Global Head of Data Center Energy

Water availability is becoming a real constraint for data center development in California, and it is moving faster than most site selection teams anticipated. Several counties, including Tulare, Imperial, and Stanislaus, have enacted 45-day moratoriums blocking new builds in areas with stressed groundwater. This is not about grid capacity or permitting delays. It is about aquifers. State legislation like AB 2469 is working through the process, but for now the regulatory picture is fragmented across multiple authorities. That creates a meaningful blind spot for projects targeting secondary markets outside established hubs. The broader point is that water impact analysis is no longer optional due diligence. It is becoming a prerequisite, and teams that treat it as an afterthought are the ones most exposed to unexpected stops mid-development. #datacenter #infrastructure

LandBridge just announced a renewable development portfolio of over 10 GW in ERCOT, which would make it one of the largest plays of its kind in Texas. The company is primarily known as a surface rights operator in the Permian Basin, so this is a notable shift in direction. That said, the portfolio is still early stage, with permitting, interconnection queues, and offtake agreements all yet to be confirmed. What makes this worth watching is the context. ERCOT is already a critical market for data center energy demand, and any large-scale supply addition will shape how hyperscalers and industrial buyers structure long-term contracts in the region. The real story here is not the announcement itself, but whether LandBridge can execute alongside established developers. That outcome will say a lot about how new entrants are reshaping the renewable landscape in Texas. #ERCOT #RenewableEnergy

Vertiv's partnership with Bitzero Holdings is worth paying attention to, and not just because of the scale involved. The real shift here is strategic positioning. Vertiv is embedding itself earlier in the AI data center development cycle, becoming part of the infrastructure decision before the facility even goes live. That changes the dynamic considerably for anyone involved in procurement or vendor strategy. The pattern is consistent with their earlier work with Generate Capital in grid-constrained markets. The assumption baked into these integrated solutions is that power access limitations are not a temporary problem, they are a structural reality to plan around. For data center energy leads, the consolidation of vendors in high-density projects is something to watch. Fewer competitive options at the table can shift negotiating leverage over time, especially as AI infrastructure demand continues to accelerate. #DataCenter #AIInfrastructure

Generator retrofits in data centers are no longer straightforward swap-outs. Stricter environmental regulations, higher capacity demands, and tighter permitting requirements at every level of government are turning what used to be routine replacements into full-scale infrastructure projects. The part that often catches operators off guard is that newer equipment is held to current standards, not the ones the original unit was permitted under. That gap alone can reshape the entire scope and budget of a project before ground is even broken. What makes this worth paying attention to is the coordination layer involved. Fuel systems, controls, monitoring, permitting, multiple contractors, all of it has to move in sync. The margin for error is thin, and the cost of delays in critical infrastructure is rarely just financial. Planning cycles for these projects need to start earlier than most teams expect. #DataCenter #CriticalInfrastructure

Iowa is becoming a case study worth paying attention to. Alliant Energy's proposed 720 MW gas plant in Cedar Rapids, built specifically to meet data center demand, is now facing opposition from over 100 residents and three local municipalities. Legal challenges are running through multiple regulatory bodies simultaneously, and there are no signed power purchase agreements in place yet. The situation in Iowa mirrors tactics already used in Wisconsin, which suggests this is becoming a repeatable playbook for community opposition. For anyone planning data center capacity in secondary markets, the assumption that permitting and infrastructure will move at the pace the industry needs is worth revisiting. Community resistance tied to fossil fuel generation is no longer a coastal issue. The decisions made in Iowa over the next year could shape how similar projects across the Midwest get evaluated. #datacenter #energyinfrastructure

Indiana is quietly becoming one of the more complex states for data center development, and it is not because of power or land constraints. Local governments across the state have been moving fast. Around 17 counties now have active moratoriums, with more municipalities introducing site-specific regulations. That covers a meaningful portion of the state's developable footprint, and the patchwork nature of it makes planning genuinely difficult. What makes this harder is the absence of a statewide framework. Without uniform rules, operators are essentially evaluating regulatory risk county by county, and that kind of fragmentation slows decisions and redirects capital. For anyone involved in site selection or infrastructure investment, Indiana's situation is worth watching closely. Regulatory unpredictability at the local level is becoming as important a variable as grid access or fiber availability. #datacenter #infrastructure

Ontario is moving to create a separate electricity rate class for data centers over 1 MW, paired with mandatory community investment requirements for host municipalities. The details are still being worked out through public consultation, but the direction is clear: grid access in Ontario will come with conditions attached, not just a connection agreement. For operators evaluating Canadian expansion, this adds a layer of financial uncertainty that wasn't there before. The cost of power was already a central variable in site selection math. Now there's a potential rate premium on top of that, plus community contribution obligations with no defined thresholds yet. What's worth watching is whether this becomes a template for other provinces. Ontario setting this precedent could shift how the entire country approaches data center growth at the policy level. #datacenter #energypolicy

AI rack density is quietly making traditional power planning models obsolete. The global market for liquid cooling distribution pumps in data centers is projected to grow from $340 million in 2026 to $1.84 billion by 2032, driven largely by direct-to-chip cooling adoption in AI and HPC environments. That is a 32.7% compound annual growth rate, and it reflects something more than a hardware trend. When direct-to-chip cooling increases compute capacity per megawatt, the assumptions built into long-term energy purchase agreements and interconnection strategies start to break down. Sustainability reporting accuracy gets affected too, which is not a small issue for infrastructure planners at hyperscale facilities. North America is leading this shift, with AI deployments tied to 10 to 15 year energy commitments already in motion. The planning models built for air-cooled environments simply were not designed for this. #datacenter #energyinfrastructure

The liquid cooling market for data centers is projected to grow from $940M to over $6B by 2033, and the numbers tell a story worth paying attention to. Rack power density is shifting from 10-15 kW to 40-80 kW in AI-driven environments. Air cooling simply cannot keep up with that load, and operators are starting to feel it in their infrastructure planning, energy agreements, and interconnection capacity. The challenge is not just thermal. It is financial and operational. High upfront costs and a lack of standardization mean that decisions made today will have long tails, especially for hyperscalers and large enterprise data center operators. Energy and infrastructure teams need a seat at the table early. Retrofitting agreements and capacity plans after the fact is far more costly than building them in from the start. #DataCenter #LiquidCooling

The energy story behind AI infrastructure is getting more complicated. At least 82 private natural gas generators are being developed or proposed specifically to power AI data centers across the .S., with projected emissions equivalent to roughly half of all personal vehicles in the country. In Texas and Ohio, permits can be approved in as little as 18 days, often without public review. For operators who have made clean energy commitments and publish sustainability reports, this creates a real exposure. Those emissions fall under Scope 2 reporting, and if the sourcing isn't visible, neither is the risk. Regulatory frameworks haven't caught up to this yet, but they will. When they do, the companies that built energy strategies without accounting for this will be in a difficult position. The gap between stated sustainability goals and actual energy sourcing is narrowing, and not in a comfortable way. #EnergyRisk #AIInfrastructure