AI Data Centres
I bet you’ve heard of BYOB. And let’s be honest, isn’t it great when a restaurant or bar allows it? You can skip paying eye‑watering prices for a bottle of wine you don’t want, and the venue still gets a full table and happy customers. It’s a win‑win. Well, the good news is, the same approach can also be applied to the energy grid.
In an industry grappling with interconnection delays and ageing infrastructure, BYOP, ‘Bring Your Own Power’, is quietly becoming one of the most pragmatic ways to unlock growth while easing pressure on the grid. The more power data centres can supply themselves, the less strain they place on a system that is already stretched. And stretched is putting it mildly. According to the National Energy System Operator, Great Britain’s interconnection queue has grown tenfold over the past five years, with around 700 GW of projects waiting for grid access.
Today, access to power is one of the single biggest problems facing data centre developers, because time to power is everything in this industry. Data centres developers serve customers who plan in short cycles. One year feels realistic. Two years is already uncomfortable. Start talking about a 2030 ready for service dates and the deal is effectively dead. Hyperscalers, AI customers, and especially NeoClouds think in the short term. Your data centre needs to be up and running… yesterday.
That’s why data centre developers don’t stand around waiting for their interconnection date to roll around. Instead, they get smart, and they get creative. They rethink how and where their data centres are built, and invest directly in energy infrastructure, all so that systems come online faster. Rather than relying solely on the grid, they are finding ways to reduce their dependence on it.
Co-location, co-location, co-location
When it comes to behind‑the‑meter solutions, gas has traditionally been a popular choice. But with rising decarbonisation pressures and turbine delivery times for new gas‑fired plants stretching well beyond 2030 in many cases, data centres are exploring alternative approaches. Nuclear and small modular reactors might seem like an option, but by data centre developer standards, they are long‑term solutions. With a five‑year timeline for new nuclear energy considered ambitious, and SMRs not expected to come online until the next decade, these options simply aren’t viable. That’s why renewables are increasingly popular, with data centres co-locating directly alongside existing or new generation projects to secure reliable, flexible power.
Co-location involves bringing the data centre load directly to the source of generation, such as next to a wind or solar farm, with on-site battery energy storage systems for reliability, because as we all know, the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. The benefits are mutualistic. The data centre bypasses grid constraints and ensures 24/7 clean energy access. And the generator has a constantly power-hungry neighbour. Data centres have previously had a bad reputation for how power hungry they are, but when managed correctly, this actually makes them one of the most attractive customers a generator or utility could hope for.
If you’ve ever been on a road trip and seen a wind farm, you may notice that not all turbines are spinning. This is known as curtailment, when renewable generation is switched off during periods of overproduction to avoid grid imbalance. Data centres can act as a pressure valve, absorbing this excess energy and reducing waste, which is significant because in the UK alone in 2025, according to Octopus Energy, switching off wind turbines has cost us almost £1.5 billion.
A clear example of data centre co-location in action is Soluna Data Centers, which builds facilities directly alongside wind, solar, or hydroelectric plants. In September 2025, it broke ground on Project Kati, a 166+ MW wind-powered campus in Willacy County, Texas. The project is being developed in two phases, with phase two adding a dedicated 100+ MW AI and high-performance compute (HPC) facility, creating a renewable-powered campus capable of serving evolving digital, AI, and HPC workloads.
Data centres, the momentum we need?
The data centre industry is all about access to power, fast. As our grid infrastructure ages, the energy demands of data centres and their willingness to invest could be the unsung hero of the story. Data centre developers are increasingly working with local utilities to fund substation upgrades, reinforce networks, and unlock new renewable connections. They bring capital, certainty, and the investment the grid desperately needs, and as a result, the grid gets stronger, faster, and everyone connected downstream benefits. Just like BYOB, it only works when everyone benefits. In a world of growing demand, ageing infrastructure, and clean energy targets, data centres bringing their own power might be exactly what the grid has been waiting for.
