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AVK Capital: Transforming Data Centre Development Processes

Topic

Expertise Innovation

Date

19 October 2026

Author

Ben Pritchard, CEO

Read Time

10 min

AVK Capital removes power infrastructure CapEx burden for funders and OpEx risk of energy delivery for developers and operators, delivering crucial Speed to Power through a sustainable Energy as a Service (EaaS) model, built on AVK's proven end-to-end delivery capability.

The AI era adding new complexities to data centre development is an accepted fact. As the market has shifted from being property based to becoming power centric, this is especially true when applied to power provision and energy use.

There is broad agreement across the industry on what AI requirements mean long before a single GPU server is plugged in; securing access to power has become the number one bottleneck in data centre development, often causing delays or even cancellation of projects.

The rise of AI has catalysed a huge surge in power demand that the grid doesn’t have the capacity to respond to, and this issue will not be temporary, with demand only increasing. This has created a capacity gap of nearly 78 GW between data centre power demand and grid infrastructure capacity by 2030. The grid can’t keep up, and this is the challenge that AVK is equipped to solve.

Power delivery looks different now. Over the last 12 months we’ve identified major challenges that we can address by changing how AI infrastructure power is funded.

The widening gap between demand and grid capacity means that Speed to Power is more crucial now than ever. Faster deployment means a direct response to the demand that is so prevalent, and being the first to do so means a quicker route to profit.

Something hindering Speed to Power for developers is the upfront capital investment. Microgrid technology, the behind-the-meter (BTM) power solutions used as an independent power supply for data centres, require significant capital, and due to the complex nature of the technology, developers tend to avoid this burden on their CapEx sheet.

This is what AVK Capital’s Energy as a Service (EaaS) model is there to solve.

With the launch of AVK Capital, we can now provide the Speed to Power utilising off-grid technology, whilst taking the CapEx burden off the developer. In August 2026, AVK secured an initial investment of over USD 1 billion from Partners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry. As part of the transaction, Partners Group will back AVK’s growth with a majority growth investment and provide significant capital to fund the buildout of the on-site infrastructure under an EaaS model for data centre operators.

Under the EaaS model, once the microgrid is built AVK becomes an integrated partner of the data centre operation, delivering energy on a per-kWh basis through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). The developer signs a PPA and pays per kWh as an operating expense. This ability to deliver Energy as a Service is founded on our end-to-end delivery pedigree.

Our end-to-end power solutions are comprised of the full technology stack for data centres. As well as microgrid technology, we have a long and expert history in standby power and experience in delivering modular PowerPods, BESS, and ongoing servicing. This end-to-end offering allows us to view EaaS requirements comprehensively, designing and delivering sophisticated and reliable power, provided by those with the expertise that is so sorely needed.

With AVK Capital, we’ve added Fund-Own-Operate capability. Such an approach keeps all the power and energy development tracks moving simultaneously, resulting in lower risk, shorter project timelines and accelerated readiness for service. This is what can shorten the power gap.

Confidence based on experience

AVK’s flexible approach to microgrid engineering is unique. Microgrids aren’t new, but no-one knows better than us just how difficult it is to build and operate power assets at scale, in an industry where this technology has been unfamiliar territory.

Our decades of experience in standby power generation taught us about pitfalls, engineering challenges, and the sophistication needed within a power solution for a successful delivery, and subsequent energy lifecycle. Without our expertise in standby, our success in delivering an operational microgrid could not, and would not have happened.

We have harnessed the learnings that our 37-year history has provided to reshape data centre baseload primary power through microgrids. This has been the furthest thing from straightforward. The microgrid projects that we have been working on for the last few years have been extremely challenging, containing a multitude of learning curves and barriers that, at the face of it, seemed impossible to overcome. It is exactly the learnings, gathered from our foundation of expertise from standby power, that has allowed us to employ our problem-solving capabilities to persevere through the demanding nature of these projects.

There are newly emerged companies who will promise to deliver microgrids. Without the decades of knowledge fuelling the capabilities and expertise required to bring off-grid BTM solutions into the data centre industry successfully, these companies will likely fail. The complexities that microgrid projects contain can’t be downplayed, and the reason for AVK’s delivery of the first data centre microgrid in Europe, is down to innovation, rigorous problem-solving, and a team comprised of experts.

Being the first mover in this technology meant one of the first challenges was changing attitudes in a sector which has traditionally been resistant to new innovations. Now that we have experienced the challenges, overcome them, and proven what is possible, operators are increasingly taking notice of what is needed if they are hoping to benefit from Speed to Power.

As a rapidly growing business, these hard projects have been eye-opening, and are exactly the type that we relish. They’re core to our vision for AVK Capital as a new way to power data centres over their lifetime of operation.

Proven capabilities with a unique approach

Through our approach and experience, we have grown rapidly to become Europe’s only proven provider of every foundational element of power infrastructure (our end-to-end solutions) – spanning generation, storage, ride-through, modular solutions (AVK PowerPods), standby, primary baseload and microgrids.

We are also the only company to successfully deploy a data centre microgrid project in Europe. Since 2024, our behind-the-meter power solution for the data centre operator Pure DC’s Dublin campus has been operational and, once complete, it will have an installed capacity of 90MW from three separate energy centres and BESS technology. This project continues to develop with new phases entering commissioning. This has become a blueprint for data centre operators interested in BTM power.

From design to operation, we have already met the technical challenges of delivering off-grid, on-site power at commercial scale for a data centre. This is our “Power of ONE” approach: our end-to-end capability spanning design, engineering, delivery and commissioning, and it’s the foundation of every part of our offering.

From 2025 and into early 2026, we witnessed a pause in the data centre market. Since then, driven by the demand of AI, data centre operators have resumed their activity with pace. This is a real market shift with new geographies opening up. The legacy markets of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin (FLAP-D) have wait times of up to a decade, so operators are considering alternative locations to enable speed to power. We are well placed for this change. We have had a microgrid running since 2024, so we know how these systems perform in real conditions, not just on paper. Today we have more than 250MW approaching commissioning and more than a GW of potential projects in our pipeline.

How did we achieve this? We combined decades of field expertise alongside partners with best-of-breed technologies across the power chain.

As a technology-agnostic power solutions provider we choose the best available generation, distribution, storage and renewable technologies for each project. Being technology agnostic is possible due to our extensive industry collaborations, which let us bring together off-grid power, AVK PowerPods modular solutions, fuel cells, standby power, controls and ongoing maintenance in one complete, end-to-end offer. One partner designs, delivers and looks after the full system. An OEM usually offers only its own technology, which can limit performance. We are free to choose what works best for each customer.

What a technology agnostic approach provides is the freedom and flexibility required to use multiple vendors’ equipment, achieving the best quality power solution. The regionality of Europe requires us to think differently, and power solutions need creativity as a priority to lead to the most effective outcome.

This creativity is valuable in deciding the combination of technology – fuel cells (helping to deliver AI-ready infrastructure whilst accelerating emissions reduction), microgrids, batteries, renewable integration, etc. Utilising a range of technology from a wide-spanning selection within a power solution will result in that solution being a high-performing one, and it’s unlikely that all of this technology will come from one provider.

AVK is the power partner who can coordinate the selection of this technology, sourcing reputable vendors to create a bespoke, effective power solution.

Our engineering expertise allows us to be inventive at every stage on every project. This is shown in our ability to match the needs of a data centre – from bringing in MWs of renewables, to the deployment and integration of fuel cells – new to the AVK offering.

With AVK Capital’s ownership model we are adding to a sustainable technology armoury over the lifetime of the facility operation.

Investment benefits: Shaping the market

With the development of AVK Capital, we are serving and shaping the modern data centre energy market.

This is not about changing lanes. It is how we are building on our foundations to change the market for data centre power funding – reducing financial burden from projects by keeping energy infrastructure funding outside the data centre project itself.

Being a first mover is never comfortable. Building an ambitious growth business inside a market that is reshaping itself this quickly brings real pressure – the assumptions we made even a year ago are already being tested and refined. But that pace of change is exactly what makes this moment exciting rather than daunting. We have learned a great deal along the way, often through informed trial and error, and every lesson has sharpened how AVK Capital is built. With Partners Group alongside us as a growth partner, we now have the scale and the confidence to keep shaping how power is delivered to data centres – for the projects underway today, and for the ones yet to break ground.

But it is also about ensuring we continue pushing the envelope on achieving long-term sustainability, both economically and environmentally.

Through our Energy as a Service model, capital, development and ownership of the microgrid remain with AVK Capital, while our ongoing operational expertise ensures the microgrid supplies power to the data centre.

For investors, AVK Capital reduces burden from data centre projects by removing the need for hundreds of millions in upfront capital investment in power infrastructure.

Embedding sustainability into the AVK Capital proposition

AVK Capital’s value proposition goes beyond placing a microgrid next to a data centre. Its approach demonstrates responsible development, appropriate permitting and a balanced approach to data centre demand and sustainability.

Speed to Power means reshaping how sustainable power for AI factories and data centres is funded, at scale. It means taking on responsibilities that combine environmental and economic considerations, and addressing local permitting from the outset, building a sustainable energy strategy that holds up over the long term.

We’re interested in managing carbon at the source, adopting a sustainable approach from the start of the process in the design of a power solution. We’re looking at PPAs for direct renewables, involving solar and wind in the mix of a power solution to contribute to the reduction of a data centre’s carbon footprint. We’re about to introduce fuel cells to our technology portfolio, providing technology that converts fuel into electricity and heat without the environmental impact of combustion.

Biomethane is another way we are looking to provide a sustainable approach to our customers, exploring ways to increase production and inject biomethane into the gas network to offset carbon use. Pure DC has already shown this in its Dublin microgrid, being the first developer in Europe to successfully complete a large-scale, cross-border biomethane purchase – transferring 9GWh of certified German biomethane to the Irish gas network over seven days, to help decarbonise the power solution. This kind of innovation proves that renewables and new fuels are a top priority for our industry.

We foresee a strong business case to increase renewable deployment and adopt new fuels as they become available.

Through its ownership of the power infrastructure, AVK Capital has the ability to make decisions on power sources with the flexibility to respond to the business case for direct renewables and new fuels as they emerge. With the price per watt of renewables falling, the sustainability case adds to AVK Capital’s profitability.

Through a combination of capital and technology independence, proven microgrid delivery, engineering capability, and operational expertise, our position in the market changes funding sequencing by separating the data centre from the energy infrastructure.

We take responsibility for delivering the power infrastructure required to make the site viable. This helps derisk data centre developments by removing large, complex energy infrastructure investments from the developer’s balance sheet, simplifying the development proposition for investors.

It provides Speed to Power. We develop the power solution in parallel with the data centre, making the microgrid an integral part of the data centre development strategy.

Data centre investors and developers working with AVK Capital gain funded and deliverable power that can rapidly progress towards construction, tenant commitments and revenue.