data center

As AI demand accelerates, the race is on to bend the power curve before it bends the grid. The first electric refrigerators were mechanical curiosities—loud, bulky appliances that consumed staggering amounts of electricity. But they spread anyway, because the productivity gains were too great to ignore. Daily habits shifted. Food systems reshaped. Household labor changed […]

An energy company focused on supporting artificial intelligence (AI) through infrastructure has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a Utah-based nuclear power services company, as the groups evaluate ways to provide electricity for a massive data center campus in that state.

A Texas-based developer and operator of next-generation digital infrastructure and integrated power assets announced it has entered into a land option purchase agreement for a site in New Mexico that would feature a vast data center center campus. The plan announced November 6 calls for more than 2 GW of natural gas-fired generation capacity, and 5 GW or more of nuclear power, to energize the 3,500-acre site.

Data centers are the backbone of the digital age, housing the servers and networking equipment that power everything from cloud computing to streaming services. As these facilities grow in size and complexity, so does the challenge of keeping them cool.

Google announced the first phase of a $4-billion data center project in West Memphis, Arkansas, an initiative that state officials have called one of the largest economic investments in state history. The facility, located near the Arkansas-Tennessee state line, will be powered by Entergy using solar power and existing generation in the area.

This week, the energy world convenes in New York for the United Nations Climate Week. The gathering will encompass the most vital sectors of the U.S. economy at present—technology firms and utilities will be well-represented, along with a host of consultants, suppliers, experts, and academics, who consistently attend these events. UN Climate Week mirrors another […]

With billions of dollars pouring into the sector from power players like Google and Amazon, the data center industry is having a moment. But this surge in investment and interest has also brought up serious questions—particularly around how we are going to power these massive computing engines. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data […]

A major solar farm owner and operator is partnering with an electric cooperative to build a 100-MW solar power facility that will serve Meta’s first data center in South Carolina. Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and other social media and communication platforms, is expanding its relationship with Silicon Ranch, a project developer and independent […]

Three groups active in the industrial infrastructure space have announced a collaboration that would create the largest data center campus in Utah and provide gigawatts of new power generation capacity to the state. Infrastructure company Joule Capital Partners, along with Caterpillar Inc., and Wheeler Machinery Co. on August 7 said they have an agreement to […]

The global buildout of data centers continues to put a spotlight on the energy needs of those facilities. LuxConnect, a Luxembourg-based data center firm, has made sustainability one of its main goals.

Ohio regulators have approved construction of a 200-MW natural gas-fired power plant in Licking County, a project designed to provide electricity for an affiliate of tech company Meta.

A startup company led by former executives with major technology and energy groups is betting on the use of natural gas and battery energy storage to provide data centers with on-site power, freeing those sites from reliance on the traditional power grid.

Today’s data centers, the workhorses of our digital economy, face a paradox. While they are asked to fuel the rapid advancement of generative AI, they must do so under increasingly tight energy budgets, with sustainability mandates and power constraints threatening to slow innovation. The question isn’t whether AI will transform industries—it already is—but whether our infrastructure can keep up without buckling under the weight of AI’s energy appetite.

As the artificial intelligence (AI) boom drives exponential demand for data centers, the United States’ position as an AI leader is at risk without immediate action to address growth constraints.

Officials in Pennsylvania have announced the redevelopment of a former coal-fired power plant site into a $10-billion-plus data center campus that will be powered by natural gas, in what they call the largest capital investment project in that state’s history. Homer City Redevelopment (HCR) and Kiewit Power Constructors on April 2 said the former Homer […]

The U.S. is facing an energy emergency, as escalating electricity demand, unstable fossil fuel markets, and the rapid growth of energy-intensive infrastructure strain the nation’s energy systems. Shallow geothermal energy offers a groundbreaking solution to this crisis by stabilizing the grid, reducing emissions, and delivering cost-effective heating and cooling. This article explores the technological, economic, […]

A Netherlands-headquartered company focused on building infrastructure for the artificial intelligence (AI) sector said it plans to build a new data center in New Jersey. Nebius Group, based in Amsterdam, said the facility would be part of a phased development that would be expandable up to a total capacity of 300 MW.

Prominent private equity investment firm Blackstone has agreed to acquire the 774-MW Potomac Energy Center—a natural gas power plant located in Virginia’s “Data Center Alley”—in a deal reportedly valued at approximately $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. Previously known as the Panda Stonewall Energy Facility, the Potomac Energy Center is situated within […]

Advanced nuclear technology firm Oklo is partnering with Texas-based prime and backup solutions company RPower to roll out an innovative “phased energy model” that will combine natural gas and nuclear to offer a scalable and sustainable turnkey solution for data centers. The companies on Jan. 17 said they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to […]

The new year always provides a great opportunity to take a look back to see what POWER got right (or wrong) in our previous industry forecast. More importantly, it gives us a chance to look ahead. Some things

The Uptime Institute’s Tier standard is a globally recognized framework that classifies data centers into four tiers based on their infrastructure’s reliability, redundancy, and fault tolerance. These tiers—Tier I through Tier IV—provide a benchmark for data center performance, ranging from basic infrastructure (Tier I) to fully fault-tolerant systems (Tier IV). Each tier reflects specific design […]

Everywhere you turn these days people are talking about data centers and the enormous amount of electrical power they are expected to demand as artificial intelligence (AI) platforms scale up and become more

The digital age is fundamentally dependent on data centers, which serve as the backbone of our technological infrastructure. Without them, the digital world as we know it would not exist. However, the rapid expansion of data centers has put unprecedented stress on the electric grid, leading to increased energy consumption and heightened demand for power. […]

A company that provides connectivity and colocation services for customers across North America has announced plans to build a data center campus in Central Ohio. Cologix, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, on Nov. 20 said it had acquired land in Johnstown, Ohio, where it will develop eight artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Cologix is considered a […]

A filing with the Louisiana Public Service Commission shows that Entergy plans to build more than 2 GW of natural gas-fired power generation in the state, including a 1,500-MW facility in northeast Louisiana that would provide power for a large Meta data center operation in an area off Interstate 20 in Holly Ridge (Figure 1). […]

You don’t need me to tell you how artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting the power grid; you can just ask AI. Claude, an AI assistant created by Anthropic, told POWER, “AI training and inference are driving unprecedented demand for data center capacity, particularly due to large language models and other compute-intensive AI workloads.” It also […]

Marking the first-ever revival of a nuclear power plant in the U.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) on Sept. 30 finalized a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to Holtec International to support the recommissioning of the 800-MW Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township, Michigan. Separately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded electric cooperative Wolverine Power […]

$100 billion investment potential will enhance American competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) while meeting the growing need for energy infrastructure to power economic growth The drive to develop more powerful AI capabilities will require significant infrastructure investment to support it. BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and MGX announced on Sept. 17 the Global AI […]

GE Vernova said it has been chosen by investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners to integrate 250 MW/1,000 MWh of battery energy storage into a major data center complex in Queensland, Australia. Quinbook, with U.S. headquarters in Houston, Texas, and offices in the UK and Australia, is a specialist investment manager focused on the energy transition […]

A demonstration project led by Caterpillar at a Wyoming site showed that large-format hydrogen fuel cells could be used to supply backup power to a data center. Caterpillar on Jan. 19 announced the project, done in collaboration with Microsoft and Ballard Power Systems, provided insights into the use of hydrogen fuel cells to support energy-intensive […]