The growth in data centres represents a major source of energy demand growth over the foreseeable future. While efficiency gains are being made reducing some of the more exuberant forecasts, much of the efficiency gained is being used to meet additional demand. But there are major issues around grid availability and supply chain hold ups for traditional data centre energy solutions. We see this creating new demand for long and short duration electricity storage, photovoltaic solar, hydrogen and geothermal energy. Providers of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions are also benefiting as data centre providers struggle to decarbonise. We also see an opportunity for electricity companies in the development of data centres allowing deployment of existing skillsets not matched by many other players. While there is talk of an AI bubble, few clean energy companies have seen any AI benefits reflected in their valuations with only a couple of exceptions.
