A major opportunity for Europe’s energy transition

Data centre dispatchable capacity

Surge in data centre power demand

  • With added AI high-density power needs, European data centre demand is forecast to grow 18 x by 2040
  • Already, power availability on the grid is constrained, with pauses on data centre builds and multi-year connection queues
  • 40% of existing AI data centres are expected to be operationally constrained by power availability by 2027

Rise of the Microgrid

  • Independent energy centres – microgrids – are an increasingly popular solution to these challenges, and power from them can also be shared
  • The European microgrid market is forecast to grow from €3.3 billion to  €13.7 billion over the next 7 years
  • Already, over 20% of  European data centre operators are participating in programmes for grid stabilisation or energy trading

Energy mix models for an 80 MW data centre

  • Our real-world simulations explored various options to find the optimum microgrid power mix for both cost and environmental impact
  • We found that renewables alone will not solve the problem as they require massive overcapacity; a wind power footprint the size of Paris would be needed for an 80 MW data centre
  • Mixing combined gas cycle turbines with renewables and battery storage looks like the most promising model

A blueprint for future microgrid power?

  • The mix of gas internal combustion engines with renewables and battery storage (Model 4) would produce power most cost-effectively, with a lower cost per megawatt hour than many Northern European grids
  • Operational emissions would also be lower than current emissions from most Northern European grids

Microgrids that back up the grid

  • Making data centre microgrid power available to national grids could also provide vital resilience during the energy transition
  • A very small amount of gas engines can enable a huge amount of new renewable capacity, accelerating the transition to net zero
  • New business models will be needed to make these microgrid solutions work to benefit data centre operators, power grids, other power users and the environment

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