The Grid, Data Centers, and the New Energy Landman with Jigar Shah
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Everyone wants more power on the grid, fast. It turns out about 90% of what's actually getting built is solar and battery storage, for one plain reason: it's the only supply chain that isn't backordered.
You can get panels and a battery delivered next week. A gas turbine? You're waiting years.
That changes the land conversation. The projects moving right now are the ones you can actually build, and they're landing in neighborhoods, not just out in the Permian. Follow where the equipment can ship, and you'll see where the land work goes next.
For years it was oil and gas versus renewables. That framing is gone.
Data centers showed up moving fast and breaking things, then learned you can't break the grid when people's lives run on it. Now the tech, oil and gas, and renewable teams are sharing software, mapping the grid together, and respecting what each side actually knows.
For land professionals, that's the whole game. The person who can work oil and gas, renewables, and data center siting in the same week is the one every developer wants on the project. Stack the skill sets.
Nobody wants a transmission line crossing their land for a project that gives them nothing. That's where right-of-way deals die.
Jigar Shah's fix: hand that landowner a solar and battery unit that zeroes their electricity bill for 35 years. For around $29,000, the line that used to be a burden becomes a gift that keeps giving.
People don't want to be paid off. They want to be treated with dignity and be part of the decision. Get that right and you solve right-of-way without condemnation, without the bad press, and without the fight that follows a project for years.
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After Winter Storm Uri, Texans wanted backup power. Then they did the math: a near-free battery from a provider beats a $6,000 generator you pay to test every year.
Once the battery's in, solar panels are the cheap next step. For most people this is a budget decision, and it's quietly reshaping the grid.
Landmen built the oil and gas industry over 150 years. Now renewables and data center developers are showing up, and the ones who bring landmen in early are the ones getting projects across the line.
The job hasn't changed: tell the truth to a community in a way people understand, and help them get behind the project.
Solar and batteries got cheap enough to change how you win a right-of-way. For about $29,000, you can give a landowner a zero electricity bill for 35 years instead of a one-time check.
People don't want to be paid off. They want to be treated with dignity. That's what closes the deal now.
The energy business you trained for keeps changing under your feet. Oil and gas, renewables, and now data centers used to be separate worlds. Today they're colliding into one grid, and the land professional sits right in the middle of it. Jigar Shah, former head of the DOE Loan Programs Office, joins Brent and Natalie for a state-of-the-union on where energy actually stands in 2026. Solar and batteries are carrying the load, data centers are learning to play nice, and right-of-way fights are getting solved in ways nobody expected. If you're working land where power, water, and infrastructure all compete for the same acres, this conversation is your map for the next five years.
- Why solar and storage are the only power supply chain that isn't backordered
- How homeowners are backing into batteries and solar through their budgets
- Why oil and gas, renewables, and data centers now need the same landmen
- How a $29,000 solar and battery unit is replacing cash in right-of-way deals
- What the next five years of grid, transmission, and land work look like
“Everything starts with land. That's it.”
— Jigar“You can't just come in there and throw money at a situation. That'll only take you so far.”
— Brent“Landmen have built empires for oil and gas for a hundred and fifty years.”
— Natalie“We just need to depoliticize energy. It's all energy, it's all money, it's all cold beer, and a working coffee maker.”
— Jigar- Solar and battery storage win right now because they're the only power supply chain that isn't backordered. If you need capacity on the grid fast, that's what you can actually deploy this year.
- Homeowners are backing into solar and batteries through their budgets, not climate politics. A near-free battery beats a $6,000 generator, and the panels follow once the inverter is already there.
- Oil and gas, renewables, and data centers are merging into one energy industry. The landmen who can work across all three sectors are the ones getting hired.
- Community engagement is a core land skill, not a checkbox. Show up, tell the truth, and treat people with dignity before you talk money, or the project stalls.
- Solar and batteries are becoming the new right-of-way incentive. A $29,000 unit that zeroes a landowner's bill for 35 years beats a cash offer and sidesteps condemnation.
- The grid is a shared resource, and the companies that tried to go it alone lost. Plan for interconnection and shared capacity instead of off-grid independence.
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