SUSTAINABILITY
Energy storage has evolved into a core design variable in hyperscale and AI campus planning, with direct implications for sustainability, time-to-power and grid relations. Battery systems, microgrids and longduration storage are increasingly being specified at the masterplanning stage, rather than value-engineered in later, as developers confront multi‐year interconnection queues and escalating scrutiny of diesel reliance.
The most immediate trend is the pivot to behind-the-meter architectures that combine large-scale storage with on-site generation. Cleanview’ s latest project tracker finds 46 US data centres, totalling 56GW of capacity, planning to build their own power plants behind the meter – roughly 30 % of all planned US data centre capacity. For operators, co‐located storage is becoming the ticket to faster energisation, grid‐services revenue and a more credible decarbonisation narrative. For regulators and utilities, the question is how these private power islands integrate with wider system planning. Battery energy storage is now an increasingly critical component of the data centre infrastructure for operators
78 April 2026