Report: Us Outpacing Europe For Data Center Clean Energy Procurement
insideHPC, Monday, November 4th, 2024
According to a report from S&P Global Commodity Insights, the rising energy demands of global data centers are driving shifts toward renewable power sourcing with US data centers accounting for half of total US corporate clean energy procurement this year, but only around 20 percent in Europe.
The US data center sector has contracted at least 50 GW of clean energy by end-Q3 2024 with solar the major source of supply (29 GW), followed by wind (13 GW) and a growing emphasis on hybrid and nuclear solutions, according to the S&P Global Commodity Insights Corporate Renewables Contracts database.
In Europe, the big four tech companies Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta have procured over 12 GW of clean energy alone. Spain has become the leading country, primarily focused on solar, while offshore wind PPAs are also a major source of supply, especially for traditional demand hubs in the Frankfurt-London-Amsterdam-Paris (FLAP) region.