Closed-Door Workshop: Data Center Clean Energy Policy & How the Electron Accelerator is Driving State Progress Today

Discuss real policy updates: data center clean energy policy proposals, moving forward at the state level today and setting the stage for future federal opportunities. Actively workshop the Electron Accelerator (endorsed by the House of Representatives Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition) foundational to these proposals (hourly clean energy standard for data centers + around-the-clock clean incentives). Feedback here will directly support active and future legislation. Bring together experts, practitioners, policymakers, and leaders in the electricity, data center, and grid space. Why Data centers represent a massive impact on the electricity grid, a major opportunity for clean energy deployment, and a pivotal political moment at the state and federal levels. Enduring solutions will need to balance accountability, ratepayer and taxpayer protection, and will leverage tech capital for clean energy deployment and grid benefits. From a leading grid expert: "We need a mechanism that pairs data center responsibility with incentives to be good grid citizens, and smart policy can channel willingness to pay into a flywheel of clean grid expansion.The Electron Accelerator, a market-driven "feebate" targeting hyperscale data centers, is such a policy." -Jigar Shah The House of Representatives Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition also included the Electron Accelerator as a key policy idea in their recent Thriving Economy Project policy blueprint. Roundtable Format This is a co-creation opportunity, a chance for a small group of highly focused experts to speak off the record about high integrity, impactful data center policy. The goal of the event is to surface objections, questions, critiques, and leave with clearer understanding of the political potential and opportunities for this kind of idea.  The idea is "come build this" rather than "come hear about this." Active Policy Conversations The Electron Accelerator is already being incorporated and reflected in elements of key data center legislation at the state and federal level. Some of the key policy discussions we'll cover in this roundtable are: Illinois The Advanced Technology Leadership Act (HB5607), would require covered data centers to procure and retire energy attribute certificates, rising from 70% of consumption in 2027 to 100% by 2030, with hourly matching phasing in from 2030 and reaching 100% by 2035. In ongoing legislative negotiations, the Electron Accelerator component is included in this bill. Virginia There is draft legislation based on the Electron Accelerator and Illinois' HB5607 being circulated in Virginia, the data center capital of the world. It will be under consideration for Virginia's 2027 session. Colorado Colorado considered data center legislation last year that included some elements of hourly clean electricity matching, but nothing was passed. There will be another opportunity in 2027 to influence and support ambitious, thoughtful data center policy there. New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and California all represent key opportunities to move high integrity data center clean energy policies in the near future. Federal The Clean Cloud Act (S.1475 / H.R.6179) introduced by Senator Whitehouse offers a different type of fee architecture: an emissions baseline per grid region that drops 11% annually from 2027 through 2034 and hits zero in 2035, with fees recycled into zero-carbon generation, long-duration storage, and residential bill relief. It requires data centers meet the "three pillars" of clean energy matching: hourly matched, deliverable, and new. EnergyTag is an endorser. Further Background What is the Electron Accelerator? The Electron Accelerator is a "feebate" for the largest grid users. Data centers pay a fee for hours they draw on grid power without matching consumption to new clean generation in the same time and place. Any fees paid then flow through a reverse auction that covers the gap between what buyers will pay for around-the-clock clean supply and what suppliers need to deliver it. It incentivizes clean energy supply to match data centers and creates a race to the top for good actors. What makes Electron Accelerator different? This is the first serious proposal that makes data center growth pay for its own round-the-clock clean power, rather than choosing between speed and responsibility. Every data center conversation right now is stuck in a two-sided fight: developers want speed-to-power, while voters and legislators want protection from rising electricity bills. Polling shows a possible, policy middle-ground if you change the frame — fossil-powered data centers are opposed by a 16-point margin, while clean-powered ones are supported by a 25-point margin. Today, most ratepayer-protection bills don't require the new power to be clean, and almost none require it to be clean in the hours the facility is actually running. The Electron Accelerator addresses these gaps with both a carrot and stick approach to data center demand growth, leading to mutually beneficial clean energy development to meet new demand. Electron Accelerator stands out because: It's purely industry-funded, not taxpayer-funded. The money comes from private industry, so new clean power for data centers arrives without burdening public budgets. It's designed to sunset itself. Revenue scales with how dirty and unmatched the load is — high-emission regions raise more, spend more, and over time pay in less and need less help. It is built to compete itself out of existence. It solves a cost problem. Roughly 80% hourly matching is already cost-competitive; the IEA puts the move from 80% to 99%+ at about $45/MWh — a green firming premium gap sm