Latitude Media
Summary
The demands of AI data centers have created a truly unprecedented era in the speed and scale at which power generation needs to be built. But there has been uncertainty about whether we truly need as much infrastructure as tech giants are demanding.
The recent rise of AI data centers is quickly rewriting the script for literally all energy sources, from the restart of nuclear plants to the deferred retirements of coal plants. It provides the economic context for sources that had been only slowly entering the mix, such as enhanced geothermal, fuel cells, and nuclear SMRs. But none have generated the headlines that gas has in 2025.
Data center developers are increasingly eyeing combined heat and power models of onsite generation. These have massive efficiency gains over traditional gas power generation by using the waste heat to drive absorption chillers for cooling. This option hasn’t yet been deployed at a meaningful scale, as today’s data center developers tend to be conservative about new technologies — but its mere existence indicates a way forward where emissions and efficiency can both be addressed at the site itself.
Continue Reading
#News#CHP#DataCenter