ENERGY & POWER
The industry is also investing in the next generation of nuclear technology: Small Modular Reactors( SMRs). These smaller, factorybuilt reactors could potentially be co-located directly at data centre campuses, with the first deployments expected in the early 2030s.
Emerging technologies like green hydrogen fuel cells are also gaining traction as a clean alternative to the diesel generators currently used for backup power.
In 2023, for example, Microsoft successfully tested a 3-megawatt hydrogen fuel cell system, the scale of a typical data centre backup generator, capable of powering roughly 10,000 servers.
The Grid: The ultimate bottleneck Despite this wave of innovation, perhaps the greatest barrier to the industry’ s sustainable growth is the inadequacy of the world’ s electrical grids.
Power availability has now surpassed all other considerations to become one of the most critical factors in data centre site selection. Established hubs like Northern Virginia in the US and the
140 September 2025