MOCA Systems, Inc. (MSI) announced a new special report from MSI Economics, the research unit of the construction services and technology firm. Recharging America: The Construction Opportunity in America’s Power Buildout, 2025–2030 quantifies how surging U.S. electricity demand converts into construction-market spend through 2030 and identifies the bottlenecks that will gate how much of that demand gets built. Under the midline scenario, natural gas, solar, wind, and nuclear generation markets’ construction spend is forecast to roughly double, from about $70 billion in 2025 to $150 billion a year by 2030, for a total of nearly $691 billion in cumulative construction spending over that period.

Utility-scale power demand is entering its first sustained growth phase in two decades, driven by an announced $1.66 trillion in data center and advanced-manufacturing investment. MSI Economics set out to separate the scale of that announced demand from underlying constraints to show builders, investors, and policymakers where to focus to convert the project pipeline into built capacity.

Key takeaways include:

  • Broad growth, Texas booming: 87% of the national implied construction spend to 2030 takes place in three interconnect regions, with Texas alone representing nearly half of that growth. Although Texas’s ERCOT interconnect market is smaller in peak demand than the Mid-Atlantic (PJM) and Midwest (MISO), it is growing three times as quickly.

  • Equipment, not permitting or financing, is the primary constraint: Large transformer lead times have stretched to as long as 128 weeks, and heavy-frame gas turbines are quoted at five to seven years from order to commercial operation. Those delays are compounded by limited domestic supply. Roughly half of upstream delays are tied directly to transformer and switchgear shortages.

  • The technology mix shapes who builds what: Solar anchors volume at roughly 74% of capacity additions and the lowest cost per megawatt, while natural gas is the only dispatchable source scaling materially, and the only technology with rising per-MW cost, up about 28% since 2022.

  • Nuclear energy carries strategic value despite minimal near-term volume: Nuclear costs six to seven times more than utility-scale solar per MW, and the EIA projects no nuclear additions before 2030. Even so, it remains the only carbon-free source capable of running continuously at 85 to 95% output, which is why we have modeled a breakout in this investigation. Moreover, sustained capital investment and pro-growth policies are creating favorable market conditions.

  • Capital is moving upstream to secure delivery certainty: Private investors including Blackstone and Brookfield are integrating generation ownership with end-use demand, backed by 15- to 20-year power purchase agreements, while federal financing has been reweighted, with roughly $30 billion in clean energy loans redirected toward gas and nuclear.

  • Volume is delayed, not destroyed: Manufacturers are expanding production, but most new output arrives in 2028 and later, so near-term construction stays throughput-limited even as deferred demand builds into the back half of the decade.

Brandon Michalski, MSI’s Chief Economist and the report’s author, noted: “The constraint on this buildout is not demand; it is execution. Equipment lead times, interconnection queues, skilled labor availability, and capital sequencing, not the size of the announced pipeline, will determine how much construction occurs and when. The firms and investors who most benefit will not be those chasing demand, which is plentiful, but those who can clear the execution path.”

To prepare the report, MSI Economics combined NERC regional reliability data, EIA capacity and cost benchmarks, GlobalData pipeline tracking, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory interconnection-queue research with original capital cost modeling. The team evaluated announced natural gas, solar, wind, and nuclear projects against four criteria: a cleared queue position, an executed interconnection agreement, reserved long-lead equipment, and committed financing. This approach helped distinguish projects likely to begin construction in the near term from announced capacity unlikely to break ground as scheduled.

The full text of the report can be found here.

About MOCA Systems, Inc.

MOCA Systems, Inc. (MSI) is a leading provider of services and software for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries. MSI delivers innovative solutions to Owners, Engineers, Architects, and Contractors building some of the world’s largest, most complex construction projects. A profitable firm with offices across the United States and partners around the globe, MSI drives construction excellence worldwide.

MSI’s MOCA Services unit provides a full suite of services and technologies that ensure projects are delivered on time, on budget, and meet all Owner expectations.

MSI’s Touchplan software is a leading planning platform for complex construction and commissioning projects, used by many of the largest contractors and owners across the industry.

To learn more, visit mocasystems.com.

About MSI Economics

MSI Economics provides data-driven economic analysis and advisory services for the architecture, engineering, and construction industries. The team delivers market analysis, feasibility studies, cost-benefit evaluations, economic risk assessments, investment appraisals, and policy guidance to help clients evaluate projects and portfolios with confidence. Drawing on deep expertise in construction, engineering, and applied economics, MSI Economics offers actionable insights and publishes “Today’s Construction Economy Report,” a quarterly forecast that tracks trends and informs strategic decision-making across the U.S. construction market.

To learn more, visit mocaservices.com/services/economic-services/.

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