Tag: Data Centre

Sustainability-In-Tech : Australia Tells AI Data Centres To Generate Their Own Power

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Australia is proposing new national rules that would make the next generation of large AI data centres build enough new electricity generation to match the power they consume, helping prevent rapid AI expansion from pushing up household bills or placing extra pressure on the country’s grid.

What Has Been Announced?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the proposals during a speech at the University of Sydney, where he set out plans for a new national framework covering the location, energy use, water consumption and wider environmental impact of large data centres.

Under the proposed rules, operators would be legally required to underwrite new power supplies, pay the full cost of connecting their facilities to the electricity network and ensure that households and other businesses are not left funding the infrastructure needed to support them.

Most significantly, large data centres would have to add at least as much electricity to the grid as they consume.

Albanese summarised the policy by saying data centres would need “to be net-generators, not net-users”.

The government intends to seek agreement from state and territory leaders before introducing legislation to the Australian Parliament early next year. This means the requirements are not yet legally binding, and many of the practical details still need to be developed.

What Does Putting Power Back Mean?

A data centre cannot literally return the same electricity it has already consumed. Instead, the proposed requirement means operators would need to support enough new generation to match the energy demand created by their facilities.

In practice, this is likely to involve funding or entering into long-term agreements with new renewable energy projects, such as solar or wind farms, together with energy storage or other reliable back-up generation.

That last element is important because AI data centres operate continuously, while renewable energy production changes according to weather conditions and the time of day. The Australian government has therefore said operators must also support “firming”, which refers to the storage or alternative generation required to provide electricity when renewable output is low.

The aim is to ensure that new data centres bring additional power into the system rather than consuming electricity that homes, public services and existing businesses already depend upon.

Why Now?

AI requires substantial physical infrastructure comprising servers, cooling equipment, network connections and specialist computing hardware. As increasingly powerful AI models are developed and used more widely, the amount of electricity and water required to operate this infrastructure is growing rapidly.

Australia wants to attract more AI investment, but the government is concerned that allowing developers to build facilities before environmental and infrastructure rules are agreed could leave communities carrying the costs.

As Albanese explained: “We cannot revisit this issue after companies have built whatever they want, wherever they want, and try and then re-open negotiations.”

His argument is that Australia’s land, energy resources and investment potential give it enough influence to set conditions before major projects are approved.

The Australian government also believes clearer national rules could benefit responsible investors by replacing different local and regional requirements with one consistent framework.

Water Is Part Of The Plan

Electricity is not the only sustainability concern surrounding large data centres. Many facilities use substantial amounts of water to prevent computing equipment from overheating, which is particularly significant in a country that regularly experiences drought and water scarcity.

Albanese described Australia as “the sunniest continent on earth” but also “the driest”, and said data centres would be required to minimise water use, maximise energy efficiency and pay for any extra water infrastructure they require.

The location of future facilities will therefore matter, particularly where communities are already facing pressure on local water supplies or where electricity networks have limited spare capacity.

Part Of A Wider Global Problem

Australia’s announcement comes as other countries face growing concern about the impact of data centres on energy systems.

For example, in Ireland, data centres consumed 23 per cent of the country’s electricity during 2025, almost as much as all urban and rural households combined. The country now requires new facilities to provide their own flexible generation and obtain most of their annual electricity from new renewable projects.

Technology companies are also struggling to reconcile AI growth with their own environmental commitments. Microsoft, for example, has reported a sharp increase in emissions as it expands its global data centre infrastructure, despite maintaining targets to become carbon negative and water positive by 2030.

Public opposition is also becoming more organised in communities concerned about electricity prices, water use, emissions, planning decisions and the limited number of permanent jobs created by some large facilities.

Australia’s proposed approach attempts to address those concerns before its AI data centre sector expands much further.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For businesses, the announcement highlights how the environmental cost of AI is becoming a practical commercial and regulatory issue rather than simply a matter for sustainability reports.

Organisations increasingly using AI services may face closer scrutiny over where their computing resources are hosted, how those facilities are powered and whether claims about renewable energy represent genuinely new generation or simply the purchase of existing certificates.

The Australian model could also influence other countries looking for ways to attract AI investment without passing its infrastructure costs on to households and existing businesses.

Much will depend on the final rules and how carefully the requirement is measured and enforced. However, this reflects a broader change in expectations, with companies building energy-intensive AI infrastructure increasingly expected to create the additional power, grid capacity and water infrastructure their growth requires rather than assuming the public will provide it.

Sustainability-in-Tech : Trump Administration Backs Musk In AI Data Centre Pollution Battle

Posted on by Paul Stradling

The Trump administration has taken the unusual step of intervening in an environmental lawsuit against Elon Musk’s AI company xAI, arguing that the data centre at the centre of the dispute is so important to national security that it should be protected from legal action seeking to restrict its power supply.

Dilemma

The case highlights a growing sustainability dilemma facing the AI industry. For example, while artificial intelligence is increasingly being positioned as a tool for solving global challenges, its rapidly growing appetite for electricity is creating new environmental pressures, particularly as operators race to build ever-larger data centres.

Why The Government Has Intervened

The dispute in the U.S. centres on xAI’s Colossus AI facility in Mississippi, which relies on dozens of methane gas turbines to help power the infrastructure used to train and operate Grok, the company’s AI model.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the oldest and largest civil rights organisations in the United States, filed the lawsuit. In this case, the NAACP’s Mississippi State Conference filed it. The lawsuit alleges that the turbines are operating without the permits required under the Clean Air Act and are contributing to air pollution that could affect nearby communities.

However, in a court filing submitted on behalf of the United States government, the Department of Justice argued that the lawsuit threatens “American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations.”

The filing seeks dismissal of the case and represents an unusually direct intervention by the federal government in support of a private technology company.

Why Grok Is Being Treated As A Strategic Asset

A key part of the government’s argument is that Grok has become integrated into sensitive national security operations. For example, according to a declaration submitted by Cameron Stanley, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer at the Department of War (previously known as the Department of Defense), xAI’s Grok is “one of only four proprietary state-of-the-art (‘frontier’) AI models currently capable of supporting national security applications”.

The declaration also states that the Department relies on a specialised version known as Grok Gov Model and that it provides capabilities “found in no other frontier AI model”.

The filing claims that if the Mississippi facility were unable to continue operating at its current scale, the development and improvement of future Grok models could be affected, potentially impacting military and intelligence capabilities.

Whether or not the court ultimately accepts those arguments, the case demonstrates how rapidly advanced AI systems are being reclassified from commercial technology platforms into infrastructure that governments increasingly view as strategically important.

The Environmental Cost Of AI Growth

The environmental concerns at the heart of the case are difficult to ignore. For example, the turbines reportedly emit pollutants including nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, both of which have been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular health problems. Environmental groups argue that communities living near the facility should not bear the environmental cost of powering AI systems.

Also, the growth of AI is creating unprecedented demand for electricity. Modern AI models require vast numbers of processors working simultaneously, and those processors need enormous amounts of power.

The result is that many technology companies are now competing for access to electricity on a scale more commonly associated with heavy industry.

This creates an uncomfortable contradiction. Many of the same companies investing heavily in sustainability initiatives and clean technologies are simultaneously searching for whatever energy sources can support their rapidly expanding AI ambitions.

The Search For Cleaner Alternatives

The controversy also highlights why technology companies and investors are increasingly searching for lower-carbon energy sources capable of supporting AI’s growing power demands. One recent example is Critical Energy, a startup founded by a former SpaceX engineer that has raised $22 million to develop modular geothermal turbines for geothermal power plants. The company argues that geothermal energy could provide reliable, round-the-clock electricity for energy-hungry AI infrastructure years before many advanced nuclear projects become commercially available.

Projects such as these are attracting growing attention because geothermal energy can provide continuous power without the intermittency associated with solar or wind generation.

For the AI industry, that matters because data centres require power around the clock, making reliability almost as important as sustainability.

The challenge, however, is that many cleaner energy projects take years to deploy, while AI demand is growing today.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

This case essentially offers an early glimpse of a debate that is likely to become increasingly common over the next decade. Governments want to lead in AI. Businesses want access to more powerful AI tools. At the same time, communities, regulators, and environmental groups are demanding that growth happens responsibly, and the lawsuit against xAI sits directly at the intersection of those competing priorities.

For organisations investing in AI, the wider lesson is that sustainability is becoming an infrastructure issue as much as a software issue. Questions about where AI runs, how it is powered, and what environmental impacts it creates are likely to become increasingly important alongside discussions about capability, productivity, and security.

The case also suggests that some governments are beginning to treat advanced AI infrastructure in much the same way as power stations, telecommunications networks, and defence assets. If that trend continues, future debates about AI may focus as much on energy policy and environmental impact as they do on the technology itself.

The political backdrop is also difficult to overlook in this particular case. Given Elon Musk’s close relationship with the Trump administration, some critics are likely to question whether the government’s intervention reflects purely national security concerns or whether political considerations may also have played a role. The administration maintains that its position is based on the strategic importance of the AI infrastructure involved.

The outcome of this particular lawsuit remains uncertain at this point. What is already clear, however, is that the race to build more powerful AI systems is creating difficult choices between economic growth, national security, environmental protection, and sustainable energy development, choices that governments, businesses, and communities will increasingly be forced to confront.

Sustainability-in-Tech : The AI Data Centre That Could Change A Valley’s Climate

Posted on by Paul Stradling

A proposed hyperscale AI data centre in Utah is drawing attention not only because of its size, but because researchers believe the heat it generates could have significant environmental consequences for the surrounding ecosystem.

What Is The Stratos Project?

The Stratos Project is a planned 40,000-acre energy and technology development in Utah’s Hansel Valley that would support large-scale AI computing, cloud services, and defence-related operations. Project backers say it could create thousands of jobs, strengthen energy resilience, and support national security priorities while generating substantial local revenue.

The development would include both a major data centre campus and dedicated on-site power generation designed to meet its energy needs without drawing power from the wider grid. According to the project itself, Stratos is intended to create “a secure, sustainable and resilient ecosystem” capable of supporting next-generation computing and critical national infrastructure.

Supporters argue this approach will minimise pressure on existing infrastructure while helping establish Utah as a centre for advanced computing and AI development.

Why Environmental Concerns Are Growing

The controversy centres on the sheer amount of energy involved.

For example, according to a preliminary thermal analysis by Utah State University physicist Dr Rob Davies, the completed project could require around 9GW of electricity for the data centre itself. When the associated natural gas power generation is included, the total thermal load could reach approximately 16GW, with all of that energy ultimately ending up as heat released into the local environment.

Davies describes the proposal as “a hyperscale level of thermal dump into this valley”, warning that the concentration of waste heat could create environmental effects extending far beyond the project boundaries.

His analysis estimates that the combined heat output would be equivalent to roughly 23 atomic bombs’ worth of energy being released into the local environment every day, not as an explosion, but as a continuous flow of waste heat.

The Valley Effect

One reason environmental scientists are paying close attention to the proposal is its location.

Hansel Valley is a high-desert basin where air circulation can become restricted, particularly at night when temperature inversions form and limit vertical movement of air. Davies’ analysis suggests this geography could trap heat within the valley rather than allowing it to disperse efficiently.

The preliminary modelling estimates daytime temperatures could rise by between 2°F and 5°F across parts of the valley, while night-time temperatures could increase by 8°F to 12°F. Although the figures remain subject to further study, the projections have raised concerns among environmental groups and local residents.

Potential Ecological Consequences

The concerns here extend beyond simple temperature increases. For example, desert ecosystems rely heavily on nightly cooling cycles that allow dew and frost to form. According to Davies, sustained increases in night-time temperatures could suppress these condensation cycles, reducing an important source of moisture for plants and wildlife. His report warns that “the ecological impact resulting from the combination of elevated temperatures and suppressed nighttime condensation is likely extreme”, while higher temperatures could also accelerate evaporation and increase drying across the region.

Campaigners have also questioned the potential impact on the wider Great Salt Lake watershed, an ecosystem already facing significant environmental pressures. The lake supports important wildlife habitats and migratory bird populations, making any additional environmental stress a sensitive issue.

The Other Side Of The Argument

Project supporters strongly dispute suggestions that the development will cause severe environmental harm.

Stratos argues that the project has been designed around “sustainable energy generation and water conservation technologies” and says advanced cooling systems will dramatically reduce water consumption compared with traditional data centre approaches.

Officials involved in the project also point out that the development remains subject to extensive environmental reviews, permitting processes, and regulatory oversight before construction can proceed.

Supporters further argue that much of the 40,000-acre project area will remain undeveloped and that the project could deliver thousands of jobs, major investment, and new infrastructure without placing additional demand on the state’s existing electricity grid.

Why This Matters Beyond Utah

The wider significance of the Stratos debate reaches far beyond a single project. As AI systems become larger and more powerful, the infrastructure needed to support them is expanding rapidly. Data centres already consume vast amounts of electricity, and future AI facilities are expected to demand even more energy, cooling capacity, and physical space.

The discussion surrounding Stratos highlights a growing sustainability challenge for the technology sector. While AI may help solve problems in healthcare, science, transport, and energy management, the infrastructure that powers those systems also carries environmental costs that are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

The Stratos Project illustrates a growing reality of the AI era, which is that digital technologies may appear weightless, but the infrastructure behind them is anything but. As governments and technology companies race to build larger AI facilities, questions about energy consumption, heat generation, water resources, emissions, and ecological impact are likely to become far more prominent.

Whether Stratos ultimately proves to be a model for sustainable AI infrastructure or a warning about the environmental consequences of hyperscale computing will depend on the outcome of future environmental assessments. What is already clear, however, is that sustainability discussions about AI are increasingly moving beyond software and algorithms and towards the physical footprint required to power the technology itself.

For organisations developing AI strategies, procuring cloud services, or pursuing sustainability targets, the debate serves as a reminder that the environmental impact of AI extends far beyond the applications employees see on their screens. As AI infrastructure grows, understanding the energy, resource, and environmental implications behind these technologies is likely to become an increasingly important part of responsible technology planning.

Sustainability-in-Tech : Floating AI Data Centres Powered By Ocean Waves

Posted on by Paul Stradling

A US startup has raised $140 million to build autonomous floating AI data centres powered by ocean waves, as the technology industry searches for new ways to meet the rapidly growing energy demands of artificial intelligence.

Why AI Is Driving A New Search For Energy

The rapid growth of AI has created a major infrastructure challenge, with data centres now consuming increasing amounts of electricity, cooling water, and computing hardware. Industry forecasts suggest AI-related power demand could rise dramatically over the next decade as more businesses adopt large language models, AI assistants, image generation, automation systems, and real-time inference services.

Panthalassa, an Oregon-based renewable energy and ocean technology company, believes the answer may lie far offshore.

The company has developed autonomous floating platforms designed to generate electricity directly from ocean waves while simultaneously powering AI computing systems onboard. Rather than transmitting electricity back to land through undersea cables, the platforms process AI workloads at sea and send the results back via satellite connections.

US tech billionaire Peter Thiel, whose Founders Fund has backed the company, described the scale of the challenge directly, stating: “The future demands more compute than we can imagine. Extra-terrestrial solutions are no longer science fiction. Panthalassa has opened the ocean frontier.”

How The Floating Data Centres Work

Panthalassa’s systems, known as Ocean nodes, are large steel floating structures deployed in deep ocean regions with strong and consistent wave activity.

The motion of the waves drives internal turbines that generate electricity continuously. That power is then used directly onboard to run AI chips and inference systems housed inside sealed computing containers.

One of the key advantages is cooling. For example, traditional AI data centres consume enormous quantities of water and energy to keep high-performance chips from overheating. Panthalassa instead uses the surrounding ocean as what it calls “free supercooling”, reducing the need for conventional cooling infrastructure while potentially extending chip lifespan.

The company says its Ocean-3 pilot systems will be deployed in the North Pacific later this year ahead of planned commercial operations in 2027.

Garth Sheldon-Coulson, Panthalassa’s co-founder and CEO, said: “We’ve built a technology platform that operates in the planet’s most energy-dense wave regions, far from shore, and turns that resource into reliable clean power.”

He added: “We’re now ready to build factories, deploy fleets, and provide a sustainable new source of energy for humanity.”

Why The Idea Is Attracting Attention

The concept is gaining attention because many land-based data centres are already running into physical and environmental limits.

Large AI facilities require enormous amounts of grid power, land, cooling infrastructure, and permitting approvals. In some regions, utilities have warned that electricity networks may struggle to support projected AI growth without major upgrades.

Panthalassa argues that moving AI infrastructure offshore could reduce pressure on national grids while avoiding many of the environmental and planning conflicts associated with large terrestrial facilities.

The company also claims its systems rely mainly on abundant materials such as steel rather than scarce minerals, potentially making large-scale deployment easier than some alternative clean energy technologies.

Investor John Doerr described the system as “a game changer in addressing global energy needs and clean power generation”, adding that it represents “a triple win: workers benefit, communities benefit, and we gain a strategic asset that strengthens American technological leadership.”

Other Companies Are Exploring Similar Ideas

Panthalassa is not alone in looking for unconventional locations and power sources for future data centres.

For example, Microsoft previously tested underwater data centres through its Project Natick programme, placing sealed server containers on the seabed off Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The company reported lower server failure rates than conventional land-based facilities, partly because of the stable underwater environment and reduced human interference.

Meanwhile, Aikido Technologies recently announced plans for floating offshore wind-powered data centres in the North Sea, with pilot deployments expected near Norway before larger UK projects later this decade.

Also, British company Core Power has explored floating nuclear-powered platforms capable of supplying electricity to offshore computing facilities and military infrastructure.

Elsewhere, some firms are experimenting with placing data centres in colder climates such as Iceland, Norway, and northern Sweden, where naturally low temperatures reduce cooling costs and improve energy efficiency. Major cloud providers including Google and Meta have increasingly prioritised locations with access to renewable energy and cooler operating conditions.

Even Meta’s expanding AI-driven age assurance systems, which analyse images, video, behavioural signals, and account activity to estimate user age, form part of the wider trend driving demand for increasingly large AI compute infrastructure.

Still Some Challenges

Despite the enthusiasm surrounding offshore AI infrastructure, some major practical questions remain.

Open-ocean environments are among the harshest operating conditions on Earth, exposing equipment to corrosion, storms, maintenance difficulties, and communication challenges. Wave energy itself has historically struggled with reliability and commercial scalability, despite decades of experimentation.

There are also environmental questions around marine ecosystems, shipping routes, and the long-term impact of deploying large autonomous industrial systems at sea.

Commercial viability remains another unknown. Panthalassa’s business model depends not on selling electricity, but on selling AI computing capacity generated offshore. Whether this can compete economically with rapidly expanding terrestrial AI infrastructure remains uncertain.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For UK businesses, the story highlights how AI is increasingly reshaping not just software and automation, but the global infrastructure required to support digital services.

The energy demands created by AI systems are already influencing investment decisions across energy, construction, semiconductors, cooling technology, networking, and cloud computing. Businesses involved in these sectors may see growing opportunities linked to alternative energy generation, distributed computing, and sustainable infrastructure development.

The story also underlines how sustainability is becoming tightly connected to AI deployment. Organisations adopting AI tools may face growing scrutiny around the environmental impact of the computing resources they consume, particularly as governments and investors place greater emphasis on carbon reduction and energy efficiency.

At the same time, the search for cleaner AI infrastructure is likely to accelerate innovation far beyond traditional data centres, creating new commercial opportunities while also raising new technical, environmental, and regulatory challenges that businesses will increasingly need to understand.

Sustainability-In-Tech : Data Centre Power Demand May Triple By 2035

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Global data centre electricity demand is now forecast to almost triple by 2035, forcing urgent questions about how to power the AI boom sustainably.

The Forecasts Point To A Steep Rise

New analysis from BloombergNEF suggests data centres could be drawing around 106 gigawatts of power by 2035, up from about 40 gigawatts today. This represents a near threefold increase and marks a sharp upward revision on projections made only months ago. The rise reflects not only the number of new facilities but also the dramatic scale of those now being planned.

Of around 150 new US data centre projects added to one leading industry tracker in the last year, nearly a quarter are expected to exceed 500 megawatts of capacity, and a small number will go past the one gigawatt mark. A 200 megawatt site is now considered a normal hyperscale facility, which highlights the size of the new generation of AI focused builds.

AI Also Driving Up Data Centre Utilisation

Average data centre utilisation is also expected to rise from about 59 per cent today to 69 per cent by 2035. This reflects the steep growth in AI training and inference workloads, which are projected to account for nearly 40 per cent of all data centre compute within the same timeframe.

Gartner’s global forecasts point in the same direction. Analysts expect electricity consumption across all data centres worldwide to increase from 448 terawatt hours in 2025 to 980 terawatt hours in 2030. That means demand is projected to grow 16 per cent in 2025 alone and double over the five year period!

AI Infrastructure Is Driving Bigger And Busier Facilities

One major reason behind these increases appears to be the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. For example, Gartner notes that while traditional servers and cooling contribute to overall electricity use, the fastest rise comes from AI optimised servers, whose energy consumption is expected to rise from 93 terawatt hours in 2025 to 432 terawatt hours in 2030. These servers will represent almost half of all data centre power use by the end of the decade.

The growth in AI workloads is also reshaping where data centres are built. For example, the traditional clusters near major cities face land and grid constraints, so new facilities are being planned further out in regions where connections are more readily available. In the United States, for example, the PJM Interconnection region, which includes Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, is seeing a large wave of new sites. Texas is experiencing a similar trend, with former crypto-mining facilities being repurposed into AI data centres.

These facilities take many years to deliver, i.e., industry analysts estimate the average timeline for a major data centre from early planning to full operation is about seven years. That means decisions being made now will lock in power demand well into the 2030s, with limited short term flexibility to adjust course.

Grid Operators Face A New Reliability Test

Electricity systems are now being tested by a scale and pace of growth that is difficult to absorb. For example, in the PJM region, data centre capacity could reach 31 gigawatts by 2030, which is almost equal to the 28.7 gigawatts of new electricity generation expected over the same period. This imbalance has already led to concerns from PJM’s independent market monitor, which has argued that new data centre loads should only be connected when the grid can support them reliably.

Texas has also been reported as facing its own set of pressures. For example, forecasts show that reserve margins within the ERCOT grid could fall into riskier territory after 2028 if demand from data centres outpaces the construction of new power plants and transmission capacity.

The US And China

Gartner’s regional analysis indicates that the United States and China will together account for more than two thirds of global data centre electricity consumption by 2030. Europe’s share is expected to rise from 2.7 per cent to around 5 per cent as new facilities are built to support cloud uptake and AI workloads.

More On-Site Power Needed

Given these pressures, analysts have highlighted how many large data centres are likely to secure their own power sources rather than relying entirely on the grid. Gartner’s research on data centre power provisioning warns that utilities are struggling to expand generation and transmission infrastructure quickly enough to support the rate of construction now under way.

In fact, by 2028, Gartner says only about 40 per cent of newly built data centres will rely solely on grid electricity. The remainder will most likely draw on some form of on site generation or long term, dedicated supply arrangements.

Clean Technologies?

Looking ahead to the mid-2030s, around 40 per cent of new data centres are expected to be powered by clean technologies that are not yet commercially mature. These include, e.g., small modular nuclear reactors, green hydrogen systems and advanced geothermal technologies.

A Commercial Impact Too

Gartner also highlights a commercial impact. For example, early adopters of clean on site power options will face higher upfront costs and these costs are likely to be passed on to cloud customers. This implies that the long term economics of cloud computing will be shaped not only by processor performance but also by the availability and price of electricity.

Scotland Exposes The Local Impact Of Global Demand

The UK is now facing its own version of this issue. Research by Foxglove shows how a cluster of eleven large data centres planned in Scotland would demand between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts of electricity. Scotland’s current winter peak demand is just over 4 gigawatts, which means these projects alone could account for between 50 and 75 per cent of the country’s current peak electricity use.

The list of proposed Scottish facilities includes a 550 megawatt campus at Ravenscraig in North Lanarkshire, several 200 to 300 megawatt sites across locations such as the Scottish Borders, East Ayrshire and West Lothian, and an Edinburgh site at South Gyle with a capacity of around 212 megawatts. The South Gyle plan includes projected annual emissions of more than 220,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, according to figures provided by the developer.

Foxglove notes that the combined demand of these projects is comparable to about two or three times the capacity of the Peterhead gas power station or roughly the combined output of the former Torness and Hunterston B nuclear power plants when both were operating. Scotland’s generation capacity is already close to 20 gigawatts and is expected to more than double by 2030 through growth in renewables, but major upgrades are needed to move electricity to where it is used.

The UK’s Wider Emissions And Planning Context

It’s not surprising, therefore, that environmental groups have raised concerns that such a large new demand from global tech companies could absorb renewable capacity that is needed to decarbonise existing industry and households. In England, research from Foxglove and Global Action Plan estimates that ten of the largest planned data centre projects could together account for around 2.75 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year based on developers’ own figures. This is compared with the carbon savings expected from the electric vehicle transition in 2025.

National Grid’s chief executive has said demand from commercial data centres will increase sixfold over the next decade. The UK government has already designated new AI Growth Zones that must have access to at least 500 megawatts of power and has introduced an AI Energy Council to help plan for future demand. Data centre operators are also being encouraged to locate projects in Scotland and northern England where renewable output is higher, although the grid infrastructure linking these regions to demand centres still requires major investment.

Together, these forecasts show how quickly AI infrastructure is reshaping national and regional energy planning. Governments now face decisions about where large facilities can be built, how much new capacity is required, how on site generation should be regulated and how to ensure that the expansion of data centres aligns with emissions targets rather than undermining them.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

The scale of projected demand now makes it clear that energy planning will become one of the defining constraints on AI growth, not just a technical backdrop. The forecasts point to an industry that will only remain viable if power availability, clean generation and long term cost structures are built into every stage of development. This matters because the growth trajectories do not leave much room for delays. Once the data centres currently in the pipeline begin to switch on, the impact on local and national grids will arrive quickly, which heightens the pressure on governments and operators to prove that the required generation and transmission capacity will be there in time.

For UK policymakers, the situation in Scotland shows how fast these pressures can concentrate. If even a portion of the proposed Scottish sites proceed at the scale outlined, energy planners and regulators will face decisions about how to balance industrial demand, household consumption and renewable deployment. That puts transparency, accurate modelling and realistic emissions assessments at the centre of the conversation. It also places a responsibility on developers to demonstrate how their projects will integrate into wider decarbonisation plans rather than simply relying on headline renewable capacity figures.

There are also direct implications for UK businesses. For example, cloud costs are likely to be shaped increasingly by electricity pricing and by the power procurement strategies of the operators behind the services they use. If data centre owners face higher costs for on site generation or grid upgrades, there is a strong chance that these costs will feed through to SaaS platforms, hosting services and AI tools. Businesses that rely heavily on cloud based analytics or emerging AI workloads may, therefore, face more volatile operating expenses unless the industry secures stable long term energy arrangements. Energy reliability also becomes a resilience issue, as organisations will want confidence that the infrastructure behind their digital tools is not exposed to local grid constraints.

For environmental groups and local communities, the findings highlight the need for early scrutiny of project impacts and firm commitments on emissions reduction pathways. The period between now and the mid 2030s is likely to involve a mix of transitional fuels, large new loads and evolving clean technologies, so there is a real question about how to minimise emissions during that window. The faster that credible alternatives such as battery storage, green hydrogen and advanced clean generation mature, the more manageable that interim period becomes.

What emerges across all of this is a picture of an industry that can expand sustainably only if energy availability and environmental impact are treated as core design requirements rather than afterthoughts. The forecasts make the stakes clear. Data centre growth is not slowing, AI demand is rising and the power systems that support them need rapid structural change if reliability, affordability and sustainability are to keep pace.

Tech Insight : How Data Centre Investment Just Overtook Oil

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Global investment now favours data centres over new oil supplies, reflecting the scale of electricity demand created by AI and the increasing importance of digital infrastructure to national economies.

Data Spending Overtakes Oil For The First Time

The International Energy Agency has reported that global spending on data centres will reach around 580 billion US dollars this year, overtaking the 540 billion dollars allocated to new oil supply projects. The agency described this comparison as a clear marker of how modern economies have become anchored in digital services, cloud computing and large-scale AI models, all of which require vast physical infrastructure and reliable electricity.

Usage To Triple By 2035

Electricity use from data centres is projected to approximately triple by 2035. AI systems are a major driver, and the IEA expects half of all demand growth to take place in the United States, with Europe and China accounting for most of the remainder. Many new facilities are located near existing clusters around large cities, with around half of the sites currently in development designed to deliver at least 200 megawatts.

The concentration of this growth is, therefore, already testing the limits of energy systems. Grid connection queues for new facilities continue to lengthen, and in several regions networks are so congested that new requests have been paused. Shortages of transformers, cables and other grid components are adding to delays. These issues highlight how the rise of AI is now tightly linked to national energy planning, rather than being a purely digital challenge.

Electricity Systems Under Growing Pressure

The IEA describes the global system as entering an “Age of Electricity”, with most new energy demand coming through power grids rather than fossil fuels. Investment in electricity generation has increased significantly since 2015, yet grid investment has not kept pace. New solar and wind capacity is being deployed at record levels, but the lines and substations needed to carry this electricity to major users are often slowed by planning processes and supply chain constraints.

Cooling demand is creating additional pressure. For example, rising temperatures and rising incomes in many regions are driving higher peak electricity loads from air conditioning. These peaks often coincide with the load patterns of data centres, electric vehicles and electrified heating. As a result, grids are increasingly stretched while they await new capacity and greater flexibility from storage technologies.

In several established markets, energy regulators have warned that large electricity users may need to be subject to stricter technical rules or new pricing structures to ensure network stability. Data centres are therefore becoming part of broader energy security discussions, particularly in regions where supply margins are tightening.

Power Shortages Slow Construction Across EMEA

It’s also the case now that power constraints are directly affecting the pace of new construction across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For example, new research from Savills shows that only around 850 megawatts of new power capacity for data centres has been delivered across the region so far this year, representing an eleven per cent decline compared with the same period last year. New take-up has also slowed to approximately 845 megawatts, roughly half of 2024’s level.

This slowdown is not driven by falling demand. In fact, total contracted power capacity has risen to almost 14,500 megawatts, up by twelve per cent year-on-year. Also, occupancy rates have increased to ninety-one per cent, and around a quarter of new take-up is now pre-let. These figures illustrate that operators are securing power well ahead of time because there is no guarantee that future capacity will be available when needed.

Property advisory firm Savills found that established hubs continued to expand over the past year, including France, Germany, the UK and Ireland. Strong growth was also recorded in emerging markets such as Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the UAE and Sweden, where land and power availability are more accessible. This trend suggests that some operators are shifting attention to secondary and tertiary locations that offer fewer bottlenecks and more flexible permitting.

The Effects of Cost Inflation

It seems that cost inflation remains a significant factor. For example, across EMEA, data centre build costs now range between roughly 7.3 million and 13.3 million US dollars per megawatt of IT load. It seems that some cities have even experienced double-digit annual increases in land prices, labour and equipment. The result is that these rising costs are lengthening project timelines and prompting developers to form closer relationships with suppliers to secure key components earlier.

Also, electricity consumption forecasts continue to add urgency. For example, one well-known industry analysis last year suggested that up to forty per cent of data centres could face power availability constraints by 2027, and that total electricity consumption for AI-optimised servers could reach around 500 terawatt hours. This would represent more than two and a half times the level recorded in 2023.

Superconductors Move Into Data Centre Design

While grid upgrades are essential, many of the most immediate challenges are emerging inside existing data centre campuses. For example, as AI systems become more computationally intensive, rack-level power has risen from tens of kilowatts to around 200 kilowatts in just a few years. Some operators are now planning for 600 kilowatts per rack, and there is growing discussion of multi-megawatt rack architectures.

A US-based engineering company, backed by several major technology investors including Microsoft, has now adapted high temperature superconducting cables for use within data centres. The firm’s first commercial system is designed to deliver three megawatts of low voltage power through superconducting cables cooled with liquid nitrogen to approximately minus 196 degrees Celsius. This cooling allows the material to carry electricity with zero loss, which in turn supports far higher power density.

The company reports that its cables require around twenty times less physical space than equivalent copper cables and can deliver power roughly five times farther within a campus. A demonstration installation has already been completed at a simulated facility, and pilot deployments at live data centres are expected next year ahead of a planned commercial launch in 2027. These technologies do not replace the need for additional grid capacity, but they allow operators to make better use of limited on-site power and cooling infrastructure.

Data Centres And AI Companies

For data centre operators, the expansion in investment highlights both opportunity and risk. For example, facilities with dependable power connections, competitive energy prices and space for expansion can attract long-term demand from cloud providers and AI companies. At the same time, rising construction costs, lengthy permitting and potential regulatory intervention make project planning more complex. There is increasing attention on how much electricity AI infrastructure consumes, which may influence approval processes in some regions.

It seems that AI companies now face equally important considerations. Access to high-density, well-powered infrastructure directly shapes the pace at which new models can be trained and deployed. Delays in securing suitable hosting capacity can slow research progress or increase operational costs. There is also growing pressure for AI to run on renewable energy, which means the location of data centres and the structure of power contracts matter more than ever.

Governments, Economies And Businesses

Governments now have to balance national competitiveness with energy security and climate commitments. Data centres underpin cloud services, logistics, digital payments and AI-driven innovation, yet they also place significant demands on power networks. This means that policymakers must decide where new facilities can be built, how grid upgrades should be prioritised and how to maintain public support when large projects are proposed near urban areas.

Economically, the sector supports construction, engineering, manufacturing and digital roles. The long-term nature of data centre contracts also encourages investment in renewable energy, battery storage and potentially small modular nuclear reactors, which several countries are exploring as a source of stable low-carbon power for high-demand sites.

For ordinary businesses using cloud and colocation services, the main effects are likely to be reliability, availability and cost. Capacity constraints may lead to higher hosting costs in busy regions, while areas with strong renewable resources and efficient planning may become more attractive for new deployments.

Investors and Infrastructure Funds Increasing

Another relevant trend here is that investors and infrastructure funds continue to increase their exposure to the sector. For example, since 2021, around eighty to ninety per cent of the value of closed data centre deals has involved private equity, infrastructure funds or real estate investors, compared with half in 2020. This reflects confidence in the long-term demand for digital infrastructure but also raises questions about concentration of ownership in assets that underpin national digital resilience.

Challenges And Criticisms

The scale of AI-related electricity use has raised many questions about environmental sustainability, especially where data centres draw power from grids still reliant on fossil fuels. Concerns have been raised about water consumption for cooling, land use in crowded urban regions and the impact of construction on local communities.

Energy regulators have also highlighted system risks linked to large power users. For example, data centres can influence grid stability if they ramp up unexpectedly or disconnect suddenly, prompting discussions about new standards or pricing structures. There are wider equity concerns too, as global statistics show that hundreds of millions of people still lack basic access to electricity while trillions of dollars flow into advanced digital infrastructure.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The trends here show a sector that’s expanding rapidly while running up against some clear structural limits. Investment is rising because demand is strong and immediate, yet the electricity needed for large-scale AI is difficult to deliver at the pace operators require. This creates a landscape where data centres are becoming essential to economic performance, but their growth is constrained by the slow evolution of energy infrastructure.

Operators now depend far more on securing reliable power than on adding floorspace or equipment. This means that sites with firm grid connections and competitive energy costs will be best placed to meet rising AI demand, while regions with slow planning processes or congested networks risk falling behind. AI companies face similar pressures because training and running advanced models depend on reliable access to powerful, energy-intensive processing systems. Delays caused by grid bottlenecks or supply chain issues can slow deployment and raise operating costs.

Also, governments must now balance digital competitiveness with energy security and climate targets. Data centres support cloud services, logistics, payments and AI innovation, so the ability to host them is becoming a strategic priority. Grid upgrades, renewable investment and more efficient permitting processes will be required if countries want to remain competitive. This matters directly to UK businesses, which rely on stable cloud services and cost-effective data processing. Rising pressure on electricity networks could influence the reliability and price of digital services across the economy.

It seems that investors are continuing to increase their involvement because long-term demand remains strong, although greater private ownership of strategic infrastructure raises questions about affordability and resilience. Meanwhile, environmental concerns around electricity use, water consumption and land availability remain under close scrutiny. These issues highlight the importance of ensuring that rapid AI and cloud expansion aligns with national climate goals and local community interests.

The overall picture, therefore, appears to be that of a sector that will continue to grow but will be shaped most of all by the availability, cost and cleanliness of electricity. The choices made now on grid investment and energy policy will likely define how quickly AI infrastructure can expand and how the associated benefits are shared across economies and industries.

Sustainability-In-Tech : Want A Data Centre In Your Shed ?

Posted on by Paul Stradling

An Essex couple have become the first in the UK to heat their home using a mini data centre in their garden shed, in a trial designed to cut energy bills and support low income households through the transition to net zero.

Pilot Scheme

Terrence and Lesley Bridges live in a modest two bedroom bungalow near Braintree in Essex. Their home is owned by Eastlight Community Homes, a social housing provider, and they are part of a pilot run jointly by UK Power Networks and Thermify through an innovation project called SHIELD. The couple were selected for the pilot because they rely heavily on their heating, especially as Lesley lives with spinal stenosis and is in significant pain when temperatures drop.

Thermify HeatHub – Huge Savings

Since the installation of the Thermify HeatHub, their monthly energy costs have fallen from around £375 to between £40 and £60. Terrence said: “It truly is brilliant. I’m over the moon that we got picked to trial this out. You can’t fault the heating system, it is a 100 per cent improvement on what we had before.” Lesley added: “You don’t need to go to a sauna after coming here.” Their experience is one of the first real world demonstrations of a heating concept that blends clean energy, digital infrastructure and social support.

Who Is Thermify?

The heating unit in the Bridges’ shed is called a HeatHub. It is developed by the British company Thermify, which offers cloud computing services to businesses. Instead of housing its servers in a single large data centre, Thermify installs small clusters in people’s homes, where the heat generated by data processing is captured and used as low cost domestic heating.

The wider programme is actually part of SHIELD, which stands for Smart Heat and Intelligent Energy in Low income Districts. SHIELD is run by UK Power Networks through the Strategic Innovation Fund. Its aim is to help people who would normally be excluded from the shift to low carbon technologies because of high upfront costs. The project brings together Thermify, Eastlight Community Homes, community energy groups and technical partners to develop what they describe as a Social ESCo model. Under this model, equipment such as solar panels, batteries and HeatHubs is funded upfront by an energy services company and repaid over time through the value created by the technologies.

How The Data Centre In Their Shed Works

Inside the HeatHub are around 500 Raspberry Pi Compute Modules, all submerged in a special oil. As these computers run cloud tasks for Thermify’s business clients, the electricity they use becomes heat, which raises the temperature of the surrounding oil. That heat is then transferred into a heat store and the home’s central heating and hot water systems.

The principle is pretty simple. For example, computers turn electricity into information but all the electricity eventually becomes heat. Traditional data centres spend significant amounts of extra electricity on cooling systems that remove the heat and release it into the air. Thermify’s approach uses that unavoidable heat twice by turning it into a resource for the household.

A dedicated network line is installed so the unit can send and receive data without affecting the resident’s broadband. From the resident’s point of view, it behaves much like a boiler, controlled through familiar heating settings. The Bridges’ shed also contains a solar inverter and a battery, meaning their HeatHub is part of a small integrated energy system that stores and manages electricity through the day.

Why It Cut Their Bills

In the Bridges’ case, the combination of the HeatHub, solar panels and battery storage has transformed their energy use. Thermify pays for the electricity needed to run the computing tasks because this is part of its service to business clients. The heat produced from this process is supplied to the home at a low or no cost because the energy is already being paid for. SHIELD tenants who receive HeatHubs also pay a small standing charge for heat, although UK Power Networks expects this to be significantly lower and more predictable than the cost of gas for many low income families.

Thermify points to independent modelling that suggests this kind of distributed computing could reduce carbon emissions from data centre operations by about 75 per cent on average. SHIELD’s own modelling suggests combining HeatHubs with solar and batteries could reduce household energy costs by 20 to 40 per cent and cut heating related emissions by more than 90 per cent.

Data, Energy And Tech Companies

The concept has clear implications for cloud and data centre operators. For example, data centres already account for roughly 2.5 per cent of the UK’s electricity consumption and the sector’s demand is forecast to grow rapidly in the next five years. As more companies expand into artificial intelligence and digital services, pressure is rising to reduce the environmental impact and find practical uses for the heat that data centres produce.

Distributed systems like Thermify’s also offer an alternative to building ever larger centralised facilities. Although HeatHubs cannot handle the heavy workloads required for advanced artificial intelligence, they can run many common tasks such as analytics, apps or batch processing. If rolled out at scale, the model could create a network of tens of thousands of small data nodes that serve business customers while heating homes. SHIELD itself has a long term ambition to deploy up to 100,000 such systems a year by 2030.

The approach may also interest energy companies and grid operators. For example, embedded assets such as HeatHubs can help manage peaks and troughs in local demand and provide flexibility services to the grid. SHIELD is exploring how these devices might be combined with peer to peer energy trading and other smart local energy systems.

Sustainability Advantages

There’s clearly an environmental case for improving overall energy efficiency and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. With up to 30 per cent of a data centre’s electricity used solely for cooling, capturing that heat and using it to warm homes can replace the need for gas and reduces the total energy wasted.

There are also potential social benefits to consider here. For example, many low income households cannot afford the upfront investment needed for heat pumps or solar installations. SHIELD’s Social ESCo model aims to solve this by funding the equipment and repaying costs through the value generated by the assets. Early stages of the project show strong interest among tenants who are worried about energy bills but keen to adopt cleaner solutions.

Not A Totally New Idea

It should be noted here that the idea of using data centre heat in buildings is not new. For example, in Devon, a startup called Deep Green operates a washing machine sized digital boiler at a local swimming pool. The servers inside the unit warm the mineral oil surrounding them and the captured heat is used to heat the pool. Reports indicate that the installation has reduced the pool’s gas use by more than half and cut emissions by dozens of tonnes of CO₂ each year. A recent investment from Octopus Energy aims to expand similar units to more than one hundred pools across the UK.

Also, another British company, Heata, attaches small servers to domestic hot water tanks. Homeowners earn a payment for hosting cloud workloads and the heat from the servers warms their water. In mainland Europe, district heating networks in cities such as Odense, Paris and Stockholm already capture heat from large data centres to supply nearby homes and offices.

Key Challenges And Criticisms

Although the Bridges’ results are positive, there are ongoing questions about reliability and long term performance. For example, HeatHubs depend on a steady demand for cloud computing. If business workloads fall or move to other locations there could be uncertainty about how much heat is produced and how backup systems would operate. Trials like SHIELD allow operators to test these scenarios before any wider rollout.

There are also some practical issues to consider. HeatHubs need secure network connections, scheduled maintenance and clear communication so residents understand how the system works. Social landlords also have to consider noise, space and safety. Early feedback from SHIELD has highlighted the importance of strong support and simple user experience.

There is also a broader debate about whether heat reuse can keep pace with the rapid growth in data centre energy demand. Artificial intelligence training and inference use far more electricity than the kind of workloads Thermify deploys. Even with heat capture, growing numbers of data centres will place pressure on local electricity networks. Policymakers and regulators are increasingly encouraging heat reuse but stress that it must be combined with wider grid planning and efficiency measures.

For now, however, the Bridges’ warm bungalow in Essex has become a test case for how computing and heating might come together, offering an early glimpse of a model that could reshape how data centres are built and how homes are heated in the years ahead.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

The trial highlights how digital infrastructure and domestic energy systems can support each other, which is why it is gaining interest across the UK. Data centres are expanding rapidly as businesses adopt artificial intelligence and cloud services, yet their rising electricity use and waste heat are becoming harder to manage. A system that captures this heat and delivers it as affordable, low carbon warmth offers clear benefits for households and creates a more efficient model for the tech companies that rely on constant processing power.

There are important implications for UK businesses here. For example, a distributed network of small data hubs could give companies access to computing capacity with a lower environmental impact, supporting sustainability commitments while easing pressure on the wider grid. Energy providers and local authorities may also see value in systems that help stabilise local demand and offer predictable heating costs for low income residents.

The Social ESCo model is another key part of the story, as it removes the upfront cost barrier that prevents many households from adopting low carbon technologies. If the model proves reliable at scale, it could influence how social housing providers, councils and developers approach retrofit programmes and new energy installations.

Heat reuse is likely to become more common as the UK works towards decarbonising heat. Projects like SHIELD show how data processing, renewable generation and home heating can be combined in a practical way, although long term questions remain around reliability, workload availability and system management. Even so, the Bridges’ experience demonstrates how an integrated approach can reduce bills, cut emissions and provide a template that could be adapted for both homes and businesses in the years ahead.

Sustainability-In-Tech : Europe’s First Underground Mine Data Centre

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Europe’s first full-scale data centre built inside a working mine in northern Italy is being hailed as a landmark in sustainable digital infrastructure, combining high-performance computing with energy efficiency and circular use of underground space.

Who’s Behind the Project and Where Is It?

The project, known as Trentino DataMine, is being developed in the San Romedio dolomite mine in Val di Non, deep in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The mine is owned by Tassullo, a century-old company that extracts dolomite for use in construction materials. Around 100 metres below ground, in a vast network of stable, dry rock chambers, the site has long been used to store apples, cheese, and wine, thanks to its naturally cool and constant temperature of around 12°C.

Trentino DataMine is led by the University of Trento through a public-private partnership involving several Italian firms, including Dedagroup, GPI, Covi Costruzioni, and ISA. Together they have formed a limited company to design, build, and operate the facility. The €50.2 million project is partly financed by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which channels EU Next Generation funds to sustainable and innovative developments. Around €18.4 million of the funding comes from public sources, with the remainder provided by private IT and construction companies.

Intacture – 5 Megawatts

The new facility, called Intacture, will provide around 5 megawatts of computing capacity. However, its focus is not just storage or cloud hosting, but also advanced computing for research, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and healthcare data. The University of Trento describes the project as a “strategic centre for innovation, sustainability and advanced technology” designed to support high-performance computing, edge computing, and quantum cryptography research.

Why Build a Data Centre Underground?

The decision to locate a data centre inside a mine has both some technical and environmental logic behind it, i.e., cooling, energy use, security, and land availability are all central to the reasoning.

Traditional data centres expend large amounts of electricity on cooling systems to prevent servers from overheating. In Trentino, the natural rock temperature, steady at about 12°C, provides passive cooling without the need for large chillers or water-based cooling towers. That dramatically cuts electricity consumption and eliminates the water use associated with many conventional data centres. Dedagroup’s Chief Technology Officer, Roberto Loro, said the site offered “a combination of physical security with low environmental and energy impact.”

Security is another key driver. For example, the mine’s dolomite rock is naturally dry and geologically stable, offering protection from earthquakes and floods. Also, being encased in solid rock shields the site from electromagnetic interference and physical threats such as explosions or extreme weather. Giuliano Claudio Peritore, President of the Association of Italian Internet Providers, has described the project as “absolutely fascinating”, noting that “we think of a mine as being a humid place, therefore not suited to a data centre. Instead, in Trentino we have something special because the dolomite rock is absolutely dry, in a stable mountain.”

The underground setting also saves land. For example, rather than paving over new industrial plots or farmland, the data centre reuses existing voids created by mining operations. In doing so, it preserves surface landscapes while putting unused underground volumes to productive use, which is a clear advantage in regions where land use and visual impact are increasingly sensitive issues.

How the Mine Is Being Transformed

It should be noted that the mine is actually still active, and the excavation work for the data centre was carefully integrated into the ongoing extraction of dolomite. Around 63,000 tonnes of rock (about the volume of 20 Olympic swimming pools) were removed to create the chambers for the facility. The extracted dolomite is being reused by Tassullo to manufacture eco-friendly building materials, creating a circular loop between extraction, construction, and digital infrastructure.

80% Underground

Roughly 80 per cent of the data centre is underground, with the rest of the space used for offices, reception, and security areas near the surface. Around 60 workers have already installed 50 kilometres of fibre and electrical cabling, together with 3 kilometres of ventilation ducts and several power generators. The design relies on natural cooling from the rock, with mechanical ventilation only needed for air circulation.

Coexistence of Industries

What essentially makes the site unique is the coexistence of digital and agricultural industries within the same underground system. For example, the mine has long stored local apples, wines, and Trentingrana cheese. The servers’ waste heat can now be channelled to warm other sections of the mine, while nearby storage operations requiring refrigeration can benefit from the cooling infrastructure. Dedagroup’s Loro highlighted the potential for collaboration, saying: “Those who need heat can use the heat we produce.” It creates a self-balancing ecosystem in which energy flows are shared between food logistics and digital computing.

Sustainability and Regional Strategy

The Trentino DataMine could be said to embody several sustainability principles, i.e., reducing energy and water use, recycling material outputs, and avoiding new land consumption. It also fits into the wider strategy of transforming the region into a digital innovation hub under the EU’s green and digital transition agenda.

By locating advanced computing capacity in northern Italy, the project also supports Europe’s ambition for greater digital sovereignty. Sensitive data in fields such as healthcare, AI, and finance can be processed locally, under European data governance frameworks, instead of being sent to large foreign-owned cloud providers. Italy’s Minister for Enterprises, Adolfo Urso, called the mine “a new hub for public-private collaboration, research and regional development”, adding that it shows how unused underground spaces can drive both innovation and sustainability.

Economically, the project is expected to pay for itself over 15 years and generate skilled employment across data management, engineering, and scientific research. The operators also see it as a blueprint for other European regions where disused or stable underground sites, such as salt mines or tunnels, could be converted into low-impact data infrastructure.

Potential Challenges and Practical Considerations

Despite the clear environmental advantages, underground data centres bring a unique set of challenges. For example, connectivity must be maintained through kilometres of tunnel, and redundancy has to be built in to guarantee service uptime. Engineers have installed multiple fibre paths to ensure data continuity, but protecting those cables from vibration and mining equipment remains an ongoing task.

Also, maintenance logistics are more complex than in standard above-ground facilities. Technicians must move equipment through controlled tunnels, and ventilation must ensure safe air quality at all times. Emergency procedures, power backups, and fire safety systems must be adapted for enclosed spaces.

There are also environmental balance issues. While heat recovery is a promising concept, the actual usability of server heat depends on matching the right temperatures to neighbouring processes. Any imbalance could lead to excess heat that still needs to be vented, which would limit the energy savings. Regulators will also monitor that operations within the mine, especially the storage of food products, are not affected by the digital facility’s heat or air circulation.

Tailored Rules Needed?

For policymakers, Trentino DataMine raises new regulatory questions. Data centres built inside industrial extraction sites may need tailored rules covering safety, environmental protection, and labour standards. Italy’s authorities have already classified the facility as a “green” project under the PNRR, but its mixed use means future projects of this type will need careful legal frameworks.

Stakeholders

For the Trentino region, the DataMine offers a new model of economic diversification. For example, it links high-tech sectors with traditional industries like agriculture and construction, keeping the value of public investment within the local economy. The University of Trento sees the facility as a nucleus for research in AI, edge computing, and cybersecurity, potentially attracting both private and public partners from across Europe.

For the data-centre industry, it offers a live test of how underground environments can cut cooling energy use and improve physical resilience. With European data-centre electricity demand expected to rise by 28 per cent by 2030 according to the European Commission, efficiency measures like this are becoming increasingly important.

For local industries, proximity to computing power could bring new advantages. Agricultural firms that already store produce in the mine could benefit from AI-driven monitoring or predictive logistics systems hosted just a few metres away. For construction firms, the circular reuse of dolomite reinforces Trentino’s positioning as a region of sustainable materials innovation.

Other Unusual Data-Centre Locations Around the World

The Trentino site is the first in Europe built inside a working mine, but it joins a small group of projects exploring alternative environments for digital infrastructure. Others include, for example:

– In Norway, the Lefdal Mine Datacenter occupies a former mineral mine on the country’s west coast. It uses hydropower and draws cold water from a nearby fjord for cooling, achieving extremely low energy consumption. The operators claim near-zero freshwater use and a minimal environmental footprint.

– Microsoft has tested underwater data centres in its Project Natick experiment off the coast of Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The company submerged 864 servers in a sealed pressure vessel on the seabed and found that failure rates were one-eighth of comparable land-based systems, largely due to the stable, cold environment.

– Other developers are exploring floating or underwater data pods in coastal cities, though regulatory and maintenance challenges remain significant. In the United States, proposals to deploy subsea AI processing capsules in San Francisco Bay have drawn mixed reactions over environmental and safety concerns.

Across these experiments, the goal is broadly the same, i.e., to find a workable way to reduce the environmental footprint of data processing, improve efficiency, and find new ways to integrate computing into existing or underused spaces. The Trentino DataMine, therefore, adds a new European example to that list, turning an active dolomite mine into a shared underground ecosystem where technology, agriculture, and sustainability coexist.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

What emerges from Trentino is not just an unusual engineering choice but a possible template for how digital capacity could be added in places that do not want more noise, heat, land pressure, or surface build-out. The operators are arguing that a mine with a constant 12°C climate can offer something that a standard warehouse on an industrial estate cannot, i.e., passive cooling, protection from physical and electromagnetic threats, and almost no demand for new above-ground land. In sustainability terms that’s important because data processing is on track to become one of Europe’s most resource-intensive activities, particularly with the growing computational load of AI and high-performance analytics.

At the same time, this model is clearly not plug-and-play. Keeping a live data centre running inside an active mine brings engineering risks that conventional builds do not face, and regulators will have to decide how to classify mixed-use underground sites that are at once storage depots for food, sources of construction materials, and high-security computing hubs. The fact that Trentino DataMine is being backed through national recovery funds and positioned as “green” is significant, but it also raises expectations. If this is going to be treated as a blueprint then it will have to prove that waste heat recovery, energy reuse, and non-destructive land use work in practice and not just on paper.

For UK businesses the story is relevant on several levels. For example, energy cost and regulatory scrutiny around data use are rising in the UK, while AI workloads and data retention obligations keep expanding. British organisations that depend on data-heavy services, including finance, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics, are already looking for hosting models that are both affordable and politically acceptable. A site like Trentino shows one possible direction for future colocation and high-performance compute: hardened, local, energy-efficient, physically sovereign, and directly tied into regional industries rather than sitting in anonymous hyperscale campuses. That matters for any UK company that is under pressure to evidence sustainability credentials to clients, boards, and regulators while still processing large volumes of data. It also matters for UK local authorities and regional development bodies, which face the same tension Trentino is trying to resolve, i.e., how to attract digital infrastructure and skilled digital jobs without giving up agricultural land, upsetting communities, or straining local water and power networks.

For national and regional governments across Europe the project draws a clean line between digital sovereignty and physical geography. Instead of assuming that high-performance computing must live in vast surface facilities owned by global cloud providers, Trentino suggests that local partnerships between universities, utilities, industrial operators and municipalities can create high-spec capacity underground, in territory that is already zoned for extraction or storage. That in turn keeps data, talent and long-term investment inside the region. It is also politically useful. A data centre marketed as low-impact and circular is an easier sell to voters than another high-consumption facility drawing megawatts from the grid and dumping hot water into rivers.

However, the final question is how far this idea can actually travel. For example, Norway’s fjord-cooled mine, Microsoft’s sealed seabed capsules and the San Romedio dolomite galleries are all attempts to reframe what a data centre physically is. Each approach chooses an environment where cooling and physical resilience are essentially provided by nature. If those models scale, then the debate around data centres in Europe may start moving away from “where can we find more land and power” and towards “which underused environments can safely host secure compute with the lowest ongoing footprint.” The real test for Trentino DataMine now is whether it stays a one-off regional showcase, or whether it becomes evidence that digital infrastructure, food logistics, materials production and climate responsibility can operate in the same physical space without compromising one another.

Sustainability-In-Tech : Carbon-Removal Material Trialled In Data Centre

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is to pilot a new AI-designed carbon-removal material at one of its data centres as part of a new strategic partnership with AI start-up Orbital Materials.

Why?

As data processing and storage requirements increase, data centres must handle increasingly complex AI workloads, pushing their energy and cooling demands ever higher. AWS, like other operators, has set ambitious carbon reduction targets, but purchasing offsets can be costly and less transparent. In a new move, partnering with Orbital and integrating a new carbon-removal material at an AWS data centre by 2025, the company is aiming to directly remove more CO₂ from its airflow than it produces, potentially at a lower cost than traditional offsets. It’s hoped that this approach will not only help AWS meet its sustainability commitments but also address the escalating operational and environmental pressures driving these changes.

Who is Orbital and What is the AWS Deal?

Orbital, launched at the end of 2022 and led by CEO Jonathan Godwin, operates from facilities in Princeton, New Jersey and London. The start-up uses an AI-driven platform to rapidly discover and test advanced materials for climate-focused solutions (work that would traditionally take years in a lab). According to Amazon’s website, since establishing its research and development lab in early 2024, Orbital has seen a tenfold improvement in its carbon-removal material’s performance, highlighting the revolutionary potential of AI-driven materials discovery.

Through its multi-year partnership with AWS, Orbital will supply a carbon-removal material for integration at an AWS data centre by 2025. The goal is to capture more CO₂ than the facility emits, helping AWS meet its carbon reduction targets and potentially offering a more cost-effective, transparent alternative to traditional offsets.

Carbon Removal at the Source

The principal idea behind the AWS–Orbital collaboration is to use data centres themselves as a platform for direct carbon capture. Data centres rely on vast, sophisticated cooling systems to maintain the optimal temperatures required by the thousands of servers inside. These cooling systems constantly circulate large volumes of air, providing an excellent opportunity to integrate a carbon-removal material that can filter out CO₂ molecules as they flow through.

How Does Orbital’s Carbon Removal Material Work?

Orbital’s CEO, Jonathan Godwin, recently explained the nature of the advanced carbon-removing material it produces, describing it as “like a sponge at the atomic level”. For example, the material’s tiny cavities are sized to interact specifically with CO₂, thereby allowing it to trap the gas while letting other, less harmful components of the air pass freely. By 2025, AWS plans to pilot this cutting-edge carbon-removal technology in one of its data centres, testing its scalability and real-world performance.

A More Cost-Effective Alternative

While some operators resort to carbon offsets to reduce their net emissions, these can be expensive and often involve complex verification processes. By capturing carbon directly from the air at the source, data centres could theoretically bypass intermediaries and reduce their reliance on offset markets. According to Jonathan Godwin, the added cost of incorporating Orbital’s carbon-removal material amounts to roughly 10 per cent of the hourly charge of renting a GPU chip for AI training, significantly less than the price of most carbon offsets. This cost-effectiveness could make the proposition commercially attractive, helping data centre operators improve their environmental performance without eroding their bottom line.

Efficiency and Water Usage

While reducing CO₂ emissions is a crucial goal, the AWS–Orbital partnership also aims to tackle other environmental challenges associated with large-scale computing infrastructure. For example, data centres are thirsty operations, requiring huge amounts of water to maintain their cooling systems. Therefore, the ability to integrate more efficient, high-performance materials into cooling processes could lead to reductions in both energy and water consumption.

Speaking about the partnership (on the Amazon website), Orbital’s CEO Jonathan Godwin said, “Our partnership with AWS will accelerate the deployment of our advanced technologies for data centre decarbonisation and efficiency. Working with the market-leading AWS team will accelerate our development of products in cooling, water utilisation, and carbon removal.” In a similar vein, Howard Gefen, General Manager of AWS Energy & Utilities, stated, “AWS looks forward to collaborating with Orbital and their mission to drive data centre decarbonisation and efficiency.”

By designing materials that can capture carbon, improve cooling efficiency, and potentially reduce water consumption, Orbital’s platform looks as though it could open new pathways for sustainable data centre operations. The success of these early trials could lead the way to more widespread adoption of such materials throughout the data centre industry.

Technical and Logistical Challenges

Of course, the introduction of any new technology brings its own challenges. For example, trying to integrate an advanced filtration material into a complex data centre cooling system will alter airflow characteristics. Although this change could increase the workload on existing fans and pumps, Orbital believes the net effect will be positive. Also, the slightly higher energy required for pumping air through the new filters should be more than compensated for by the benefits of lower emissions and improved resource efficiency.

Another pressing consideration is handling the captured CO₂. Once the gas is isolated from the airstream, what then? While specific details of exactly how the carbon will be stored or reused are currently not being made clear, the partners will, no doubt, need robust protocols for managing the extracted greenhouse gases sustainably. Ensuring safe, long-term storage or practical utilisation of this captured carbon is likely to be key to the project’s overall success.

Not The Only One Involved In Data Centre Carbon Capture

It should be noted here that Orbital is not alone in pursuing on-site carbon capture in data centres. For example, other tech giants such as Alphabet (Google) and Meta have filed patents related to similar concepts, and start-ups like 280 Earth are also working on solutions to tackle data centre emissions at source. However, what appears to distinguish Orbital’s approach is its ability to move fast and iterate quickly. By using generative AI to design and test materials virtually, Orbital can arrive at promising formulations far faster than traditional lab-based methods.

This accelerated materials discovery process looks like giving Orbital a potential edge in developing specialised compounds. For example, its carbon-removal material is tailored to work effectively with hot, CO₂-laden air exiting data centre servers. Rather than building a generic carbon filter, Orbital can produce optimised materials that function well under real-world operational conditions.

Wider Applications and Open Access to AI Models

Beyond this single pilot project, Orbital’s technology could also have a much broader impact. For example, the start-up plans to make its open-source AI model ‘Orb’ available to AWS customers via Amazon SageMaker JumpStart and AWS Marketplace. This means that other companies tackling their own materials and climate challenges, whether in semiconductors, batteries, or electronics, will soon have a powerful new tool at their disposal.

Such accessibility is critical. Orbital’s AI-driven approach, therefore, does not appear to just offer one clever solution to a pressing sustainability issue, but could represent a new methodology for discovering and optimising advanced materials. By making these capabilities available in the cloud, Orbital and AWS hope to democratise materials R&D, thereby, hopefully, empowering a wider range of enterprises to contribute to sustainability-driven innovation.

Keeping Pace with Sustainability Targets

The urgency driving projects also comes from the large technology companies having pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions within the coming decades. Yet, as AI models grow more complex, requiring ever more computational power, energy usage soars. Without new interventions, these data centres risk undermining carefully set climate targets.

AWS, as the world’s largest cloud-computing provider by revenue, is under particular scrutiny. Millions of customers rely on its infrastructure, and sustainability commitments have become a point of competitive differentiation. By embracing on-site carbon capture and making advanced materials more accessible, AWS is banking on not only working to meet its own targets but potentially setting a precedent that others in the industry may follow.

Potential Ripple Effects Across the Sector

If the AWS pilot proves successful, it could catalyse a wave of adoption in data centres across the globe. On-site carbon capture may offer a more transparent and reliable way of verifying emissions reductions than conventional offsets. It might even allow data centre operators to generate their own carbon credits by capturing more CO₂ than they produce, thereby transforming a cost centre into a revenue stream.

Such a shift would, however, require careful economic, regulatory, and environmental considerations. For now, the AWS–Orbital initiative is a test (albeit part of a “multi-year” commitment), but one that carries high stakes and considerable promise. This early pilot could be said to represent a proactive step towards embedding sustainability at the heart of AI-driven infrastructure and an opportunity to ensure that the digital revolution does not come at an unacceptable environmental cost.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?

In many ways, the AWS–Orbital pilot project encapsulates the evolving relationship between digital infrastructure and the urgent need to address our environmental responsibilities. By attempting to capture carbon on-site rather than relying solely on offsets, AWS is exploring a pathway that could be more transparent, cost-effective, and efficient. Orbital’s rapid, AI-driven approach to materials discovery highlights a significant shift in how quickly breakthroughs can be achieved, and the involvement of AWS, arguably one of the most influential players in the sector, puts added weight behind this experimentation.

However, the path forward is not going to be without its hurdles. For example, integrating new materials into data centres, ensuring that carbon can be meaningfully stored or reused, and consistently meeting demanding performance standards will all require careful planning and meticulous execution. Also, the costs, although promising at present, are likely to evolve alongside technological improvements and market conditions, meaning that careful economic analysis will remain crucial.

Beyond this specific partnership (due to last an unspecified, but probably a small number of years), it suggests that the integration of advanced materials and AI-driven R&D could help carve out a more sustainable future for data centres worldwide.

Tech News : Dublin Says No To New Google Data-Centre

Posted on by Paul Stradling

South Dublin County Council has refused Google Ireland planning permission for a new data-centre at Grange Castle Business Park in South Dublin.

Why? 

The reason given for the refusal was “the existing insufficient capacity in the electricity network (grid) and the lack of significant on-site renewable energy to power the data centre”. 

What Data Centre? 

Google already has two data-centres in South Dublin’s Grange Castle business park, and had submitted plans to build a third 72,400sq-metre data-centre consisting of eight data halls on a 50-acre site. This new data-centre would have created 50 jobs and documents lodged with the application by Google Ireland had highlighted how important the new data-centre would be for Google being able to meet the increasing demands for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services to its customers in Ireland and in supporting Ireland’s digital economy.

Concerns 

South Dublin County Council refused Google Ireland’s planning application for a third data-centre primarily due to concerns about energy usage and environmental impact.

The council was worried that the new data-centre would place a significant strain on the already limited capacity of the local electricity grid, potentially leading to grid congestion and challenges in managing power supply. This decision aligns with the stance of Ireland’s state-run electric power operator, EirGrid, which had previously (2022) indicated it would not accept applications for new data-centres in Dublin in the near future, due to insufficient grid capacity.

The council also criticised the lack of on-site renewable energy sources in Google’s proposal, which was seen as inconsistent with Ireland’s climate goals and efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

A lack of clarity regarding Google’s engagement with power purchase agreements and its failure to connect the proposed data-centre to the surrounding district heating network was also highlighted as contributing to the planning refusal.

In relation to concerns about the environmental impact, Google Ireland’s proposed design was deemed to not fully comply with the South Dublin County Development Plan (2022-28), particularly in terms of protecting green infrastructure, such as streams and hedgerows, and the overall integration of the facility into the local environment. The council ruled that the proposed usage was not suitable for the designated enterprise and employment-zoned lands, and it highlighted concerns about how the project would impact power supply once operational in 2027.

Also, An Taisce (an environmental advocacy group) further warned that the data-centre would compromise Ireland’s ability to meet its carbon budget limits and place additional pressure on renewable energy resources, leading to further environmental concerns.

What Now? 

As yet, there’s been no official comment from Google about the refused application and Google now has one month to appeal the Council’s decision.

With part of the refusal of the application being based on the apparent lack of on-site renewable energy, it’s interesting to note that Google has long been involved with renewable energy sources. For example, back in 2021, Google signed a long-term supply agreement with solar energy firm Energix Renewables to supply Google with electricity via its solar power operations, covering a 1.5GW peak of solar project development until last year.

Data-Centres 

Just how much of an effect data-centres are having on Ireland’s energy supplies was highlighted by a Silicon Republic report back in June which showed that data -entres now consume a massive 21 per cent of Ireland’s electricity!  With this figure set to rise to one-third of the country’s total electricity consumption by 2026, it’s perhaps unsurprising that political leaders, environmental bodies and councils are now particularly concerned about the effects of more massive data-centres being built in Ireland.

That said, Amazon was granted permission last September for three new data-centres at a data campus near Mulhuddart, northwest of Dublin. As part of the conditions for granting planning, however, Amazon had to install the infrastructure to develop a district heating scheme for recycling the heat from the data-centres.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The refusal of Google’s planning application for a third data-centre in South Dublin highlights the growing challenges related to the energy consumption of data-centres and their environmental impact. As mentioned above, data-centres already consume a significant portion of Ireland’s electricity (currently 21 per cent), with projections indicating this could rise to a third by 2026. This heavy demand places immense pressure on the national grid, which has (not surprisingly) prompted concerns from local councils, environmental groups, and state energy operators like EirGrid. For businesses, the decision by South Dublin Council illustrates the increasing importance of considering energy efficiency and sustainability in operational plans. Companies will need to explore alternative energy solutions, such as integrating renewable energy sources, to avoid similar setbacks.

For Ireland, this decision reflects a broader commitment to sustainability and managing environmental impacts in line with its national climate goals. By setting a precedent for stricter energy consumption and environmental guidelines, the refusal indicates that future data-centre developments will be closely scrutinised. This could influence other tech giants and data-reliant businesses, prompting them to reassess their environmental strategies and engagement with local communities.

Google may now face a bit of an unexpected challenge in adapting its expansion plans to meet these new expectations. The company must demonstrate a stronger commitment to sustainable energy practices and compliance with local development regulations. That said, Amazon’s been able to get approval for three data-centres by focusing more on renewable energy and giving the community back something via a heat recycling scheme, so despite this initial refusal, it’s not unlikely that Google could still get approval on appeal and with the right alterations to its initial plans.

For the local community, this refusal could be seen as a step towards ensuring that large-scale developments don’t compromise the quality of life, local infrastructure, and environmental health. That said, the refusal also means that 50 jobs won’t be created, and Ireland’s digital economy and ICT may not be as well supported as it could have been, thereby missing out on the economic benefits.

For businesses in Ireland, this case serves as a warning and an opportunity. It signals a shift towards a need for sustainable growth and the need to align business operations with both local and national environmental standards.