Heiko Ludwig, Global Head of Structure Finance at NORD/LB, discusses the findings of the company’s recent report, ‘Power Struggle: Meeting the challenge of financing data centres and the energy transition’, that shows Europe needs a stronger capital market to plug the global $41.7 trillion data centre and net-zero funding gap. Heiko explains how Europe’s fragmented capital market and underdeveloped ABS programmes are limiting access to the funds needed to meet soaring digital and renewable energy demand by 2030, before suggesting ways in which this finding gap can be addressed: the creation of a unified Capital Markets Union to accelerate capital deployment; development of ABS programmes to recycle capital and broaden the investor base; and greater coordination between the data centre and energy worlds to optimise grid connections, co-financing structures and to ensure grid stability.
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Rollo Maschietto, Policy Manager, Renewable Energy Association (REA), discusses the ways in which the data centre and energy sectors can work together to ensure delivery of the clean, reliable, and scalable power required to underpin the rapid expansion of the UK’s digital infrastructure. He warns that, without fast, coordinated government action, planned investment will flow to overseas markets with clearer delivery pathways. Which is why the REA has launched the Data Centre Coalition – to bring together operators, developers, energy providers and policymakers to shape the UK’s approach to powering data centre and AI growth with clean, reliable energy.
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DCS talks to Paul Quigley, President of Airsys Cooling Technologies. Paul also holds the executive leadership position at Airsys Global Group overseeing Sales and Marketing. In this interview, Paul discusses the ways in which AI is re-shaping the data centre and how liquid cooling solutions are coming into their own as a result. Airsys is continuing its long history of innovation to develop the LiquidRack patented single-phase spray liquid cooling system, designed to efficiently cool AI and HPC servers by spraying dielectric fluid directly onto hot components, enabling extreme heat rejection, 100% heat recovery (as hot water), and moving data centres towards sustainable, low-carbon operations by turning waste heat into a valuable energy resource for district heating, industrial use, and more.
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Francesco Marasco, VP Energy Operations and Sustainability, nLighten, explains why the European data centre provider has published the first ICFEn (Integrated Carbon-Free Energy) scores for its facilities, marking a significant milestone in data centre sustainability measurement. The innovative scoring methodology goes beyond traditional industry standards by capturing hourly carbon-free energy matching, heat recovery, and contributions to grid stability. Developed in collaboration with the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), the ICFEn framework represents a fundamental shift in how data centres measure and report their environmental impact. Unlike conventional metrics that rely on annual averages or focus solely on electricity consumption, ICFEn provides real-time transparency on how facilities contribute to decarbonisation through energy reuse and sector coupling.
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Mark Wilson, CEO of ILI Group, discusses the ILI Group’s plans for three new hyperscale data centres across Scotland, creating what it calls The Stoics – a £15 billion Green Digital Network spanning the central belt. The projects, named after Stoic philosophers, are located in Fife (Cato), East Ayrshire (Rufus), and North Lanarkshire (Aurelius). The Stoics will stand among the largest hyperscale data centre clusters globally - more than double the size of many of today’s biggest recognised campuses.
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Rebecca Scottorn, Partner at L.E.K. Consulting and part of the global Industrials Practice, discusses the company’s recent ‘State of the Energy Industry’ report, providing valuable insights into a range of topics, including decarbonisation and sustainability, grid modernisation, renewables, behind-the-meter gas solutions, and the impact of AI - as part of the overall energy transition landscape.
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Conrad Purcell, partner at Haynes Boone, explains how data centre development in sub-Saharan Africa is accelerating, driven by rising digital demand and infrastructure investment. While project finance through DFI lending offers a viable route for funding these projects, they still come with challenges such as power grid reliability, political and social instability and contractor limitations. Despite these hurdles, strategic risk mitigation, market appropriate contract drafting and surging demand for digital services are driving momentum.
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Scott Constable, Alliance Director at Vespertec, John Griffith, Worldwide Sales Manager at Midas Immersion Cooling and Dr. George Zhang, Vice President of R&D at Valvoline Global, discuss the three companies’ collaboration which has delivered a 50U XCI immersion cooling solution at Durham University. Working in partnership with Durham’s IT and facilities teams, Vespertec designed and delivered a system tailored to the university’s exacting performance and sustainability requirements. Alongside the immersion tank, the project integrates specialist hardware from GIGABYTE, advanced cooling fluids from Valvoline Global designed to efficiently transfer heat and enable immersion cooling, and system architecture tuned for Durham’s research needs – contributing to and showcasing a cohesive, next-gen high performance computing environment.
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Alex Stoewer, CEO of Greenlight Data Centers, outlines the data centre challenge as AI adoption is moving faster than infrastructure build out. Greenlight builds for the real world, one where extreme weather is normal, grid instability is rising and every hour of downtime costs millions. Alex discusses how Greenlight shortens build timelines through early utility partnerships, de-risks projects with local stakeholder engagement and future-proofs facilities against the kinds of failures that have shut down hyperscalers in recent years.
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Jackson Vo, President of Gridmatic Retail, discusses the pressures on Texas as a rapidly developing data centre hub, with operators asking the same urgent question: how can we secure reliable power while staying competitive on cost and advancing carbon-free goals? Jackson explains how Gridmatic, an AI-powered retail energy provider, is working with data centre customers like EdgeConneX to answer that question – by unlocking the hidden flexibility in large electrical loads.
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Abel Gnanakumar, Vice President, Commercial HVAC - Asia, Middle East & Africa at Copeland, discusses the surge in data centre development across Asia and its unique climate challenges, the twin drivers of AI and sustainability, the critical role of cooling management and Copeland’s innovations that support efficient cooling without comprising reliability, uptime rates, and business continuity.
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Anna Rantala, Marketing Manager at BCS, discusses the company’s new branding – a refresh that is about showing the world the BCS that already exists - modern, dynamic, and human at its core. Anna explains how the new branding is the platform to grow into the next decade and ‘gives space to our people and culture, the part of BCS that clients always tell me makes the biggest difference. It might feel like a big change, but the truth is we’ve been this brand all along. We just weren’t showing it’.
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Simon Harris, Director of Critical Infrastructure at BCS, discusses the role that legacy data centres have in supporting the development of AI, with inferencing seen as a major opportunity. Simon outlines the challenges of making legacy data centres ‘AI ready’, suggesting that many, if not all, such facilities, need to recognise the importance of refurbishment if they are not to miss out on not just the current AI boom, but also the ongoing, general digital transformation expansion.
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Maria Barrero, in charge of Architecture and Business Development at DConcept, outlines the company’s innovative approach to data centre projects, with the focus very much on both the people who work in the data centre alongside sustainability. She shares examples of how the company has managed all aspects of data centre projects, from consulting and design through to operations and maintenance, with the collaboration philosophy of ‘designing the future by connecting the present’.
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Pete Aston, Specialist Connections Engineer at Roadnight Taylor, discusses the findings of a new report Powering Great Britain’s Data Centre Ambitions, explaining how data centre developers are facing mounting grid connection challenges that can derail even the most promising projects. The interplay between technical, regulatory and commercial complexities in grid connections creates challenges that most developers underestimate until they’re deep into the process. Pete is confident that, with the right planning and collaboration in place, there is enough grid capacity to meet the data centre industry’s predicted increased power demands into the future.
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