The largest utility company in the United States is struggling to meet electricity demand with natural gas alone. Renewable energy sources offer a viable solution to this challenge.

Nextera Energy (NEE.US), the largest utility and wind and solar power developer in the United States, believes that gas-fired power plants can only meet a small portion of the unprecedented electricity demand growth expected by 2030. John Ketchum, the company's CEO, said in an interview at the CERAWeek conference in Houston that even in the best-case scenario, about 75 GW of gas power could be built by the end of 2030, accounting for 16% of the total demand of 460 GW. Ketchum predicted that U.S. electricity demand would grow 55% over the next 20 years, six times faster than the 9% growth rate over the past 20 years.

The cost of these gas plants has also soared over the past 18 months. He said if the U.S. only focused on gas, they would become more expensive, forcing consumers and businesses to pay higher bills. Instead, the U.S. would need to rely on renewable energy to provide most of the electricity supply, about 350 GW, with the rest coming from delaying the retirement of existing coal plants.

"It's all up there: we need renewables, we need gas, we need nuclear. They're all going to happen at different times and at different costs, but we don't just make a decision and force ourselves to take one technology," Ketchum said.

Ketchum wants the U.S. to maintain the tax credits for renewable energy projects in the Biden era. He said: "If you take the renewable subsidies off the table, we're going to be a country of pony show in this country. We've put all our eggs in the gas basket."

Large data centers of Alphabet's Google, Microsoft (MSFT.US), Meta Platforms (META.US) and Amazon (AMZN.US) have driven electricity demand, and power supply has become a key bottleneck. Supply chain bottlenecks for turbines, grid equipment and labor are worsening, which may hinder efforts to produce enough new electricity.

Earlier, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright spoke at the same conference, pledging to completely change Biden's energy policy and completely focus on fossil fuels.