US global leadership depends on a reliable, modern energy system
Heather Zichal is the global head of sustainability at JPMorganChase. JPMorganChase is a partner of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum. This essay is part of the 2026 Global Energy Agenda.
The US race for leadership in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and advanced manufacturing will be won—or lost—on the foundation of resilient, diversified energy systems.
Today, we are asking our power system to do more, from enabling electrification to meeting rapidly growing demand to power AI innovation. Resiliency is needed in the form of diversified energy supplies, more robust infrastructure, and secure supply chains.
That’s the logic behind major private-sector investment strategies, such as JPMorganChase’s Security and Resiliency Initiative—a $1.5 trillion, ten-year commitment to facilitate, finance, and invest in industries critical to national economic security and competitiveness. A key focus area for the initiative is energy independence and resiliency. The opportunity is significant precisely because the constraints are significant—interconnection queues, equipment shortages, and outdated market structures are all slowing power deployment, but they’re also driving demand for the solutions that can break through them. When we look at where the momentum is building, the real bright spots are batteries, the grid, and nuclear energy.
The grid
Built for an era of low demand and local energy delivery, our electric grid and its regulatory ecosystem are increasingly fragile and in urgent need of modernization.
Comprehensive policy and regulatory reforms are needed across the complicated network of regulations that oversee the power system. This includes permitting reform that will make it easier to build infrastructure, especially transmission lines and new generation capacity regardless of technology. However, permitting alone will not be enough to solve the grid’s challenges; further action will be needed from federal, state, and regional energy regulators and grid operators to address the grid’s broader challenges.
Mobilizing investment will also be necessary to upgrade our aging grid. Today, a shortage of high-voltage transformers and switchgears has led to waits of two to five years just to get the parts needed to build or upgrade the system. It will be very challenging to modernize with speed unless investment also expands the industrial capacity behind the grid—manufacturing for long-lead equipment, the skilled workforce to install it, and the supply chains that keep projects moving. In parallel, investment should scale near-term solutions that unlock capacity faster, like grid-enhancing technologies and advanced controls, while larger transmission projects work through the pipeline.
Batteries
Fueled by innovation and supportive policy, battery prices are falling and deployment is skyrocketing. Battery energy storage prices in 2025 are one-third of 2020 levels. And US grid battery installations surged to a record last year, reaching the highest-ever level of annual added capacity despite tariffs and federal policy headwinds.
As costs continue to decline—and as recycling and circular supply chains mature—storage is moving from a specialized solution to a mainstream reliability tool, improving project economics and expanding where batteries can compete.
This bears tangible benefits to the grid: It shifts energy to when it’s needed most, manages peaks, smooths volatility, and provides fast, flexible capacity that supports reliability as demand rises. Where the grid is congested, new battery capacity can provide additional flexibility that can speed load interconnection.
A major challenge for batteries is supply-chain concentration. China dominates global clean energy supply chains. It controls over 80 percent of manufacturing for solar, wind, and battery technologies—and dominates supply chains for critical minerals and other upstream components.
This dependency can be reduced through reshoring and innovation—but will require action from both the public and private sectors. On reshoring, there have been efforts to fortify supply of critical minerals, but there is still work to be done on battery components. Innovation is just as critical (if not more so) as reshoring. Investment in next-generation battery technologies, especially long-duration storage, can position the United States and partners to lead on the battery technologies of tomorrow.
Nuclear energy
As electricity demand rises from AI, electrification, and reindustrialization, the value of firm, dispatchable generation will increase. Nuclear energy sits in a unique place in that mix: It can deliver large-scale, around-the-clock, low-carbon power that supports reliability and steadies the system when other resources are constrained.
Scaling nuclear in the United States is ultimately a policy and market execution challenge. On the policy side, deployment can be accelerated at no cost by establishing a clearer, faster pathway that rewards performance and safety: predictable licensing timelines, streamlined reviews where appropriate, and permitting and siting processes that are transparent and durable across political cycles. Fiscal incentives, especially that address cost overruns, have the potential to unlock billions of dollars in investment. On the market side, structures that value what nuclear projects provide—reliability, resilience, and long-duration capacity—can attract capital with confidence rather than relying on one-off fixes.
Done right, nuclear energy becomes not just a generation choice but a competitive advantage—firm power that strengthens reliability, affordability, and energy security at the same time.
Battery, grid, and nuclear projects each address a different dimension of the same challenge. Together, batteries bring flexibility; a modernized grid ensures delivery; and nuclear energy provides the firm, round-the-clock power that a high-demand economy cannot do without.
None of these solutions stands alone. Each requires sustained investment, stable policy, a skilled workforce, and market structures that value reliability. But the direction of travel is clear: Countries that deliver reliable, affordable power at scale will attract the factories, data centers, and jobs that define the twenty-first-century economy.
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