Data Center World 2025: Powering the Future

Power sourcing is a critical issue for the data center industry, which is why Data Center World 2025 has adopted the themePowering the Futurefor this year’s conference program. The agenda will feature 10+ sessions in the Power Sourcing & Sustainability track and high-level keynotes addressing these challenges. 

The urgency around power solutions is evident in recent headlines, with renewed interest in nuclear energy. Discussions of a nuclear renaissance gained momentum 20 years ago but stalled after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan. Today, enthusiasm is resurging, driven by AI’s growing demand for power.

A Morgan Stanley study predicts that generative AI applications like ChatGPT could account for 75% of U.S. data center MWs (as a percentage of 2022 data center available power) by 2025. Boston Consulting believes overall U.S. data center power consumption will grow from 2% of today to 7.5% by 2030. Data centers want power wherever they can get it, whether it is sourced from nuclear, solar, wind, batteries, the grid, or from on-site natural gas generation. 

Nuclear in the Data Center  

Nuclear energy is all over the news.  Recent announcements include:  

• Amazon is providing financial backing for the deployment of 5 GW of new X-energy small modular reactor (SMR) projects by 2039. A four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 plant in central Washington will be the first to be built. The company is also working with Dominion Energy on a 300-MW SMR project in Virginia. In addition, it has acquired a 1,200-acre data center campus that is directly connected to the 2.5 GW Susquehanna Steam Electric Station (a nuclear plant) in Pennsylvania. An existing 48 MW data center operating there currently will be expanded to 960 MW.  

• Microsoft and Constellation Energy plan to invest more than $1.5 billion to recommence operations at the Third Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania by 2028 to power Microsoft AI data centers.  

• Google is involved with Kairos Power in the development of 500MW of molten salt nuclear reactors by 2035 to power its data centers.  

Part of the reason for the resurgence of interest in nuclear energy is the fact that hyperscalers like Google and Microsoft have fallen behind in the net-zero emissions targets they set.The power draw from AI and high-performance computing applications is largely to blame. They have realized that their decarbonization goals won’t be achieved through wind and solar. They have turned to nuclear energy and Governments are supporting their efforts.  

Government Intervention in Nuclear 

Governments in Europe and US have recently realigned themselves with nuclear energy, redefining it as a renewable resource. 

“Wind and solar play a major role in decarbonization but we need a stable and firm nuclear backbone,” said Rian Bahran, Ph.D., Assistant Director of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Nuclear and renewables are complementary and nuclear is the only proven clean and firm energy technology.”  

The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced almost $1 billion in funding to spur the development of SMRs. The hope is that this will result in at least two new SMRs operating within the next decade that can provide anywhere from 50 MW to 350 MW. This is in addition to $4 billionas part of an advanced reactor demonstration program that is helping fund two GW-class nuclear projects in Wyoming and Texas.  

The European Union, too, has formed an SMR alliance to support the development of nine new nuclear projects throughout the continent. Part of the plan is to speed permitting, regulatory, and supply chain issues that would otherwise impose lengthy delays on new generation facilities.  

SMRs are Coming  

Britt Burt, an energy analyst at research firm Industrial Info Resources, noted that over a dozen SMR projects are in development around the U.S., with construction kickoff dates scattered through the late 2020s and early 2030s. The power companies investigating SMRs include the Tennessee Valley Authority, Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, Nebraska Public Power District, and Energy Northwest.

The latest generation of SMRs are proving attractive due to their relatively small footprint, better safety and seismic capabilities, lower costs, faster time to market, and their ability to provide reliable electricity. Hence,hyperscalers and large colos are looking seriously at SMRs as a potential source of power.

“Small nuclear designs can grow modularly as the data center grows and won’t need to be refueled for up to eight years,” said Bahran. “With an SMR providing roughly 20 to 30 MW and AI data centers having widely variable energy demands, you could have one SMR in an area with multiple users.”   

Beyond Nuclear  

The timelines involved in nuclear development mean that it is a mid-term not a short-term solution to the fulfillment of AI energy demands. Thus, data centers and developers are looking at multiple solutions to solve lack of power availability. 

In response to these problems, a variety of solutions are emerging. Grid upgrades can help, such as new substations in areas where data centers are being built and the completion of high voltage transmission lines to bring more power faster to load centers.  

Wind and solar farms are being added across the world at a rapid rate. IIR projects that 91% of all new power projects currently under development in the US and scheduled to be completed in the next five years consist of either wind or solar. Smart data center operators are partnering with developers and funding new projects to gain access to green power. 

Bring your own power is another trend: With an increasing number of power utilities unable to meet current data center power demands, some are building generation capabilities on their own campus or adjacent to the data center. Ford’s campus in Dearborn, Michigan is a good example. Fordpartnered with local utility DTE Energy who built a power plant onsite. It delivers enough power to run the Ford data center and office complex. DTE sells excess power to local customers. 

If building an entire plant takes might take a couple of years and power is needed now, another approach is to rent or buy a trailer-mounted gas turbine or gas engine. These can be delivered within weeks in some cases. The trailer sits in the parking lot and feeds power directly into the data center.  

Powering the AI Revolution 

The AI revolution is upon us and data centers are being forced to step up to the challenge. To do that, many need more power as fast as possible. For some, the solution will be nuclear, for others it will be wind, solar, or gas. And for more than a few, it will be a combination of these generation sources. 

“AI’s transformational potential across every aspect of society is fundamentally governed by only one thing: power,” said Ali Fenn, President of data center developer Lancium.