Tech magnates, take heed: Trump suggests resolving your power issues

In the heart of the digital revolution, data centers are growing at an unprecedented pace, and so is the need for a reliable and robust energy infrastructure to support them.

Some of these new data center builds are monstrous in size, requiring an enormous amount of power. According to a report from Deloitte Insights, the energy required by data centers in the US may be more than 30 times greater in a decade. This surge in energy demand has raised concerns about the country's ability to meet this growing need.

To address this challenge, the U.S. government, under President Trump, took steps to facilitate the connection of data centers to the power grid. Top executives from Silicon Valley, including Bill Gates, Tim Apple, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Arvind Krishna, and Mark Zuckerberg, were among those who attended a White House dinner in support of these initiatives.

The government's efforts included simplifying permitting and increasing access to electricity, as well as promises of regulatory relief and subsidies to improve power supply for data centers. Companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Google, IBM, and OpenAI were among the beneficiaries of these initiatives.

Energy companies such as Constellation Energy and Duke Energy are also investing in increasing nuclear plant capacities and license extensions to ensure a stable electricity supply for data centers. They have secured long-term power contracts from companies like Meta to support these projects.

However, the wait for connection to the grid for data center projects can be lengthy. In some cases, it extends to seven years. To bypass this issue, datacenter developers in the UK are turning to gas rather than waiting for grid power for builds.

In the US, Hitachi Energy announced a $1 billion investment in US electrical grid infrastructure, including a large power transformer factory in Virginia, the datacenter capital of the world. This investment is part of a wider trend of rising investment in the data center industry, driven by the current craze for AI and Washington's obsession with staying ahead of China in an AI arms race.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) is also fast tracking advanced atomic reactor projects with ten selected companies. One of these projects could see molten salt nuclear reactors powering Google datacenters by 2030.

The datacenter industry is not just growing in the US. In France, there is a scheme to provide land close to power plants for new server farms. In the UK, concerns about connections to the grid and grid distribution for datacenters have been raised.

President Joe Biden has also shown support for the rapid construction of data centers and power infrastructure, signing an executive order to speed up construction on federal land.

As the demand for data centers continues to grow, so too does the need for innovative and sustainable energy solutions. From geothermal energy being pitched as a potential savior for datacenters to South Korean conglomerate Hyundai being chosen to build nuclear reactors in Texas for a data center project, the future of data center energy looks set to be diverse and exciting.

However, challenges remain, and the industry must continue to innovate and collaborate to meet the growing demand for power while minimizing its environmental impact.