Power Demand from Data Centers is Likely to Double to 35 GW by 2030, Accounting for 7.5% of the National Power Consumption, According to Recent Estimates
Virginia & Ohio: Northern Virginia is the world’s biggest data center market, accounting for 3.4 GW of demand at the end of 2023. Utility Dominion Energy forecasts that this will quadruple over the next 15 years, with larger data centers now requiring 50-100 MW of power, compared with 30-50 MW a few years ago. Meanwhile, Ohio has become a hub for Amazon, driven by the state's favorable tax incentives and discounted electricity rates from energy provider Ohio Power
Strategic Alliances: Tech giants are pursuing outside-the-box strategic alliances amid supply chain issues and permitting hurdles. In 2023, Amazon signed its first PPA for a brownfield project, which will repurpose a coal mine site in Maryland into a solar farm. Meanwhile, Microsoft has sought to side-step equipment supply bottlenecks by signing a multi-GW MoU with QCELLS for solar panels and EPC services, as well as a 10.5 GW PPA framework with Brookfield, that has a large-scale development pipeline in US
Blue-Chip Suppliers: Enerdatics notes that technology firms leading corporate off-take in the US continue to prioritize PPAs with blue-chip suppliers. These include large-cap utilities such as EDP, EDF, AES, Clearway and Dominion, as well as well funded companies such as Leeward, SB Energy, Invenergy and Silicon Ranch. We believe this strategy is driven by the developers' credit profiles and long-standing relationships in force since the last decade, which optimize procurement costs and reduce complexities for the off-takers
The above analysis is proprietary to Enerdatics’ energy analytics team, based on the current understanding of the available data. The information is subject to change and should not be taken to constitute professional advice or a recommendation.
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