When Donald Trump lands in Britain, the headlines will focus on protocol, protests, and diplomacy. But beneath the pageantry, a single message could explode the foundations of Ed Miliband’s energy agenda: artificial intelligence needs reliable power and windmills won’t cut it.
Trump has always mocked wind and solar as “unreliable and expensive.” Now, with AI driving an unprecedented surge in global electricity demand, his point lands harder than ever. Data centres don’t run on sunny days and breezy afternoons — they run 24/7. If the grid goes down, so does the economy of the future.

The AI Energy Reality
The International Energy Agency warns AI and cloud computing could consume as much electricity as entire countries by 2030. In the US, data centre demand is forecast to double by the end of the decade. Britain wants to be an AI superpower too — but under Miliband’s Clean Power 2030, the grid is being forced into a patchwork of intermittent renewables, backed by costly batteries and imports.
Trump’s message will be simple: AI requires constant, affordable, baseload power. Nuclear and gas can provide it. Wind and solar cannot.
Why This Hurts Miliband
1. Grid Bottlenecks Already Exposed
Britain’s electricity network is bursting at the seams. Northern Powergrid red zones show areas where no new capacity can connect without billions in upgrades. Adding AI into that mix highlights just how threadbare the system has become.
2. Nuclear as the Trump Card
Trump’s state visit will spotlight nuclear cooperation between the US and UK. Miliband supports nuclear, but only as a sidekick to his wind and solar obsession. If Trump frames nuclear as the solution for AI, Miliband is left looking like a man clinging to outdated ideology.
3. Public Perception
Ordinary households already see the failure of renewables in their bills — rising standing charges, curtailment costs, and blackouts narrowly avoided last winter. If Trump says “AI needs power, Britain needs power, windmills don’t work,” it will resonate far more than Miliband’s climate slogans.
The Political Trap
Trump’s visit puts Miliband in an impossible position:
Agree with Trump on nuclear → admit that Clean Power 2030 is a fantasy.
Defend wind and solar → risk looking blind to the very technologies Britain claims to lead.
Either way, the debate moves from climate virtue-signalling to energy realism.
Conclusion
This state visit isn’t just about diplomacy. It’s about the future of Britain’s energy and economy. As Trump pushes the line that AI can’t be built on wind and solar, Ed Miliband’s grand plan may be exposed as little more than an ideological relic.
The world is entering the AI age. Reliable power is the new currency. And on that battlefield, Miliband is already fighting with broken weapons.

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