flâneur

🌎 The data center report we promise you haven't read

ctvc.co · 2,061 words · saved by 1 readers

Everyone knows data centers are bringing new demands for power. You’ve likely seen countless variations of the “up and to the right” chart (we know we have). The IEA projects global data center electricity consumption will increase by ~15% between 2024 and 2030; McKinsey forecasts a 3.5x increase in data center capacity demand between 2025 and 2030. It’s the kind of hockey stick that gets baked into every investor deck, utility IRP, and AI hype cycle thinkpiece. Underneath the curve, what’s far less clear is how these centers will actually get powered. On-the-ground constraints are stacking up fast: multi-year backlogs for gas turbines, interconnection queues and policy headwinds for wind and solar, long deployment timelines for nuclear and geothermal. And all this is playing out against a backdrop of rising electricity prices in key markets. So, with all these top-down projections and trends swirling around, in classic CTVC/Sightline fashion, we decided to go bottom up to figure out w

Everyone knows data centers are bringing new demands for power. You’ve likely seen countless variations of the “up and to the right” chart (we know we have). The IEA projects global data center electricity consumption will increase by ~15% between 2024 and 2030; McKinsey forecasts a 3.5x increase in data center capacity demand between 2025 and 2030. It’s the kind of hockey stick that gets baked into every investor deck, utility IRP, and AI hype cycle thinkpiece. Underneath the curve, what’s far less clear is how these centers will actually get powered. On-the-ground constraints are stacking…

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