All kinds of energy sources and technologies will be needed to meet booming demand from data centres, delegates attending the Qatar Economic Forum heard today.
Markus Krebber, CEO of German energy company RWE, said energy was the “facilitator but also the bottleneck” when it comes to meeting new tech-driven demand.
“We see the US is ahead of the curve and expect power demand to grow by at least 3% to 5% [a year],” he said. “Europe will pick up but a bit later, and slower.”
When it comes to meeting energy demand, he said it needs to be an ‘all on the bus’ strategy.
“We need wind, solar and battery solutions – and a good message, especially for Qatar, is a lot of gas will be needed.
“I hope we get a breakthrough in fusion technology because that would solve energy problems. The slower we are building new cleaner technology, the higher the utilisation of the old dirty stuff.”
Julian Nebreda, President and CEO of Fluence, a Siemens and AES company, said artificial intelligence was “a race” and whoever gets there first will win.
“We need to help our economies win that race,” he said. “There is nothing better than gas and renewables. That’s what’s going to drive the future of power.”
Krebber emphasised the importance of a stable investment environment. “I know what I need to procure locally … [At] the moment it’s unstable, [so] you don’t know what to put in your business case,” he said.
Nebreda added that uncertain policy is worse than bad policy. “What will make a big change is at the regulatory level,” he said. “Speed is essential. We cannot take two years.”
The US Committee’s recent approval to repeal 45V may place further pressure on the broader US government policy around clean energy, but Nebreda said not everything is black and white in policy terms.
“If it changes, that will be a little more difficult – but the idea of bringing the supply chain to the US is very much a ‘MAGA’ idea … Hopefully the Republicans looking at this law will see that the incentives are very much aligned with the Trump administration,” he said.
Sharon AI, a US-based high-performance computing company, and New Era Helium, a New Mexico-headquartered energy infrastructure firm, recently signed a letter of intent to acquire a 200-acre site in Ector County, Texas, for a 250MW Net Zero energy data centre.
