The global energy transition has been on an extraordinary tear in recent years. It's a surge that even President Donald Trump, with his ruthless dismantling of U.S. climate and energy policies, along with a broader economic slowdown, will struggle to reverse. Propelled by record levels of public and private investment, utility-scale solar and wind power accounted for close to 90% of all new energy build-outs in the U.S. in the first nine months of 2024, a nearly 30% surge over 2023. With the buildout of big solar and battery plants expected to hit an all-time high in 2025, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a recent report that renewables would jump to 93% of new power generation this year.

Still, the low-carbon, electrified future can't come quickly enough. The surge in energy consumption by data centers, electric vehicles, and manufacturing is putting a strain on an already struggling electrical grid and pushing up planet-warming pollution: Alongside all the clean energy, the amount of energy derived from oil and coal and natural gas are also hitting all-time highs. The heavy-duty chips used to train AI models and infer outputs are especially demanding: Running and cooling the data centers they fill already uses as much electricity each year as Italy, which has the eighth-largest GDP in the world. With all these greenhouse gases, we're likely to need even more cooling: January to June of last year was the planet's warmest six-month stretch in 175 years. This year's Most Innovative Companies in energy are meeting the challenge with advances that stretch from microgrids to giant batteries to the fan motors that keep data centers and the rest of the economy humming along. By assembling giant battery systems, Powin is helping ease the transition to cleaner energy sources and optimizing grid performance. And Intersect Power is building up capacity before the grid even arrives by working "behind the meter" to combine battery storage with solar farms…

Alex Pasternack

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