Ohio's blocked renewables tighten PJM supply as data-center demand climbs

Ohio's blocked renewables tighten PJM supply as data-center demand climbs The state has stalled 5.3 GW of wind and solar inside PJM's footprint as AI load surges, though cheap coal and gas keep real-time signals mixed. The Ohio Supreme Court blocked a permit for the 800-megawatt Oak Run Solar Project, what would be the state's largest solar installation, in the week of 2026-05-25, Canary Media reported on Friday (2026-06-05). The court reversed only part of the approval, so the project still has a pathway to completion.⁶ That matters because Ohio sits inside PJM, the grid operator fielding some of the fastest data-center load growth in the country. Blocking new generation while demand climbs squeezes the supply side of a market already chasing megawatts.^6,2 The Oak Run ruling is not an outlier. Ohio has stalled roughly 5.3 GW of clean energy through siting fights and statute, Canary Media reported (2026-06-05). A 2014 law that more than doubled property-line setbacks for wind turbines effectively blocked over 3.3 GW of utility-scale projects, the report said.⁶ Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 52, which lets counties ban new solar projects above 50 MW and wind farms able to produce more than 5 MW. Eight rulings under that regime have killed more than 1.1 GW of solar, and developers withdrew five further applications worth roughly another 1 GW after adverse staff recommendations from the Power Siting Board.⁶ Demand is moving the other way. Data centers now account for about half of US incremental electricity demand growth, the IEA said in its global energy assessment. They consume 5% of America's power, up from 2% a decade ago.^2,4 The growth is steep. Global data-center electricity demand rose 17% in 2025, with AI-focused consumption surging 50%, the IEA reported in an April 2026 report. Grid Strategies projects the US data-center market to grow by at least 65 GW and as much as 90 GW by 2029.^2,5³ The wires cannot keep pace. Regional grid operators outside Texas have asked to extend a 2021 federal deadline to upgrade transmission. Only 13% of the capacity that filed interconnection requests between 2000 and 2019 had reached commercial operation by the end of 2024, while 77% was withdrawn.^3,2 Yet blocked renewables do not automatically lift power prices when fossil generation is cheap and dispatchable. In neighbouring MISO, the coal dark spread widened to $23/MWh in 2025 from $11/MWh a year earlier, EIA data showed, as wholesale electricity prices ran ahead of fuel costs.¹ That kind of margin keeps existing coal and gas plants in the money and able to backfill the gap left by stalled wind and solar.¹ That is why PJM real-time pressure is running mixed rather than one-way bullish. Traders are weighing the supply blockage against ample fossil capacity.¹ The complication for the bearish case is timing. Data-center load is being added in months. Transmission and the renewables Ohio just blocked take years, if they survive siting at all.^3,2 The unresolved risk is whether the gap stays manageable. If county bans keep killing projects while interconnection queues stay clogged, PJM's real-time market tightens regardless of current fuel economics. The blocked 5.3 GW does not return to the queue quickly.^6,2 Watch the Power Siting Board's next rulings and whether regulators grant the transmission-deadline extension. Both decisions set how much new supply PJM can actually connect against a load curve that is not waiting.^3,6