible pieces of the system: the solar farms, battery installations, and power-hungry data centers that now dot the landscape. Less visible are the land parcels that make those projects possible, and the companies that hold them for years before any steel goes in the ground.
That quiet work is taking on new importance just as two big forces collide: a sharp rise in electricity demand from data centers, many of them optimized for artificial intelligence workloads, and a new era of tariffs and trade barriers reshaping the cost of clean-energy equipment.
Data centers already account for roughly 4% of U.S. electricity use, according to estimates compiled for the Department of Energy, and their demand is projected to more than double by the end of this decade as high-density computing spreads. A separate analysis from the Electric Power Research Institute suggests they could consume up to about 9% of U.S. electricity by 2030.
Meeting that growth with low-carbon power was always going to be a challenge. Doing it in the middle of a trade and industrial policy reset is harder still.
A New Tariff Era for Clean Energy
Recently, Washington has moved to expand and increase tariffs on a range of imports from China and other countries—including solar cells and modules, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and some semiconductor products that sit at the heart of modern energy and computing systems—a policy shift that accelerated again this year under President Trump.
For solar components, the U.S. Trade Representative has backed raising Section 301 tariffs on Chinese cells and modules from 25% to 50%, on top of existing duties and other trade measures. In 2025, a new round of reciprocal tariffs extended higher rates—ranging from about 10% to 50% depending on origin—to critical components used in solar projects across the country.
Battery storage, while largely spared direct cuts, has still been pulled into the same orbit through residential-credit changes, supply-chain rules, and the knock-on effects on hybrid solar-plus-storage projects. Proposed and finalized actions would lift tariffs on many lithium-ion battery products and parts, alongside higher duties on electric vehicles and some grid hardware.
Supporters frame the measures as a necessary correction after years of dependence on Chinese manufacturing in key clean-energy supply chains. China produces the majority of the world's polysilicon wafers and dominates manufacturing in several other technologies, a concentration that has long worried U.S. policymakers.
But in the near term, the tariffs inject volatility into project economics. Developers bidding on multi-hundred-megawatt solar or storage projects must now factor in the possibility that equipment costs will move sharply between initial modeling and final procurement. For utilities and large power users such as the companies planning new data centers, that uncertainty feeds into decisions about where—and how quickly—to build.
Why Long-Term Land Stewardship Suddenly Matters More
While policymakers and manufacturers argue over tariffs and supply chains, a quieter factor is helping to determine which projects move forward: land that is already prepared for the grid.
For utilities, renewable developers, and potential data center operators, the immediate challenge is not only securing equipment. It is finding sites that can actually be built on within a reasonable timeframe. In a market where hardware prices can shift with each new trade announcement, projects with the most work already done on the ground have a clear advantage.
Project Timing Risk
Recent tariff increases on solar equipment and battery components have added another layer of uncertainty to project economics. A development that appears viable when one set of prices is in place can look very different a few months later. In that environment, fully entitled land close to transmission lines has become a way to manage risk. If a site has clear zoning and access to existing or planned grid infrastructure, developers can move more quickly when conditions line up.
"Speed matters more than it used to," said one California-based energy finance adviser. "When costs and supply chains are volatile, projects that are ready to go have a much easier time attracting capital."
Interconnection and Siting Delays
Even without tariffs, interconnection backlogs in many parts of the West can run for years. Transmission studies, wildlife surveys, cultural resource work, and local permitting often move at a very different pace than the technology they are meant to support. Land that is already tied into or near major transmission corridors and has made progress through those steps can save significant time.
That is particularly true in regions like northern Los Angeles County and the Antelope Valley, where high-voltage lines, strong solar resources, and growing local demand overlap.
More Selective Capital
Higher costs have also made investors more cautious. Funds and utilities increasingly focus on locations where environmental and permitting work is advanced, rights-of-way and access are secured, local attitudes toward large-scale energy development are reasonably stable, and grid upgrades are understood rather than hypothetical. Partially prepared sites can still move, but they face stiffer competition for financing than parcels that have already cleared key hurdles.
Where Velur Fits into the Picture
In California's Antelope Valley, firms such as Velur Enterprises have spent years identifying and holding land near existing transmission infrastructure and planned growth corridors. They do not decide where utilities or data center operators ultimately build, and they are not the public face of major projects. But by doing much of the slow, administrative work in advance, title clean-up, they help ensure that some sites are genuinely ready when developers start looking for places to put new solar arrays, storage facilities, or other grid-connected projects.
California's High Desert and a Changing Western Grid
Nowhere do these dynamics intersect more clearly than in California's high desert, including the Antelope Valley.
Over the past decade, the region has become a major center for large-scale solar development. Utility-scale projects now cover thousands of acres, taking advantage of strong sun and existing transmission that ties the area into the grid serving Los Angeles and other population centers. At the same time, new housing, logistics hubs, and light industrial projects are bringing more local demand and more attention from planners.
California's role in the broader Western grid is also shifting. State policymakers have moved toward a more integrated regional electricity market in which utilities and grid operators across multiple states coordinate more closely, allowing power to flow more freely across borders. Combined with rapid growth in solar and one of the largest fleets of grid-scale batteries in the country, that could position California as a significant exporter of clean electricity to neighboring states during certain hours.
The Stakes in a Decade of Heavy Demand
Forecasts differ on exactly how much electricity U.S. data centers will consume by 2030, but most point in the same direction: rapid growth. The International Energy Agency projects that global demand from data centers will more than double by 2030, with the United States seeing data centers drive a large share of overall load growth.
Either way, the projects that do move forward are likely to share certain traits. They will be located on land that has been quietly prepared for years. They will be close to transmission that can carry large amounts of power. And they will be backed by investors and utilities who have grown more cautious about where they place long-lived capital.
In that landscape, firms that specialize in long-term, energy-adjacent landholdings—Velur among them—are unlikely to feature in ribbon-cutting photos or political speeches. But their role in getting sites ready, and keeping options open, may turn out to be one of the more important pieces of an energy transition now playing out under the combined pressure of surging demand and a new tariff regime.
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