data centers

The power of U.S. innovation and market incentives cannot be underestimated. The convergence of a business-driven energy transition and the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) have exposed a critical bottleneck within our energy grid.

Vema Hydrogen, developer of a sustainable hydrogen production technology, said it has entered a hydrogen purchase and sale agreement with Verne, a provider of on-site power and cooling solutions. Verne will leverage Vema’s clean energy, known as Engineered Mineral Hydrogen (EMH), to provide low-emission power for its data center customers.

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has selected the five commercial teams that will potentially demonstrate advanced applications—including data center integration—at its much-watched Microreactor Application Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) platform, an 85-kWth/20-kWe liquid-metal-cooled test bed currently under construction at the lab. The initial selections, unveiled on Dec. 4, mark the “first potential end users for MARVEL,” […]

POWER breaks down the top insights from Data Center POWER eXchange, its unique one-day summit curated by POWER’s editorial team and convened to examine the collision between accelerating data center load and tightening grid constraints.  The rise of artificial intelligence is poised to create the fastest, largest, and most concentrated surge of electricity demand in […]

The power industry is experiencing unprecedented demand growth, driven largely by data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This surge is creating both opportunities and challenges for utilities, equipment manufacturers, and the broader power generation ecosystem. As a guest on The POWER Podcast, Seth Harris, growth director for Emerson’s Power business in North America, discussed […]

For years, some folks have considered coal-fired power plants relics of a bygone era, overshadowed by the rise of natural gas and renewables. Yet, in an unexpected twist, coal is finding its way back into the

Lenders and investors are scrutinizing data center projects closely. Identifying and mitigating risks early helps attract investors and reduce financing costs. Clear documentation and realistic timelines are essential to securing financing. Land Control—The Foundation of Success: Land remains the cornerstone of any data center development. Verifying land control ensures the project’s legal and physical foundation […]

Westinghouse has partnered with Google Cloud to develop a custom AI-powered platform using specialized models from both Google and Westinghouse—itself a leader in AI for energy production—that helps optimize and accelerate reactor construction.

Vertiv, a global critical digital infrastructure group, and power systems leader Caterpillar announced the signing of a strategic undertaking to collaborate on advanced energy optimization solutions for data centers. The initiative unveiled November 18 will integrate Vertiv’s power distribution and cooling portfolio with Caterpillar’s, and its subsidiary Solar Turbines’, product and expertise in power generation and CCHP (combined cooling, heat, and power) to deliver pre-designed architectures that simplify deployment, accelerate time-to-power and optimize performance for data center operations.

CyrusOne’s Jim Roche details how AI-driven workloads, high-density racks, and liquid cooling are transforming the data center–utility relationship. Only a decade ago, few in the power sector could have predicted that the digital economy’s engine—the data center—would become a central concern for utility planners, grid operators, and energy policymakers. For much of its history, data […]

Independent power producer Treaty Oak Clean Energy recently announced it finalized long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with technology group Meta Platforms for two utility-scale solar projects in Louisiana. Meta officials said the company would advance its clean energy and sustainability commitments by buying the environmental attributes generated by the facilities in Morehouse and Sabine parishes, which together will have 385 MW of generation capacity.

The explosive growth of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and enterprise data storage has transformed data centers into the critical infrastructure of the digital economy. Yet their extraordinary and continuous electricity demands—often exceeding 100 megawatts per site—have made energy access and reliability the single most consequential factor in determining where these facilities are built. Across the […]

The story of artificial intelligence (AI) is often told in the language of speed and efficiency. Every quarter brings claims of models that run faster and cost less. Yet behind the glossy benchmarks lies a more sobering truth: the appetite for AI is growing so quickly that even the most impressive efficiency gains cannot keep […]

Data center operators are keenly aware that securing access to the grid is job number one on their to-do list. But the extraordinary demand placed on the grid by artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) has another concern rapidly ascending the list: power quality. While data centers running traditional workloads have largely solved for […]

Backup generators are gaining a new lease on life in data centers. For decades, they have been a rarely used part of the infrastructure, existing for those moments when other power sources fail. But their profile is shifting due to the chronic shortage of available power across North America. Data center developers have grown impatient […]

ENGIE North America said it has entered into additional power purchase agreements (PPAs) with technology group Meta that will increase the overall scale of the commercial relationship between the two companies to more than 1.3 GW across four Texas projects.

Austria-headquartered INNIO Group said the company has received the largest equipment order by power delivery in its history. The company on October 21 said it has a deal with VoltaGrid for a 2.3-GW power infrastructure project featuring 92 of INNIO’s power packs, each with 25 MW of generation capacity.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just transforming industries; it is also transforming the energy grid. Behind every AI breakthrough lies a massive surge in computing power, and with it, an unprecedented demand for reliable and affordable electricity. As the U.S. positions itself for continued technological leadership, meeting the energy needs of AI data […]

Google has signed a first-of-its-kind corporate offtake agreement to purchase power from a new 400-MW natural gas–fired cogeneration plant outfitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Decatur, Illinois. In an Oct. 23 blog post, Michael Terrell, head of Google’s Advanced Energy division, unveiled the corporate agreement that will allow the hyperscaler to purchase power […]

Aligned Data Centers and Calibrant Energy have announced what the companies call a first-of-its-kind energy solution to address one of the data center industry’s most urgent constraints: access to grid power.

Texas-based rapid-deployment power specialist VoltaGrid will deploy 2,300 MW of modular, ultra-low-emissions natural gas generation to support Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s (OCI’s) artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, backed by firm fuel from Energy Transfer’s 140,000-mile pipeline and storage network. Under the collaboration announced Oct. 15, VoltaGrid said its proprietary modular platform—featuring INNIO Jenbacher reciprocating engines and […]

Amazon has unveiled detailed plans and renderings for the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility, an initial 320-MW small modular reactor (SMR) complex that will serve as the first major project in its broader 5-GW nuclear partnership with advanced reactor developer X-energy, announced last year. The project will be owned, built, and operated by Energy Northwest just […]

California utility PG&E announced a $73-billion capital expenditure plan covering the next five years, with investments targeting infrastructure upgrades to support growing demand for electricity in its territory, particularly from data centers.

LandBridge Co., a Permian-focused land and infrastructure firm with 277,000 surface acres in the Delaware sub-region in Texas, and NRG Energy, one of the U.S.’s largest independent power producers, have inked a strategic agreement for a potential 1,100 MW natural gas–fired generation facility in Reeves County, Texas, to power a hyperscale data center. The agreement, […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Sept. 18 advanced four reliability measures for the U.S. bulk power system (BPS), formalizing frameworks around supply chain risk, cloud computing and virtual infrastructure, cybersecurity, and extreme cold weather preparedness. The commission finalized a new supply chain risk management rule—effective in 60 days—that expands protections against vulnerabilities stemming […]

Soluna Holdings, a developer of data centers powered by renewables, is set to break ground on Project Kati, a 166-MW wind-powered data center campus poised to support Bitcoin hosting and the rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. The project, a partnership with EDF Renewables, Masdar, and Spring Lane Capital, […]

Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, said its energy-focused private equity business has a deal to buy the 620-MW natural gas-fired Hill Top Energy Center in Pennsylvania. The agreement announced September 15 will see Blackstone Energy Transition Partners acquire the power station from Ardian, a global private investment firm. Blackstone officials said the purchase […]

Global energy demand is accelerating, and organizations are increasingly turning to nuclear power to secure stable, long-term electricity supplies. Advances in AI, modular design, and predictive analytics are helping overcome legacy hurdles of cost, complexity, and schedule, while business leaders shift capital toward projects that prioritize resilience as much as efficiency.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued new guidance under its New Source Review (NSR) preconstruction permitting program that could allow power plant developers to begin certain non-emissions‐related site work—such as installing concrete pads, grading, and utility trenching—before obtaining a Clean Air Act construction permit. The change, described in a sparse set of paragraphs […]

Torus, a full-stack energy platform offering storage, management, security, and generation solutions, on September 9 announced a $200-million investment by Magnetar, an alternative asset manager. The investment is expected to accelerate the deployment of Torus’ proprietary modular power plants for utilities, data centers, and commercial and industrial customers across the U.S. Torus builds small, inertia-based […]