The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037
The market for sustainable data centers has moved, in the space of two years, from a voluntary corporate-responsibility concern to a hard commercial and regulatory constraint on the single fastest-growing category of electricity demand in the world. The trigger is the AI build-out: soaring rack densities, rising GPU thermal design power, and hyperscale campuses now specified in gigawatts have pushed data-center electricity consumption onto national-grid agendas and into direct conflict with decarbonization targets, water-stress limits, land-use politics and community opposition. The defining bottleneck is no longer capital or chips but power — multi-year grid-interconnection queues have made speed-to-power the industry's scarcest resource, driving a structural shift toward "bring-your-own-power" generation, behind-the-meter microgrids and on-site firm capacity.
This report frames the market around the three emissions scopes that govern data-center sustainability. Scope 2 (purchased electricity) is being addressed through PPAs, hourly-matched clean energy, and a widening portfolio of firm low-carbon generation — small modular reactors, nuclear restarts, enhanced geothermal, fuel cells, and gas paired with carbon capture. Scope 1 and on-site efficiency center on the transition from air to liquid cooling (direct-to-chip and immersion) as densities exceed air's physical limits, alongside 800 VDC power architectures, wide-bandgap (SiC/GaN) power electronics, and performance-per-watt gains in compute, memory and optical interconnect. Scope 3 — which dominates lifecycle emissions — spans carbon dioxide removal, low-carbon construction (green steel, low-carbon cement, mass timber), embodied carbon in IT hardware, and circularity.
Policy is now the market's principal accelerant. The EU's Energy Efficiency Directive reporting scheme, the Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package and its A–F rating scheme, and the Cloud and AI Development Act (which conditions capacity growth on efficiency, water and circularity) sit alongside US federal and state reporting rules, China's green-data-center action plans, Singapore's roadmap, and grid-connection reform in the UK and Ireland. Standards such as PUE, WUE, CUE and EPEAT are hardening from voluntary benchmarks into regulatory metrics.
The result is a rapidly expanding, technology-diverse market spanning power generation, storage, cooling, power electronics, efficient IT and Scope 3 abatement — forecast in detail to 2037 across power consumption, emissions, cooling revenue and 800 VDC adoption, under baseline, stringent-regulation and delayed-regulation scenarios. Sustainability has become inseparable from the economics and permitting of building AI infrastructure at all.
The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037: Policy, Green Power, Efficiency, Scope 3 and Forecasts is a comprehensive, 10-chapter market study that combines policy analysis, technology assessment, quantitative forecasts to 2037, and 245 company profiles across the full sustainable-data-center value chain.
Contents include:
This report frames the market around the three emissions scopes that govern data-center sustainability. Scope 2 (purchased electricity) is being addressed through PPAs, hourly-matched clean energy, and a widening portfolio of firm low-carbon generation — small modular reactors, nuclear restarts, enhanced geothermal, fuel cells, and gas paired with carbon capture. Scope 1 and on-site efficiency center on the transition from air to liquid cooling (direct-to-chip and immersion) as densities exceed air's physical limits, alongside 800 VDC power architectures, wide-bandgap (SiC/GaN) power electronics, and performance-per-watt gains in compute, memory and optical interconnect. Scope 3 — which dominates lifecycle emissions — spans carbon dioxide removal, low-carbon construction (green steel, low-carbon cement, mass timber), embodied carbon in IT hardware, and circularity.
Policy is now the market's principal accelerant. The EU's Energy Efficiency Directive reporting scheme, the Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package and its A–F rating scheme, and the Cloud and AI Development Act (which conditions capacity growth on efficiency, water and circularity) sit alongside US federal and state reporting rules, China's green-data-center action plans, Singapore's roadmap, and grid-connection reform in the UK and Ireland. Standards such as PUE, WUE, CUE and EPEAT are hardening from voluntary benchmarks into regulatory metrics.
The result is a rapidly expanding, technology-diverse market spanning power generation, storage, cooling, power electronics, efficient IT and Scope 3 abatement — forecast in detail to 2037 across power consumption, emissions, cooling revenue and 800 VDC adoption, under baseline, stringent-regulation and delayed-regulation scenarios. Sustainability has become inseparable from the economics and permitting of building AI infrastructure at all.
The Global Market for Sustainable Data Centers 2027–2037: Policy, Green Power, Efficiency, Scope 3 and Forecasts is a comprehensive, 10-chapter market study that combines policy analysis, technology assessment, quantitative forecasts to 2037, and 245 company profiles across the full sustainable-data-center value chain.
Contents include:
- Executive summary — headline numbers, policy landscape, highest-impact technologies, and forecast conclusions
- Introduction & context — data-center types, AI build-out, global footprint, metrics and emissions accounting
- Global policy & regulation — EU, US, China, APAC, UK; grid connection; standards and disclosure
- Energy demand, grid stress & business case — IEA scenarios, interconnection queues, water, carbon intensity
- Sustainable power generation — PPAs, BYOP, solar/wind, nuclear/SMRs, geothermal, CCUS, fuel cells, storage/LDES
- Energy efficiency — cooling (air/direct-to-chip/immersion), 800 VDC and SiC/GaN power, efficient compute/memory/optics
- Scope 3 decarbonization — CO? removal, green steel/cement, embodied carbon and circularity
- Market forecasts to 2037 — power, emissions, cooling, 800 VDC, policy-scenario sensitivities
- 244 company profiles 1414 Degrees, 3M, Aalo Atomics, AcBel Polytech, Accelsius, ACCURE Battery Intelligence, Airco Process Technology, Algoma Steel, AlphaESS, Ambri, AMD, Amkor Technology, Ampace, Antora Energy, Aperam BioEnergia, ArcelorMittal, Ardent, ASE Group, Asetek, Asia Vital Components (AVC), Asperitas, Atecom Technology, Auras Technology, Ayar Labs, Baker Hughes, Ballard Power Systems, Biomason, Blastr Green Steel, Bloom Energy, Boston Metal, Boyd Corporation, Brenmiller Energy, Bright Renewables, Broadcom, BYD Energy Storage, C-Capture, Caldera, Calibrant Energy, Cambridge Electric Cement, Capsol Technologies, Carbice, CarbiCrete, Carbonaide, CarbonCure, CarbonFree, CATL, CellCube, Cerebras, Ceres Power, Chart Industries, Chemours, China Baowu, Chiyoda, Cisco Systems, Climeworks, Coherent, Coolbrook, Cooler Master, CoolIT Systems, Corintis, Dalian Rongke Power, Deep Fission, Delta Electronics, Dow, Eaton Corporation, EFFECT Photonics, Electra (Electra Steel), ElectraMet, Electrified Thermal Solutions, Element Six, Emirates Steel Arkan, Energy Dome, Energy Vault, EnergyNest, Engineered Fluids, Eoptolink, Eos Energy Enterprises, EPC (Efficient Power Conversion), ESS Tech, EVE Energy, Exowatt, Fabrinet and more.....
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 Scope and definitions
1.2 Why data center sustainability is now a policy issue (AI build-out, grid stress, water, land)
1.3 Data center energy demand and CO? emissions: the headline numbers
1.4 The biggest contributors to the data center carbon footprint (Scope 1/2/3 split)
1.5 The global policy landscape at a glance: from voluntary targets to binding mandates
1.6 Regional policy heat-map: EU, US (federal + state), China, Singapore, Japan, UK, Ireland
1.7 Grid-connection policy as the new bottleneck
1.8 Standards, certification and reporting (PUE, WUE, CUE, EPEAT, EU energy labels)
1.9 Which sustainable technologies have the biggest impact
1.10 Market forecast, 2025–2037
1.11 Key conclusions and outlook
2 INTRODUCTION: THE DATA CENTER MARKET AND SUSTAINABILTY CONTEXT
2.1 What is a data center? Edge, colocation, enterprise, hyperscale
2.2 The AI-driven build-out: rack density, GPU TDP and power demand
2.3 Global data center footprint — leading markets (US, Germany, UK, Ireland, Nordics, China, Singapore, Japan)
2.4 Data center sustainability metrics explained (PUE, WUE, CUE, ERF, REF, carbon intensity, SCI)
2.5 Emissions accounting: Scope 1, Scope 2 (market- vs location-based), Scope 3
2.6 Hyperscaler and colocator emissions and net-zero targets
2.7 Water, land, grid and community impacts driving public scrutiny
2.8 Motivations behind sustainability action: regulation, cost, reputation, grid access
3 THE GLOBAL POLICY AND REGULATORY LANDSCAPE FOR SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTERS
3.1 Overview: from voluntary pledges to binding regulation
3.2 A taxonomy of policy instruments (efficiency mandates, reporting/disclosure, energy labels, grid-connection rules, siting/moratoria, tax incentives, water rules, procurement/certification)
3.3 European Union
3.3.1 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) reporting scheme and the European database/dashboard
3.3.2 Data Center Energy Efficiency Package and the EU rating scheme
3.3.3 Minimum Performance Standards for data centers
3.3.4 Cloud and AI Development Act — capacity tripling conditioned on energy/water efficiency and circularity
3.3.5 EU Taxonomy and the Code of Conduct for Data Center Energy Efficiency
3.3.6 Germany, France, Ireland
3.3.7 Nordics and district-heating integration
3.4 United States
3.4.1 Federal legislative activity (data center energy/reporting bills; EIA data collection)
3.4.2 State-level reporting and disclosure legislation (annotated survey)
3.4.3 From moratoria to regulation: the local-permitting pivot
3.4.4 State tax incentives and their sustainability conditions (Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington)
3.4.5 Grid interconnection and 'bring-your-own-power' responses
3.5 China
3.5.1 National 'Green Data Center' Action Plan
3.5.2 Special Action Plan for Green & Low-Carbon Development of Data Centers (PUE targets, renewable share)
3.5.3 'East Data, West Compute' and the China cost/efficiency advantage
3.6 Asia-Pacific
3.6.1 Singapore — Green Data Center Roadmap / DC-CFA mandate
3.6.2 Japan — emerging data center regulation
3.6.3 Other APAC markets (Malaysia, India, Australia)
3.7 United Kingdom
3.7.1 Ofgem grid-connection reform and the connections queue
3.7.2 Critical National Infrastructure designation and planning
3.8 Grid-connection policy as a cross-cutting theme
3.9 Standards, certification and disclosure frameworks
3.9.1 PUE/WUE/CUE as regulatory metrics
3.9.2 EPEAT and the draft circularity criteria for enterprise data storage
3.9.3 GHG Protocol updates: location-based and hourly matching
3.9.4 ISO / CEN-CENELEC and industry codes of conduct
3.10 Policy gap analysis and outlook: where regulation is heading 2026–2030
4 DATA CENTER ENERGY DEMAND, GRID STRESS AND SUSTAINABILITY BUSINESS CASE
4.1 Global and regional electricity demand outlook (IEA 'Energy and AI' scenarios)
4.2 The power gap: interconnection queues and supply constraints
4.3 Carbon intensity of grid power by geography
4.4 Water use and water-stress exposure
4.5 The cost, reputation and grid-access case for going green
4.6 'Reality check': fossil fuels still dominate near-term power
5 SUSTAINABLE POWER GENERATION FOR DATA CENTERS
5.1 Decarbonizing Scope 2: RECs, PPAs, clean transition tariffs, hourly matching
5.2 'Bring your own power': hyperscalers as generators; microgrids and behind-the-meter
5.2.1 Microgrid architectures and controllers
5.2.2 Balancing engines and gensets (transition fuels, HVO, hydrogen-ready)
5.3 Solar, wind and hydropower
5.3.1 Utility-scale solar, wind and hydropower: LCOE, intermittency and land footprint
5.3.2 Matching intermittent supply to flexible AI load
5.3.3 Frontier siting concepts: offshore, subsea and orbital data centers
5.4 Nuclear: conventional, SMRs and fusion
5.4.1 Why SMRs for data centers; Gen III+ vs Gen IV designs
5.4.2 Hyperscaler–developer partnerships and first deployments
5.4.3 Restart/uprate of existing nuclear plants
5.4.4 Fusion energy: hyperscaler offtake and the honest timeline
5.5 Geothermal and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)
5.6 Carbon capture (CCUS) on gas power for data centers
5.6.1 Post-combustion capture on gas turbines: technology and maturity
5.6.2 The energy penalty: parasitic load and delivered megawatts
5.6.3 Economics, siting and bankability of gas-plus-capture
5.7 Hydrogen fuel cells (PEMFC / SOFC)
5.7.1 PEMFC and SOFC: technology, efficiency and duty-cycle fit
5.7.2 Fuel supply as the binding constraint
5.7.3 Deployment reality check: constraints on fuel cell scaling
5.8 Batteries, BESS, thermal energy storage and long-duration storage (LDES)
5.8.1 UPS and grid-interactive UPS
5.8.2 Li-ion (LFP/NMC) for backup and primary power
5.8.3 Redox flow and alternative chemistries (sodium-ion, zinc, sodium-sulfur, liquid-metal)
5.8.4 Thermal energy storage and LDES for data centers
5.8.5 CO? and compressed-gas storage: emerging non-electrochemical LDES
5.9 Benchmarking: environmental, technical and economic comparison of power sources
6 ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR DATA CENTERS
6.1 Beyond PUE: thermal, electrical and IT efficiency
6.2 Thermal management and cooling
6.2.1 Air vs. direct-to-chip vs. immersion liquid cooling
6.2.2 Thermal interface materials, cold plates, vapor chambers
6.2.3 Immersion fluids and refrigerant GWP
6.2.4 Waste-heat reuse and district heating
6.2.5 Thermoelectric and solid-state cooling
6.2.6 Comparative lifecycle emissions and cost by cooling method
6.3 Power efficiency (power supply, 800 VDC, distribution)
6.3.1 PSUs, 80 PLUS and efficiency programs
6.3.2 SiC and GaN power electronics
6.3.3 800 VDC architecture and rack power delivery
6.3.4 High-temperature superconductors (HTS) for power distribution
6.3.5 Power factor correction and harmonic management
6.4 IT efficiency (AI chips, memory, storage, interconnect)
6.4.1 AI chip performance-per-watt
6.4.2 HBM/DRAM and SSD/QLC NAND energy efficiency
6.4.3 Co-packaged optics and silicon photonics for interconnect efficiency
6.4.4 Hardware reuse and refresh cycles
6.5 Efficiency mandates linkage (EU rating scheme, 80 PLUS, national programs)
7 SCOPE 3 DECARBONIZATION FOR DATA CENTERS
7.1 Why Scope 3 dominates data center emissions
7.2 Carbon credits and CO? removal
7.2.1 Removal vs. avoidance; durable vs. nature-based
7.2.2 DAC, BECCS, biochar and enhanced weathering
7.2.3 Hyperscaler CDR portfolios and pre-purchases
7.2.4 Carbon credit market mechanics: purchasing routes, pricing and quality
7.2.5 From voluntary to compliance: the convergence of carbon removal with regulation
7.3 Low-carbon construction
7.3.1 Green concrete and cement decarbonization
7.3.2 Green steel
7.3.3 Mass timber and environmental attribute certificates
7.3.4 Construction cost and the green premium
7.4 Embodied carbon in IT hardware (servers, GPU baseboards) and circularity/reuse
7.4.1 Where embodied carbon sits: the componentry-level split of a server
7.4.2 The GPU baseboard and accelerator embodied footprint
7.4.3 Refresh cycles, reuse and secondary markets
7.5 Procurement policy and EPEAT circularity criteria linkage
8 MARKET FORECASTS, 2025-2037
8.1 Forecast methodology and assumptions
8.2 Data center power and electricity consumption forecast
8.3 Data center CO? emissions forecast (Scope 2 and Scope 3)
8.4 GPU TDP trend forecast
8.5 Cooling market forecast by method (revenue)
8.6 800 VDC / HVDC power forecast
8.7 Adjacent green-technology forecasts
8.8 Policy-scenario sensitivities (baseline / stringent-regulation / delayed-regulation)
9 COMPANY PROFILES
9.1 Data center operators — hyperscalers & AI clouds (9 company profiles)
9.2 Colocation providers (9 company profiles)
9.3 Sustainable power generation & storage
9.3.1 Nuclear / SMR (14 company profiles)
9.3.2 Geothermal / EGS (2 company profiles)
9.3.3 Fuel cells 160 (7 company profiles)
9.3.4 Solar inverters & balancing power (2 company profiles)
9.3.5 Batteries, UPS & BESS (Li-ion) (16 company profiles)
9.3.6 Flow, sodium, zinc & alternative chemistries (12 company profiles)
9.3.7 Thermal & long-duration energy storage (LDES) (19 company profiles)
9.3.8 Storage enabling technology (BMS / analytics / deployers) (4 company profiles)
9.3.9 Carbon capture on power (gas CCS) (5 company profiles)
9.4 Energy efficiency — cooling & thermal management
9.4.1 Cooling systems (direct-to-chip / immersion / rack) (13 company profiles)
9.4.2 Thermal interface materials & components (17 company profiles)
9.4.3 Immersion fluids & refrigerants (4 company profiles)
9.4.4 Airflow, fans & active-cooling components (5 company profiles)
9.5 Energy efficiency — power electronics, PSUs & power distribution
9.5.1 Wide-bandgap devices (SiC / GaN) (16 company profiles)
9.5.2 Power supplies & DC power delivery (PSU / 800 VDC) (2 company profiles)
9.5.3 High-temperature superconductors (power distribution) (1 company profiles)
9.6 Energy efficiency — IT: compute, memory & optical
9.6.1 AI accelerators (performance-per-watt focus) (10 company profiles)
9.6.2 Memory (HBM / DRAM / NAND) (5 company profiles)
9.6.3 Co-packaged optics / silicon photonics (interconnect efficiency) (23 company profiles)
9.7 Semiconductor-manufacturing sustainability (embodied carbon) (3 company profiles)
9.8 Scope 3 — carbon removal / CCUS
9.8.1 Direct air capture (DAC) (5 company profiles)
9.8.2 Point-source capture & utilization (4 company profiles)
9.9 Scope 3 — low-carbon construction & materials
9.9.1 Green steel (32 company profiles)
9.9.2 Low-carbon cement / concrete (24 company profiles)
9.10 Scope 3 — circularity & IT hardware reuse (2 company profiles)
10 APPENDICES
10.1 Glossary and acronyms
10.2 Methodology and data sources (base year 2025; forecast to 2037)
10.2.1 Research approach
10.2.2 Scope, definitions and system boundary
10.2.3 Base year, forecast horizon and conventions
10.2.4 Construction of the power and electricity forecast
10.2.5 Construction of the emissions forecast
10.2.6 Scenario framework
10.2.7 Adjacent-technology forecasts and attribution
10.2.8 Data sources
11 REFERENCES
1.1 Scope and definitions
1.2 Why data center sustainability is now a policy issue (AI build-out, grid stress, water, land)
1.3 Data center energy demand and CO? emissions: the headline numbers
1.4 The biggest contributors to the data center carbon footprint (Scope 1/2/3 split)
1.5 The global policy landscape at a glance: from voluntary targets to binding mandates
1.6 Regional policy heat-map: EU, US (federal + state), China, Singapore, Japan, UK, Ireland
1.7 Grid-connection policy as the new bottleneck
1.8 Standards, certification and reporting (PUE, WUE, CUE, EPEAT, EU energy labels)
1.9 Which sustainable technologies have the biggest impact
1.10 Market forecast, 2025–2037
1.11 Key conclusions and outlook
2 INTRODUCTION: THE DATA CENTER MARKET AND SUSTAINABILTY CONTEXT
2.1 What is a data center? Edge, colocation, enterprise, hyperscale
2.2 The AI-driven build-out: rack density, GPU TDP and power demand
2.3 Global data center footprint — leading markets (US, Germany, UK, Ireland, Nordics, China, Singapore, Japan)
2.4 Data center sustainability metrics explained (PUE, WUE, CUE, ERF, REF, carbon intensity, SCI)
2.5 Emissions accounting: Scope 1, Scope 2 (market- vs location-based), Scope 3
2.6 Hyperscaler and colocator emissions and net-zero targets
2.7 Water, land, grid and community impacts driving public scrutiny
2.8 Motivations behind sustainability action: regulation, cost, reputation, grid access
3 THE GLOBAL POLICY AND REGULATORY LANDSCAPE FOR SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTERS
3.1 Overview: from voluntary pledges to binding regulation
3.2 A taxonomy of policy instruments (efficiency mandates, reporting/disclosure, energy labels, grid-connection rules, siting/moratoria, tax incentives, water rules, procurement/certification)
3.3 European Union
3.3.1 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) reporting scheme and the European database/dashboard
3.3.2 Data Center Energy Efficiency Package and the EU rating scheme
3.3.3 Minimum Performance Standards for data centers
3.3.4 Cloud and AI Development Act — capacity tripling conditioned on energy/water efficiency and circularity
3.3.5 EU Taxonomy and the Code of Conduct for Data Center Energy Efficiency
3.3.6 Germany, France, Ireland
3.3.7 Nordics and district-heating integration
3.4 United States
3.4.1 Federal legislative activity (data center energy/reporting bills; EIA data collection)
3.4.2 State-level reporting and disclosure legislation (annotated survey)
3.4.3 From moratoria to regulation: the local-permitting pivot
3.4.4 State tax incentives and their sustainability conditions (Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington)
3.4.5 Grid interconnection and 'bring-your-own-power' responses
3.5 China
3.5.1 National 'Green Data Center' Action Plan
3.5.2 Special Action Plan for Green & Low-Carbon Development of Data Centers (PUE targets, renewable share)
3.5.3 'East Data, West Compute' and the China cost/efficiency advantage
3.6 Asia-Pacific
3.6.1 Singapore — Green Data Center Roadmap / DC-CFA mandate
3.6.2 Japan — emerging data center regulation
3.6.3 Other APAC markets (Malaysia, India, Australia)
3.7 United Kingdom
3.7.1 Ofgem grid-connection reform and the connections queue
3.7.2 Critical National Infrastructure designation and planning
3.8 Grid-connection policy as a cross-cutting theme
3.9 Standards, certification and disclosure frameworks
3.9.1 PUE/WUE/CUE as regulatory metrics
3.9.2 EPEAT and the draft circularity criteria for enterprise data storage
3.9.3 GHG Protocol updates: location-based and hourly matching
3.9.4 ISO / CEN-CENELEC and industry codes of conduct
3.10 Policy gap analysis and outlook: where regulation is heading 2026–2030
4 DATA CENTER ENERGY DEMAND, GRID STRESS AND SUSTAINABILITY BUSINESS CASE
4.1 Global and regional electricity demand outlook (IEA 'Energy and AI' scenarios)
4.2 The power gap: interconnection queues and supply constraints
4.3 Carbon intensity of grid power by geography
4.4 Water use and water-stress exposure
4.5 The cost, reputation and grid-access case for going green
4.6 'Reality check': fossil fuels still dominate near-term power
5 SUSTAINABLE POWER GENERATION FOR DATA CENTERS
5.1 Decarbonizing Scope 2: RECs, PPAs, clean transition tariffs, hourly matching
5.2 'Bring your own power': hyperscalers as generators; microgrids and behind-the-meter
5.2.1 Microgrid architectures and controllers
5.2.2 Balancing engines and gensets (transition fuels, HVO, hydrogen-ready)
5.3 Solar, wind and hydropower
5.3.1 Utility-scale solar, wind and hydropower: LCOE, intermittency and land footprint
5.3.2 Matching intermittent supply to flexible AI load
5.3.3 Frontier siting concepts: offshore, subsea and orbital data centers
5.4 Nuclear: conventional, SMRs and fusion
5.4.1 Why SMRs for data centers; Gen III+ vs Gen IV designs
5.4.2 Hyperscaler–developer partnerships and first deployments
5.4.3 Restart/uprate of existing nuclear plants
5.4.4 Fusion energy: hyperscaler offtake and the honest timeline
5.5 Geothermal and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)
5.6 Carbon capture (CCUS) on gas power for data centers
5.6.1 Post-combustion capture on gas turbines: technology and maturity
5.6.2 The energy penalty: parasitic load and delivered megawatts
5.6.3 Economics, siting and bankability of gas-plus-capture
5.7 Hydrogen fuel cells (PEMFC / SOFC)
5.7.1 PEMFC and SOFC: technology, efficiency and duty-cycle fit
5.7.2 Fuel supply as the binding constraint
5.7.3 Deployment reality check: constraints on fuel cell scaling
5.8 Batteries, BESS, thermal energy storage and long-duration storage (LDES)
5.8.1 UPS and grid-interactive UPS
5.8.2 Li-ion (LFP/NMC) for backup and primary power
5.8.3 Redox flow and alternative chemistries (sodium-ion, zinc, sodium-sulfur, liquid-metal)
5.8.4 Thermal energy storage and LDES for data centers
5.8.5 CO? and compressed-gas storage: emerging non-electrochemical LDES
5.9 Benchmarking: environmental, technical and economic comparison of power sources
6 ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR DATA CENTERS
6.1 Beyond PUE: thermal, electrical and IT efficiency
6.2 Thermal management and cooling
6.2.1 Air vs. direct-to-chip vs. immersion liquid cooling
6.2.2 Thermal interface materials, cold plates, vapor chambers
6.2.3 Immersion fluids and refrigerant GWP
6.2.4 Waste-heat reuse and district heating
6.2.5 Thermoelectric and solid-state cooling
6.2.6 Comparative lifecycle emissions and cost by cooling method
6.3 Power efficiency (power supply, 800 VDC, distribution)
6.3.1 PSUs, 80 PLUS and efficiency programs
6.3.2 SiC and GaN power electronics
6.3.3 800 VDC architecture and rack power delivery
6.3.4 High-temperature superconductors (HTS) for power distribution
6.3.5 Power factor correction and harmonic management
6.4 IT efficiency (AI chips, memory, storage, interconnect)
6.4.1 AI chip performance-per-watt
6.4.2 HBM/DRAM and SSD/QLC NAND energy efficiency
6.4.3 Co-packaged optics and silicon photonics for interconnect efficiency
6.4.4 Hardware reuse and refresh cycles
6.5 Efficiency mandates linkage (EU rating scheme, 80 PLUS, national programs)
7 SCOPE 3 DECARBONIZATION FOR DATA CENTERS
7.1 Why Scope 3 dominates data center emissions
7.2 Carbon credits and CO? removal
7.2.1 Removal vs. avoidance; durable vs. nature-based
7.2.2 DAC, BECCS, biochar and enhanced weathering
7.2.3 Hyperscaler CDR portfolios and pre-purchases
7.2.4 Carbon credit market mechanics: purchasing routes, pricing and quality
7.2.5 From voluntary to compliance: the convergence of carbon removal with regulation
7.3 Low-carbon construction
7.3.1 Green concrete and cement decarbonization
7.3.2 Green steel
7.3.3 Mass timber and environmental attribute certificates
7.3.4 Construction cost and the green premium
7.4 Embodied carbon in IT hardware (servers, GPU baseboards) and circularity/reuse
7.4.1 Where embodied carbon sits: the componentry-level split of a server
7.4.2 The GPU baseboard and accelerator embodied footprint
7.4.3 Refresh cycles, reuse and secondary markets
7.5 Procurement policy and EPEAT circularity criteria linkage
8 MARKET FORECASTS, 2025-2037
8.1 Forecast methodology and assumptions
8.2 Data center power and electricity consumption forecast
8.3 Data center CO? emissions forecast (Scope 2 and Scope 3)
8.4 GPU TDP trend forecast
8.5 Cooling market forecast by method (revenue)
8.6 800 VDC / HVDC power forecast
8.7 Adjacent green-technology forecasts
8.8 Policy-scenario sensitivities (baseline / stringent-regulation / delayed-regulation)
9 COMPANY PROFILES
9.1 Data center operators — hyperscalers & AI clouds (9 company profiles)
9.2 Colocation providers (9 company profiles)
9.3 Sustainable power generation & storage
9.3.1 Nuclear / SMR (14 company profiles)
9.3.2 Geothermal / EGS (2 company profiles)
9.3.3 Fuel cells 160 (7 company profiles)
9.3.4 Solar inverters & balancing power (2 company profiles)
9.3.5 Batteries, UPS & BESS (Li-ion) (16 company profiles)
9.3.6 Flow, sodium, zinc & alternative chemistries (12 company profiles)
9.3.7 Thermal & long-duration energy storage (LDES) (19 company profiles)
9.3.8 Storage enabling technology (BMS / analytics / deployers) (4 company profiles)
9.3.9 Carbon capture on power (gas CCS) (5 company profiles)
9.4 Energy efficiency — cooling & thermal management
9.4.1 Cooling systems (direct-to-chip / immersion / rack) (13 company profiles)
9.4.2 Thermal interface materials & components (17 company profiles)
9.4.3 Immersion fluids & refrigerants (4 company profiles)
9.4.4 Airflow, fans & active-cooling components (5 company profiles)
9.5 Energy efficiency — power electronics, PSUs & power distribution
9.5.1 Wide-bandgap devices (SiC / GaN) (16 company profiles)
9.5.2 Power supplies & DC power delivery (PSU / 800 VDC) (2 company profiles)
9.5.3 High-temperature superconductors (power distribution) (1 company profiles)
9.6 Energy efficiency — IT: compute, memory & optical
9.6.1 AI accelerators (performance-per-watt focus) (10 company profiles)
9.6.2 Memory (HBM / DRAM / NAND) (5 company profiles)
9.6.3 Co-packaged optics / silicon photonics (interconnect efficiency) (23 company profiles)
9.7 Semiconductor-manufacturing sustainability (embodied carbon) (3 company profiles)
9.8 Scope 3 — carbon removal / CCUS
9.8.1 Direct air capture (DAC) (5 company profiles)
9.8.2 Point-source capture & utilization (4 company profiles)
9.9 Scope 3 — low-carbon construction & materials
9.9.1 Green steel (32 company profiles)
9.9.2 Low-carbon cement / concrete (24 company profiles)
9.10 Scope 3 — circularity & IT hardware reuse (2 company profiles)
10 APPENDICES
10.1 Glossary and acronyms
10.2 Methodology and data sources (base year 2025; forecast to 2037)
10.2.1 Research approach
10.2.2 Scope, definitions and system boundary
10.2.3 Base year, forecast horizon and conventions
10.2.4 Construction of the power and electricity forecast
10.2.5 Construction of the emissions forecast
10.2.6 Scenario framework
10.2.7 Adjacent-technology forecasts and attribution
10.2.8 Data sources
11 REFERENCES
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Summary of major data center sustainability regulations by region, 2023–2026
Table 2. Sustainability metrics at a glance (PUE, WUE, CUE, ERF, REF, SCI)
Table 3. Forecast summary: power, electricity, CO?, cooling, 800 VDC, SMRs, CDR, green steel
Table 4. Data center types compared (edge / colocation / enterprise / hyperscale)
Table 5. Country/region ranking by installed data center capacity
Table 6. Definitions of key sustainability metrics
Table 7. Leading hyperscalers/colocators: capacity, emissions and net-zero targets
Table 8. Taxonomy of data center policy instruments with examples
Table 9. EU EED reporting scheme — summary of requirements
Table 10. EU rating scheme — structure of the A–F label
Table 11. US state data center reporting/disclosure legislation — principal archetypes
Table 12. US state data center reporting/disclosure legislation (annotated)
Table 13. China data center PUE and renewable-energy targets by phase
Table 14. APAC data center mandates (Singapore, Japan) compared
Table 15. Grid-connection policy comparison (Ireland CRU, UK Ofgem, US ISOs)
Table 16. Certification and disclosure schemes (EPEAT, EU rating scheme, GHG Protocol)
Table 17. Data center electricity demand scenarios by region, 2025–2037
Table 18. Grid carbon intensity by major data center market
Table 19. Temporal flexibility of AI and data center workload classes
Table 20. Frontier data center siting concepts: status, advantage and binding constraint
Table 21. SMR and advanced-nuclear developers relevant to data centers
Table 22. SMR and advanced-nuclear developers relevant to data centers
Table 23. SMR and advanced-nuclear developers relevant to data centers (section 5.4.2)
Table 24. Announced fusion offtake agreements with technology and industrial buyers
Table 25. Capital raised by leading fusion developers
Table 26. Point-source capture technologies for gas-fired data center power
Table 27. Announced gas-with-capture projects serving data center load
Table 28. Energy penalty for a nominal 1 GW NGCC plant with 90% post-combustion capture
Table 29. Necessary conditions for a bankable gas-plus-capture project serving data center load
Table 30. PEMFC and SOFC benchmarked for data center duty
Table 31. Major fuel cell agreements for data center power, 2025–26
Table 32. Carbon intensity of on-site generation options for data centers
Table 33. Storage technology benchmarking for data center applications
Table 34. Battery / BESS / TES technology benchmarking for data center applications
Table 35. Long-duration energy storage technologies benchmarked for data center application
Table 36. Energy Dome CO? battery deployments relevant to data center power
Table 37. Benchmarking of electricity sources for data centers (LCOE, carbon intensity, availability, TRL)
Table 38. Cooling technology comparison
Table 39. Cooling technology comparison (air, D2C single/two-phase, immersion)
Table 40. GHG emissions and efficiency by cooling method
Table 41. Thermoelectric cooling in data center applications
Table 42. Comparative assessment of data center cooling methods
Table 43. AC vs. 800 VDC architecture efficiency comparison
Table 44. Power quality parameters and their consequences in data center electrical systems
Table 45. AI compute efficiency benchmarking
Table 46. Carbon dioxide removal methods: scale, cost and TRL
Table 47. Carbon credit categories, pricing and characteristics
Table 48. Carbon credit purchasing routes
Table 49. Regulatory instruments reshaping carbon credit procurement
Table 50. Cement/steel decarbonization technologies and green premiums
Table 51. Data center construction cost benchmarks, 2026
Table 52. Green premium by material and its effect on total project cost
Table 53. Embodied carbon by server component
Table 54. Embodied carbon by server component
Table 55. Indicative embodied carbon split for a conventional 2U rack server
Table 56. Embodied carbon drivers: conventional server versus AI accelerator baseboard
Table 57. IT hardware circularity hierarchy for data centers
Table 58. Data center power (GW) and electricity (TWh) forecast, 2025–2037
Table 59. Data center CO? forecast by scope, 2025–2037
Table 60. Cooling market revenue forecast by method, 2025–2037
Table 61. SMR / durable-CDR / green-steel / data-center BESS forecasts, 2025–2037
Table 62. Glossary and acronyms
Table 1. Summary of major data center sustainability regulations by region, 2023–2026
Table 2. Sustainability metrics at a glance (PUE, WUE, CUE, ERF, REF, SCI)
Table 3. Forecast summary: power, electricity, CO?, cooling, 800 VDC, SMRs, CDR, green steel
Table 4. Data center types compared (edge / colocation / enterprise / hyperscale)
Table 5. Country/region ranking by installed data center capacity
Table 6. Definitions of key sustainability metrics
Table 7. Leading hyperscalers/colocators: capacity, emissions and net-zero targets
Table 8. Taxonomy of data center policy instruments with examples
Table 9. EU EED reporting scheme — summary of requirements
Table 10. EU rating scheme — structure of the A–F label
Table 11. US state data center reporting/disclosure legislation — principal archetypes
Table 12. US state data center reporting/disclosure legislation (annotated)
Table 13. China data center PUE and renewable-energy targets by phase
Table 14. APAC data center mandates (Singapore, Japan) compared
Table 15. Grid-connection policy comparison (Ireland CRU, UK Ofgem, US ISOs)
Table 16. Certification and disclosure schemes (EPEAT, EU rating scheme, GHG Protocol)
Table 17. Data center electricity demand scenarios by region, 2025–2037
Table 18. Grid carbon intensity by major data center market
Table 19. Temporal flexibility of AI and data center workload classes
Table 20. Frontier data center siting concepts: status, advantage and binding constraint
Table 21. SMR and advanced-nuclear developers relevant to data centers
Table 22. SMR and advanced-nuclear developers relevant to data centers
Table 23. SMR and advanced-nuclear developers relevant to data centers (section 5.4.2)
Table 24. Announced fusion offtake agreements with technology and industrial buyers
Table 25. Capital raised by leading fusion developers
Table 26. Point-source capture technologies for gas-fired data center power
Table 27. Announced gas-with-capture projects serving data center load
Table 28. Energy penalty for a nominal 1 GW NGCC plant with 90% post-combustion capture
Table 29. Necessary conditions for a bankable gas-plus-capture project serving data center load
Table 30. PEMFC and SOFC benchmarked for data center duty
Table 31. Major fuel cell agreements for data center power, 2025–26
Table 32. Carbon intensity of on-site generation options for data centers
Table 33. Storage technology benchmarking for data center applications
Table 34. Battery / BESS / TES technology benchmarking for data center applications
Table 35. Long-duration energy storage technologies benchmarked for data center application
Table 36. Energy Dome CO? battery deployments relevant to data center power
Table 37. Benchmarking of electricity sources for data centers (LCOE, carbon intensity, availability, TRL)
Table 38. Cooling technology comparison
Table 39. Cooling technology comparison (air, D2C single/two-phase, immersion)
Table 40. GHG emissions and efficiency by cooling method
Table 41. Thermoelectric cooling in data center applications
Table 42. Comparative assessment of data center cooling methods
Table 43. AC vs. 800 VDC architecture efficiency comparison
Table 44. Power quality parameters and their consequences in data center electrical systems
Table 45. AI compute efficiency benchmarking
Table 46. Carbon dioxide removal methods: scale, cost and TRL
Table 47. Carbon credit categories, pricing and characteristics
Table 48. Carbon credit purchasing routes
Table 49. Regulatory instruments reshaping carbon credit procurement
Table 50. Cement/steel decarbonization technologies and green premiums
Table 51. Data center construction cost benchmarks, 2026
Table 52. Green premium by material and its effect on total project cost
Table 53. Embodied carbon by server component
Table 54. Embodied carbon by server component
Table 55. Indicative embodied carbon split for a conventional 2U rack server
Table 56. Embodied carbon drivers: conventional server versus AI accelerator baseboard
Table 57. IT hardware circularity hierarchy for data centers
Table 58. Data center power (GW) and electricity (TWh) forecast, 2025–2037
Table 59. Data center CO? forecast by scope, 2025–2037
Table 60. Cooling market revenue forecast by method, 2025–2037
Table 61. SMR / durable-CDR / green-steel / data-center BESS forecasts, 2025–2037
Table 62. Glossary and acronyms
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Global data center electricity consumption by workload type, 2025–2037
Figure 2. Data center CO? emissions by scope, 2025 / 2031 / 2037 (Mt CO?/yr)
Figure 3. Representative Scope 1/2/3 breakdown for a hyperscale data center
Figure 4. Global policy timeline: key data center sustainability measures, 2020–2026
Figure 5. Regional regulatory-stringency heat-map
Figure 6. Impact vs. readiness matrix for sustainable data center technologies
Figure 7. Rack power density and GPU TDP trend, historical + forecast
Figure 8. Leading data center markets by installed capacity
Figure 9. Scope 2 (market- vs location-based) and Scope 3 emissions of leading hyperscalers
Figure 10. Global policy-instrument map by country/region
Figure 11. US data center regulatory activity by measure type
Figure 12. Typical grid-interconnection wait for large loads, by market
Figure 13. Regulatory-stringency vs. data center growth by market
Figure 14. Data centers' share of national electricity demand, 2025 vs 2030 (selected markets)
Figure 15. Projected data center power demand versus firm connectable supply, United States, 2025–2032
Figure 16. Water usage effectiveness (WUE) benchmarks by cooling approach
Figure 17. Clean-power procurement models compared
Figure 18. Microgrid architecture for a behind-the-meter data center
Figure 19. Data center load flexibility spectrum
Figure 20. Solar resource: orbit versus ground
Figure 21. SMR capacity serving data centers, base case and range, 2026–2037
Figure 22. SMR capacity serving data centers, base case and range, 2026–2037 (Source: IDTechEx forecast)
Figure 23. Fusion and SMR: announced first-power dates versus realistic delivery windows
Figure 24. Where the megawatts go: gross-to-delivered output with carbon capture
Figure 25. Fuel cell capacity: contracted versus deliverable, 2025–2030
Figure 26. Benchmarking of electricity sources for data centers: carbon intensity vs. cost, scaled by firmness
Figure 27. Evolution of cooling technology in new data center deployments, 2020–2037
Figure 28. Practical rack power density supported by each cooling method
Figure 29. Data center cooling value chain
Figure 30. Cooling lifecycle emissions and cost
Figure 31. Semiconductor material share in data center power supplies, 2020–2037
Figure 32. Relative performance-per-watt of AI compute options
Figure 33. Relative performance-per-watt of AI compute options
Figure 34. Scope 3 emissions breakdown for a representative data center
Figure 35. Hyperscaler durable-CDR purchase volumes
Figure 36. Carbon Credit Price Stack
Figure 37. Green premium by material
Figure 38. Embodied Carbon Server vs AI baseboard
Figure 39. Global data center power forecast (GW), 2025–2037
Figure 40. Data center CO? forecast under three policy scenarios, 2025–2037
Figure 41. GPU TDP trend: historical + forecast, 2025–2037
Figure 42. Data center cooling market revenue by method, 2025–2037
Figure 43. 800 VDC adoption forecast, 2025–2037
Figure 44. Adjacent green-technology forecasts attributable to data centers, 2025–2037
Figure 1. Global data center electricity consumption by workload type, 2025–2037
Figure 2. Data center CO? emissions by scope, 2025 / 2031 / 2037 (Mt CO?/yr)
Figure 3. Representative Scope 1/2/3 breakdown for a hyperscale data center
Figure 4. Global policy timeline: key data center sustainability measures, 2020–2026
Figure 5. Regional regulatory-stringency heat-map
Figure 6. Impact vs. readiness matrix for sustainable data center technologies
Figure 7. Rack power density and GPU TDP trend, historical + forecast
Figure 8. Leading data center markets by installed capacity
Figure 9. Scope 2 (market- vs location-based) and Scope 3 emissions of leading hyperscalers
Figure 10. Global policy-instrument map by country/region
Figure 11. US data center regulatory activity by measure type
Figure 12. Typical grid-interconnection wait for large loads, by market
Figure 13. Regulatory-stringency vs. data center growth by market
Figure 14. Data centers' share of national electricity demand, 2025 vs 2030 (selected markets)
Figure 15. Projected data center power demand versus firm connectable supply, United States, 2025–2032
Figure 16. Water usage effectiveness (WUE) benchmarks by cooling approach
Figure 17. Clean-power procurement models compared
Figure 18. Microgrid architecture for a behind-the-meter data center
Figure 19. Data center load flexibility spectrum
Figure 20. Solar resource: orbit versus ground
Figure 21. SMR capacity serving data centers, base case and range, 2026–2037
Figure 22. SMR capacity serving data centers, base case and range, 2026–2037 (Source: IDTechEx forecast)
Figure 23. Fusion and SMR: announced first-power dates versus realistic delivery windows
Figure 24. Where the megawatts go: gross-to-delivered output with carbon capture
Figure 25. Fuel cell capacity: contracted versus deliverable, 2025–2030
Figure 26. Benchmarking of electricity sources for data centers: carbon intensity vs. cost, scaled by firmness
Figure 27. Evolution of cooling technology in new data center deployments, 2020–2037
Figure 28. Practical rack power density supported by each cooling method
Figure 29. Data center cooling value chain
Figure 30. Cooling lifecycle emissions and cost
Figure 31. Semiconductor material share in data center power supplies, 2020–2037
Figure 32. Relative performance-per-watt of AI compute options
Figure 33. Relative performance-per-watt of AI compute options
Figure 34. Scope 3 emissions breakdown for a representative data center
Figure 35. Hyperscaler durable-CDR purchase volumes
Figure 36. Carbon Credit Price Stack
Figure 37. Green premium by material
Figure 38. Embodied Carbon Server vs AI baseboard
Figure 39. Global data center power forecast (GW), 2025–2037
Figure 40. Data center CO? forecast under three policy scenarios, 2025–2037
Figure 41. GPU TDP trend: historical + forecast, 2025–2037
Figure 42. Data center cooling market revenue by method, 2025–2037
Figure 43. 800 VDC adoption forecast, 2025–2037
Figure 44. Adjacent green-technology forecasts attributable to data centers, 2025–2037
